Garden Suggestions 
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CONDUCTED BY GRACE TABOR 
Author of The Landscape Gardening Book, The Garden 
Primer, Old-Fashioned Gardening, etc. 
December in the Garden 
F the ground has not already frozen, it 
surely will sometime this month. As 
soon as it does — the very morning after— 
put on the leaf or straw mulch, every¬ 
where. Everything is better for it, be¬ 
cause of our open and not very snowy 
winters. Plants do not relish being un¬ 
covered and disturbed at their rest by lack 
of blankets, any more than people; and a 
plant, be it ever so hardy, that is restless 
all winter through being uncomfortable is 
not in good condition when it wakes up in 
the spring. If you will notice in early 
spring the wonderful green of lawns or 
fields on which snow has lain during the 
winter, you will realize what this winter 
covering does just to the grass. Of course 
it has the same effect on flowers and other 
things. 
Proper Pruning 
OMETIME this month, when it is not 
too cold and the spirit moves you, 
prune dead branches out of trees and 
shrubs: and prune for “shaping” anything 
you may wish to regulate in this respect 
except spring flowering shrubs and trees. 
These latter, if pruned now, will give very 
little blossom this year, for spring flower¬ 
ing things, of course, carry their flower 
buds on last year’s wood, which is what 
you would prune away if you did this 
work now. Indeed, one should never 
prune anything without knowing some¬ 
thing about pruning and about the species 
too. Make this a positive rule, and get a 
good book on pruning. Then always con¬ 
sult it before doing any pruning. 
Summing Up and Looking Ahead 
OW are the days of retrospect and 
leisurely contemplation. And so 
we are all too likely to feel they are days 
of gardening negation, and to let them slip 
away with shiftless disregard. 
These are days of construction, actually 
— much more truly so than the breathless, 
rushing days of spring, when everything 
needs doing at once; or than the sizzling 
days of summer, when the gardener is 
hard put to it to keep his charges well 
groomed and happy and healthy, what with 
the heat and drought and bugs and worms. 
These are the days when all the garden 
pageants of the year past should be sum¬ 
moned for review and judgment; when 
every mistake may be clearly seen, re¬ 
vealed in all its glaring crudity under such 
review; when every success will shine in 
its full brilliance. For now there is noth¬ 
ing to do but contemplate and analyze and 
learn why. 
Why is this a failure ? Why is that a 
success? These are the two questions the 
garden maker must be perpetually asking 
— and answering—if he is to advance from 
a mere haphazard potterer to the artist- 
scientist combination which the art-science 
of gardening demands. And it is not, of 
course, merely to cultural failures and 
successes that these questions apply. They 
are as broad as the entire subject of gar¬ 
den making, and they should be asked and 
studied and answered in their broadest as¬ 
pect, which is quite as much esthetic as 
horticultural. 
Of course next year is being planned 
for when this year’s review is under way, 
The place should be put in good order before heavy 
snow comes 
but I feel it is really better not to take up 
any definite work on next year's garden 
for another month at least. This is not for 
the sake of making New Year’s resolu¬ 
tions anent gardening, but rather for the 
purpose of thoroughly disposing of the 
past. Definite plans ahead obscure the 
past — both its successes and mistakes, if 
they are prematurely undertaken—and it 
is always a golden rule of gardening to 
make haste slowly. 
Let this be the time of collecting data, 
of noting down this and that, of getting- 
ready to plan, rather than planning. 
There is much reading to be done, too, 
whether the gardener is a novice or a sea¬ 
soned veteran ; and there are all the year's 
notes to be gone over and studied during 
this leisurely time, when they may be 
thoroughly analyzed and their lesson prop¬ 
erly assimilated. 
If you have not kept garden notes, woe 
be unto you! And never let it happen 
again. There are excellent reasons for 
each and every gardener keeping notes and 
absolutely no reason — and surely no ex¬ 
cuse — for his not doing so. Thomas Jef¬ 
ferson found time to keep the minutest 
records of his farm and gardens — and 
sometimes of just the general outdoors, 
too — with all his other multitudinous ac¬ 
tivities ; and mighty interesting reading his 
records are, and instructive and valuable 
to this day. Get a blank book, therefore — 
or better still a card index — and begin 
this very day, even if it is December. Put 
down the weather, for one thing; the de¬ 
gree of cold, and whether rainy, snowy or 
sunny; record the day on which the 
ground freezes "for keeps.” Make a note 
of where ice rests as the snow melts, what 
birds there are about, what cocoons you 
find on trees or shrubs. Pick everyone of 
these off and burn them wherever they are ; 
and put it down — the date and their num¬ 
ber and what they were on. 
Entirely apart from their actual garden¬ 
ing value, accurate notes of this sort be¬ 
come, when kept conscientiously for a 
period of years, of very considerable ref¬ 
erence value. Who of us does not at some 
time wish to recall just how low the 
thermometer went in that severe cold snap 
a year ago last January; or how much 
snow fell last Christmas; or how long the 
midsummer drought lasted four years ago ?' 
Things like this your notes will tell at a 
glance, without peradventure of doubt. 
San Jose Scale 
PRAY with an oil spray by the middle 
of the month for San Jose scale. 
If this pest is not in evidence, do not be 
altogether sure that a few have not gained 
a foothold, and spray anyway as a precau¬ 
tion. It is everywhere, and constant vigi¬ 
lance alone will keep it in check. 
v 3 °°) 
