Garden Suggestions 
CONDUCTED BY F. F. ROCKWELL 
Author of Home Vegetable Gardening and Gardcmn. 
Indoors and Under Glass 
Midsummer Activities 
A UGUST may be termed the hinge 
month of the garden year. A good 
part of this year’s garden, with its mis¬ 
takes and achievements, lies behind, and 
yet with the things that are left we may 
still accomplish a great deal. On the 
other hand, thought for the garden that 
is to come next year, and which of course 
we are already planning to make a more 
successful one than we have yet suc¬ 
ceeded in attaining, must be taken now. 
The first resolution to make, 
then, is not to let the -garden go 
by default, no matter how great 
may be the temptation to do so 
—for during the great heat, and 
the days or even weeks without 
a drop of rain, things begin to 
look pretty shabby, if they do not 
actually get so dry as to stop 
growing or even go backward. 
But do not let any of these things 
interfere with what you have set 
out to do. Keep the good work 
up, comforting yourself, if neces¬ 
sary, with the consoling thought 
that this is the hardest stretch in 
the season’s garden work and 
that the fruits of your labor, with 
such delicious late things as egg¬ 
plants, peppers for stuffing, canta¬ 
loupe, and lima beans, are in 
sight. 
Guard Against Insect Pests 
E VEN though you may have 
been fortunate enough to 
have escaped so far with little or 
no injury from the various gar¬ 
den insects and pests, do not let 
this good fortune lull you into a 
false sense of security, for they 
are likely to appear when least 
expected, and the only way to 
prevent the considerable damage 
which they are otherwise quite 
certain to do is to be ready to 
fight them immediately and to 
the finish. With every well selected gar¬ 
den equipment there should be a small 
compressed air sprayer, and this, with the 
various stock solutions or prepared in¬ 
gredients, such as arsenate of lead, Paris 
green, Bordeaux mixture, soap, kerosene, 
tobacco dust, etc., should enable you 
speedily to get the better of most of the 
things which you are apt to encounter. 
Even though the bug's do catch you nap¬ 
ping and ruin your crop of eggplants or 
muskmelons, do not let them continue 
unmolested or you will rue it next year. 
Complete extermination is just as im¬ 
portant under those conditions as though 
you had a crop to save, and sometimes it 
is made easier by the fact that stronger 
solutions or more strenuous methods than 
you otherwise would be able to use may 
be applied. 
If you do not take the matter firmly m 
hand now you invite increased trouble for 
next season by reason of the greater num¬ 
bers of insect eggs laid this year. 
Cultivation and Water 
T HE one thing which we reiterate more 
than any other in these columns, 
because in practice it has to be repeated 
more persistently than any other, is sur¬ 
face cultivation. And during the usual 
August dry spell this is more important 
than ever. Keep the surface stirred up, 
no matter how dry and dusty it may seem, 
for only by thus doing can you save the 
precious moisture in the lower levels of 
the soil. Some things, such as celery and 
eggplant, simply must have an abundance 
of water if they are to do well, and even 
if you have no adequate system of irri¬ 
gation, such as was described in last 
month's House and Garden, much can 
be done by applying water with hose or 
with a watering can in the proper way; 
where the amount is limited, dig a shallow 
trench near the row, or with a dibble or 
lioe handle make several holes around the 
roots of the plant, in the case of such 
things as eggplants or peppers, 
and toward evening fill these 
with water, giving all you possi¬ 
bly can spare, or even saturating 
the soil so that it will not readily 
absorb more. Then the follow¬ 
ing morning draw dry earth into 
the trench or fill up the holes, so 
that your dust mulch will be re¬ 
sumed in time to prevent the sun 
from drinking up part of the 
scant supply of the vitally neces¬ 
sary moisture. 
A mistake which very fre¬ 
quently is made in the garden is 
to neglect patches of vegetables 
which have gone by or that have 
grown so abundantly as to get 
ahead of the demand for them 
from the kitchen. How very 
often one sees rows of lettuce or 
heads of cabbage which, having 
become too old to use, have been 
allowed to go to seed and remain 
unmolested for the bigger part 
or even all of the rest of the sea¬ 
son. A vegetable that has “gone 
by” becomes a weed: it is occu¬ 
pying ground that should be used 
for something else, and it is rob¬ 
bing the soil of fertility which 
should be fed to or at least saved 
for another crop. A great deal 
of waste may occur in this way 
because plants during the flower¬ 
ing- and fruiting stages draw 
more heavily upon the plant 
foods in the soil than during the 
earlier stages of g-rowth. Furthermore, 
crops which are allowed to ripen their 
seed, such as beans, will stop bearing- 
much sooner than they would if the pods 
were all picked off clean. If you cannot 
use them all yourself, some neighbor will 
probably be glad to help you out, or the 
chickens are always glad to get them. 
Keep your vegetables gathered up clean, 
removing at once anything that has be¬ 
come too old or tough to use. 
Proper cultivation and attention to watering are essential to the 
success of midsummer vegetables 
( IC 7) 
