November. 1913 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
309 
A clump of phlox roots that is ready to be divided for replant 
ing, as shown at the left 
The perennial phlox clumps should be cut apart, 
thus making several plants 
the frost-blighted tops 
of such of the herba¬ 
ceous shrubs, hardy- 
perennials, the hardy 
lilies and so forth, 
winter. Sometimes I 
Delphinium, also, may be divided in much the 
same manner as the phlox 
as die 
leave a few stiff, strong stalks of things which bear seed 
freely and which the birds in winter have a liking for. But this is 
by no means necessary, as you can easily cultivate the friend¬ 
ship of your winged neighbors who incidentally fight a part 
of your battles with the insect world, by hanging a bone or two 
or a lump of suet from some branch where you can see it from 
the window, but where no prowling cat can get at it. But the 
hardy and shrub borders which you may have thus made bare 
are not to be left exposed. An important part of your cleaning 
up job is the raking up of fallen leaves from lawns and drives, 
and these should be carefully put away and saved for your 
mulching later on, in¬ 
stead o f wasting 
them by burning. 
Even if you have 
more than you can 
use for mulching, 
save the rest for the 
compost heap. One 
of the photographs 
illustrates a rather 
clever method which 
a friend of mine has 
devised for saving 
her leaves until the 
time comes to use 
them; its only disad¬ 
vantage is that there 
is no roof over it 
and, being exposed to 
the weather, the 
leaves may be in a soaked condition when you want to use them. 
Much of my autumn gardening is work that cannot, or at least 
should not, be done at any other time; much of it, however, is 
work that is usually not attempted at all, or done in the spring — 
and that is why I contend that this part of my gardening, in¬ 
stead of being done much behind time, is done six months ahead. 
Instead of waiting until spring and then going to the trouble and 
expense of buying manure, I use every possible means of obtain¬ 
ing a supply of what the garden-writers call “green manure” — 
crops to plow under in the soil, there to rot away and furnish the 
vegetable matter which is so desirable. So when my cornfields 
have been cut or potatoes dug, the space between the rows is 
Now is a good time to cut back and generally trim 
growths as seem to need it. This is 
ripped up with a culti¬ 
vator, which does the 
work at one-fourth the 
expense of plowing, and 
rye or rye and winter 
vetches are sown as soon as possible. I do not stop here; the 
same principle is carried into the vegetable garden, even into the 
flower garden, and the result is that in favorable seasons, when 
there is a sufficient amount of fall rain, there is a nice green 
mat covering the ground before the heavy snows arrive. Those 
fields and spots in the garden are beautiful the first thing in 
spring, beautiful enough to make the work worth while even for 
looks alone; but in addition to this the manure is actually grow¬ 
ing at a wonderfully rapid rate and plant foods which would 
otherwise have been carried off and washed away through the 
long winter months are being gathered up and stored away for 
the use of the summer crops. These fertilizer crops should be 
sown on every 
square foot of 
ground you can get 
clear, and just as 
soon as possible. 
These things stand 
the rigorous winters 
in the latitude of 
Boston; south of 
New York or in the 
latitude of Philadel¬ 
phia, crimson clover 
may be used instead, 
and there are few 
things more beautiful 
than crimson clover 
in full bloom. 
Vetches and clovers 
are “nitrogen gath¬ 
erers” and are espe¬ 
cially valuable for forking or plowing under for that reason. 
But all this is preparatory work, the technique of gardening. 
Not so, however, are the fall plantings of bulbs, hardy perennials 
and shrubs, which you should make now if you have an eye to 
the full glory of your next year’s garden. The spring bulbs and 
hardy lilies must be planted now; the hardy deciduous shrubs 
should be planted now and many of the hardy perennials may be 
planted now. There is one vitally important rule which applies to 
all of them: Plant them only where there is thorough drainage, 
in soil of such a character so situated that the surplus winter 
water can readily soak through it and run off. If this is not 
( Continued on page 336.) 
up such of the hedges, shrubs and other wood 
a young quick hedge pruned back 
