April, 1915 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
247 
The garden in July showing the dahlia and 
phlox hedge between the fruit trees 
The first bean 
arches, later to 
become a bower 
side of the main garden path, the in¬ 
crease in the strawberries making it 
necessary to give up the whole East 
Garden to them. 
By the middle of March the first 
peas were in, the early potatoes, the 
outside radishes, lettuce and spinach. 
The first two (American Early Round 
Top and Mignonette) were sown on 
top of two beds in the East Garden 
and pressed into the soil with the 
back of a rake. From that time on 
Spring came with a rush, and the 
garden likewise. Everything budded 
and everything lived and thrived. I 
put in nine rhubarb plants in some 
rich soil in front of the hotframe and 
built a lima bean yard of twelve 
hills behind it (not planted, of course, 
until the middle of May). 
By April tst all the peaches had little, pink flowers, 
quite a display for their first year. None of them set 
fruit or would have been allowed to. The quince was 
covered with pale pink flowers, looking like wild roses. 
It set one little quince, which the tree refused to feed, 
as it needed all its vitality in growing, and it soon 
dropped off. The pears and apples contented them¬ 
selves with a heavy growth of leaves and wood ; the 
Baldwin, which survived from the first year, growing 
to fourteen feet in height and two inches in trunk 
diameter. During April I was busy laying out and 
planting all the new beds. Onions, onion sets, carrots, 
oyster plant, second row of peas, turnips, beets and 
second spinach went in, row by row, as fast as the 
Along the rear-garden fence was planted a row of currants, with a rose at each post. An 
asparagus bed was put between it and the main traverse path 
wheel-hoe could prepare 
the ground. 
The April rains were 
even more continuous 
than the year before, but 
this time the garden was 
different. No longer were 
there muddy pools dis¬ 
tributed about the garden 
after a heavy rain, though 
the surrounding woods 
were full of them. Raising 
the surface nearly a foot 
above the water table, as 
determined by the subsoil 
drains, had taken care of 
all that; the soil held no 
more than it would natu¬ 
rally, acting as a capillary 
sponge in dry weather, 
and later in the dry sea¬ 
son my high-water table 
showed its advantages in 
the luxuriant growth of 
the plants when 
most neighbor¬ 
ing gardens 
were drying up 
and needing a 
hose on them. 
My soil and 
drainage prob¬ 
lems were over; 
it remained to 
be seen whether 
ten to four 
o’clock direct 
sunlight would 
be enough. 
May was up¬ 
on us before I 
actually realized 
