GARDEN 
SUGGESTIONS 
ape/ 
QUETUES 
CONDUCTED BY F. F. ROCKWELL 
April, 1915 
A PRIL is the gardener’s month of 
months. In it he can do almost 
everything in the way of planting. Or, to 
put it more correctly, he may do almost 
everything. What he can do is limited by 
his time. I doubt if there ever was a gar¬ 
dener who, on the first of May, could look 
back and feel that he had done everything 
he would have liked to do in April. On 
the other hand, the temptation to start too 
much proves fatal to many gardeners. For 
beginners it is a veritable mad moon. The 
beginner does not realize that with a mod¬ 
ern seed-drill you can plant more in thirty 
minutes than you can take care of, when 
it comes to weeding, in a day. So, when 
you begin your planting, especially in the 
vegetable garden, be sure to figure up be¬ 
fore you begin operations—if you have 
not already made a garden plan, as you 
should have done — exactly how many of 
this, that, and the other you think it will 
require to supply your table, and don't 
put in more. 
The vegetables that can be planted out 
If flattened between boards, the brush for peas will 
go farther and make a neater garden 
of doors this month are beets, carrots, 
corn salad, endive, kohlrabi, onions, 
parsnips, parsley, peas, potatoes, salsify, 
spinach, Swiss chard and turnips. 
Plants that can be set out are cabbage, 
cauliflower, onions, lettuce, beets, sprouted 
potatoes. 
Seeds to sow for plants to transplant 
later on: Cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, 
celery, leek, endive; and asparagus, rhu¬ 
barb, and sea-kale to make plants for set¬ 
ting in permanent beds next spring. 
In the rush of your outside planting, 
When roses have become scrawny, as has this dwarf 
rose, they should be cut back, as in the accompany¬ 
ing illustration 
however, do not overlook the frames in 
which the plants to be set out early next 
month are coming along. These should 
be repotted, and, for extra fine specimens, 
put into flower or paper pots. They 
should receive every attention in the way 
of watering and care. During this month, 
especially as the weather begins to get 
settled, they should be given full air and 
sunshine daily, the sash being removed 
altogether. 
Work About the Grounds 
Don’t let your vegetable garden mo¬ 
nopolize all of your time. In fact, during 
the earlier part of the month there will be 
The cut should be made just above an outside bud, 
so that the growth will be outward 
many days when it will be comfortable to 
work outdoors, when conditions are not 
right for seed sowing. These should be 
utilized for continuing the work which 
was begun last month, and doing your 
regular spring cleaning, getting the place 
“licked into shape.” 
Carefully rake off the lawn, putting the 
refuse mulching away, if you do not need 
it in the vegetable garden, where it can be 
used later around gooseberries, currants, 
and other things benefited by a summer 
mulch. If there are bad spots in the 
lawn you can probably find a nice-looking 
piece of sod for patching. If not, there 
will probably be some florist or gardener 
doing work in your vicinity from whom 
you can get a wheelbarrow or two of sod. 
The small, bare spots should be raked 
with an iron-toothed rake and grass seed 
applied and patted down with the back of 
272 
