HOUSE AND GARDEN 
U 4 
September, 1913 
Or a coldframe which is not in use and where the soil is rich and 
mellow and can be kept moist will be just the thing. 
As already stated, the two essentials for success in planting 
seeds at this season are moisture and shade, but neither one must 
be overdone. Make up the bed three or four feet wide and as 
long as is necessary, raising it four or five inches above the paths 
on either side and in front of it by digging up the latter or by 
dumping a few wheelbarrows full of soil on top of it. Unless 
the soil where you are making the bed is very fine and mellow, it 
ceptible. In these scatter the seeds evenly and thinly (being care¬ 
ful to tag each variety properly) and firm them into the soil gen¬ 
tly with the edge of a short, thin board, such, for instance, as you 
would get by knocking* part of the side out of an empty cracker 
box. Then smooth these furrows over so that the seeds are just 
barely covered, and unless the soil is nice and damp from the 
waterings previously given, wet the bed down very moderately 
with the fine rose spray on the watering pot, or if you have a 
compressed-air sprayer put plain water in it, and that will bring 
It is not necessary to wait two years for perennials to attain their finest bloom; many of them, if planted now and cared for properly during 
the fall and winter, will yield full results next summer 
is a very good plan to top off with several inches of fine earth. 
If you have access to some spot such as that where a woodpile 
has been kept or where a heap of manure has been stacked and 
removed in the spring, the scrapings from this will be very full 
of decayed vegetable matter and light and friable, without being 
too rich, and will be just the thing you want. 
The day before planting give the whole bed a thorough soaking 
with the hose and then when you are ready to plant, if it is at all 
packed down, stir up the surface into a nice, light condition and 
rake it off smooth and fine. Get a piece of smooth, wide board on 
which to kneel while you are working and mark off little furrows, 
which for the small seeds should be just deep enough to be per- 
the soil to a nice degree of moisture without the slightest danger 
of washing even the finest seeds out. 
Be sure to provide yourself with a number of garden labels or 
make some out of shingles and mark on them plainly the name of 
eadi variety. Don’t trust to the shiftless method of sticking the 
paper envelope in which the seeds came on a stick and depending 
upon that for a tag, as a number of them are sure to become lost, 
blown away or so blurred with rain and dirt and faded that you 
cannot read them. 
All this work will have insured a good beginning and with a 
little more care you may carry it to a successful conclusion. Over 
(Continued on page 172) 
