Garden Suggestions 
ower 
CONDUCTED BY GRACE TABOR 
Author of The Landscape Gardening Book, The Garden 
Primer, Old-Fashioned Gardening, etc. 
course — but very positively an idea none 
the less, which embraces the whole place, 
in that it takes into consideration the ef¬ 
fect as a whole, it may be nothing more 
than borders each side of the entrance 
walk — this, indeed, is usually the best 
treatment that can be adopted for the 
rented, eleventh-hour garden scheme — but 
it has very positive value as a harmonious 
note in the general composition of "home 
and hospitality." Such borders, eighteen 
to twenty-four inches in width, planted 
with geraniums in a continuous mass, two 
deep along the back, with white English 
daisies before them, massed solidly also, 
are as charming and pleasantly effective 
as anything which the most forehanded 
gardener could offer. Or perhaps a com¬ 
June is the month when the really distinctive flower effects become apparent. 
Why not plan for some feature such as this? 
bination of asters, pansies, and candytuft 
may be preferred, the former, possibly, 
in pinks only, that the color scheme may 
vary as the flower succession proceeds. 
Whatever is planted, and whatever the 
scheme which the plants carry out, let the 
slogan be here as everywhere, masses. 
Plant geraniums close enough to hide the 
ground beneath them, and make of the 
English daisies and candytuft and pansies 
a thick, unbroken mat never less than two 
plants wide, preferably not less than three. 
In this way will be obtained a more pleas¬ 
ing appearance than with single plants. 
The Value of a Regular Garden 
Plan 
F IRST, then, there must be a little gar¬ 
den scheme — simple, easy to execute, 
and suited to the material at hand, of 
Setting Out the Young Plants 
lV/TOYE the young plants from the 
boxes or baskets in which they 
come to the open ground preferably in 
cloudy weather—or after sunset. If the 
work cannot be timed to come at either of 
these times, shade them after they are set 
— by umbrellas, if you cannot rig up any¬ 
thing else for shade that will admit the 
air to them freely. Baskets set over them 
are too close for their comfort, and I do 
not like to see them used. 
Do the work of transplanting first as 
transplanting is always done: that is, set 
the plants as deep as they grew, spread 
the roots to their true positions, sift the 
free earth carefully under and around 
them, tamp it gently, and 
pour in water when the 
hole is about half filled; 
then wait until this set¬ 
tles quite out of sight, be¬ 
fore putting in the rest 
of the earth. Do not 
plant anything within less 
than twenty-four hours 
after a hard rain. Light 
summer showers that do 
not wet the ground more 
than an inch or two, how¬ 
ever. may be ignored. 
Caring for Summer 
Gladioli 
A MONG the summer 
flowering plants 
the gladioli deserve spe¬ 
cial consideration in view 
of their magnificent col¬ 
ors and form. To get the 
best results from them 
requires a knowledge of 
their particular require¬ 
ments, however, and after 
the essential problems of 
choice of location, prep¬ 
aration of soil, etc., have been satisfac¬ 
torily attended to, the care of the grow¬ 
ing plants should not be overlooked. 
When the plants have attained about a 
foot of growth, give them occasional ap¬ 
plications of liquid cow-manure and soot- 
water. These preparations may be given 
alternately once a week until the flower 
spikes appear. Then increase them until 
the first flower opens, after which the ma¬ 
nure-water should be discontinued. After 
flowering has ceased, lift out corms and 
dry them, then cut stems and store the 
corms in dry place until the next planting. 
June in the Garden 
E VERYONE feels—and rightly, too— 
that this is the month of results, 
rather than of planning and planting. But 
for all of that, the eleventh-hour gardener 
need not resort to a bed of geraniums as 
his only resource. Even procrastination 
does not quite merit such punishment; but 
it is not always the sin of putting off till 
tomorrow that is responsible for delaying 
the garden-making until June. The tran¬ 
sient dweller, particularly, is very often 
oblig-ed to forego a garden altogether, be¬ 
cause of the exigencies of “moving day” 
and a general spring upset, or else be an 
eleventh-hour gardener. 
Whatever the cause of delay, however, 
it results in a hasty scram¬ 
ble to do something, and 
do it as quickly as possi¬ 
ble—hence the geranium 
“beds" and the pansy 
“beds," and all their kind, 
which are the things I 
would most like to help 
everyone avoid. 
Arranging the Late 
Purchases 
T HE list of plants that 
may be purchased 
now, at florists and green¬ 
houses and markets, is not 
an extended one -—• and 
geraniums a n d pansies 
are the very bone and 
sinew of it, indeed! So 
it is not these flowers that 
are to be taboo by any 
means ; but the planting of 
them or anything else, in 
“beds" in the midst of the 
lawn, beside the porch, or 
anywhere. 
Let us treat geraniums 
and all of the plants that 
are at this time available just as we treat 
the permanent garden material, dignify¬ 
ing them to a place in the garden picture 
rather than degrading them to an eccen¬ 
tricity quite outside all the laws of har¬ 
mony and composition and good taste. 
They will reward such consideration. 
(488) 
