Volume XVII 
Number 4 
April, 1910 
A border of fresh blooming Iris is one of the garden’s loveliest features 
Making a Better Flower Garden 
ALL THE NECESSARY INFORMATION, IN THE MOST CONCISE FORM, REGARDING SOIL, PLANTING, 
FERTILIZERS, AND ALL THE OTHER DETAILS THAT WILL ENSURE A SUCCESSFUL GARDEN THIS YEAR 
by Gardner Teall 
Photographs by N. R. Graves, H. H. Saylor and others 
your last year’s garden, started without plan or thought, and all 
in a hurry, was not a success, you can only put the blame upon 
your carelessness, or to your not knowing how to go about it, 
if you have not had experience in these matters. In this latter 
instance the following hints, directions, and tables will be of 
service in the planting preparations for this season’s garden. 
Every flower garden should have a sunny position, to the 
south if possible, and where it may have both morning and evening 
sunlight. Protection from prevailing winds is always to be sought. 
THE SOIL 
The soil for the reception of seeds of garden flowers must be 
carefully prepared. The following directions, if faithfully carried 
out, will do wonders in helping your flower plants to better growth. 
Mother Nature’s way of carrying seeds hither and thither, to be 
dropped carelessly in places of indifferent soil, cannot always be 
imitated successfully. It is all very well with wild things, but 
garden flowers are another matter altogether. For them proper soil 
conditions are essential. Annuals especially require an earth 
(127) 
IHE making of a successful flower garden 
is not a matter to be left to chance, and 
perhaps it is one of man’s inconsistencies 
that he is willing to dig and delve for a 
vegetable, while, more often than not, 
he begrudges the care he should give a 
Verbena, as though the satisfaction of a 
sense of the beautiful should not have 
half a chance with one’s appetite. Now 
there is scarcely anyone who does not care 
for flowers, although it must be admitted 
there are many who give them little 
enough thought. With the first breath of 
spring, and the return of the birds from 
their winter holiday, one should feel an enthusiasm for making 
just as good resolutions as ever New Year’s day brings forth. 
Among them there could not be one more fitting than a resolve 
to have a better flower garden the coming season. The joy of it 
all will more than repay the trouble, a thousand times over. If 
