HOUSE AND GARDEN 
April, 1910 
thing else from loosening the support, 
causing the sash to slam down, often 
breaking panes of glass. K. G. C. 
A Convenient Medicine Closet 
T HERE are, no doubt, many of your 
readers that have made use in 
building their homes of the fairly well 
known scheme of building a medicine 
closet within the space occupied by an 
ordinary partition. For those who are 
not familiar with this scheme of utilizing 
waste room — hollow space between a 
pair of studs in the wall—and also be- 
A medicine closet in a partition that is roomy 
enough to hold large bottles 
cause our own medicine closet in the 
bathroom has one or two unusual ad¬ 
vantages, a photograph of it may be of 
interest. 
It will be seen that a greater depth 
has been secured by building out the 
trim that surrounds the door opening an 
inch and a half beyond the face of the 
plaster. An additional molding around 
this trim will cover the joint and you will 
have space enough for the wider bottles — 
an adyantage that the ordinary partition 
medicine closet lacks. 
The second advantage of this par¬ 
ticular device is the mirror that is set in 
the door frame, j M. H. M. 
Flowers Next to Hedges 
T HAVE found that my English gar- 
* dener sinks planks into the earth as 
an underground partition between hedges 
and shrubbery and any perennials that 
may be planted in front of them. In 
this way the roots of the hedge-plants 
and shrubs will not encroach upon those 
of the perennials, and take from the soil 
around them all the nourishment they 
should have, as they would do if some 
such measure of protection were not 
taken. H. W. L. 
Growing Cornflowers 
F OUR years ago when we were abroad 
we were so impressed with the 
beauty of the effect of the cornflowers 
growing in the German fields that early 
the following spring we made the experi¬ 
ment of growing a quantity of the seed 
in our pasture, along with timothy seed. 
Here and there we also sprinkled some 
poppy 'seed, and now both cornflowers 
and poppies seem to have become natur¬ 
alized, and our fields are wonderfully 
beautiful, pleasant reminders of those 
we saw in Europe. Perhaps other readers 
of House & Garden would like to know 
of this. F. C. 
Lima Bean Trellis 
F OR many years I planted my lima 
beans so they would climb up poles 
set in rows four feet apart, and the poles 
three feet apart. As we have rather a 
small garden I devised the following 
method to increase the output. I left 
the poles and planted the same number 
of plants to climb up them, but in addi¬ 
tion I ran a string from pole to pole, 
about the height the plants usually grew 
up to, and then ran other strings from it 
to the ground, for additional plants to 
run up. Clothes-pins are so cheap that 
I found it better to use them than 
to make stakes to fasten these trellis 
strings to, to drive into the ground. 
Then between each pole in the rows 
set the plants about five inches or 
so apart, so they will run up the strings. 
You will be surprised at what an addi¬ 
tional crop you will secure by this simple 
method which does not take much trouble 
to install. The turned head of the clothes 
pins make a capital arrangement to fasten 
the string to. 
161 
name of the variety planted, slip this 
into the bottle, cork tightly and wire to a 
stake at the end of the row. Or if de¬ 
sired the bottle may be slipped over the 
end of the stake as shown in the accom¬ 
panying photograph. 
Save small vials to protect your seed labels 
from the weather 
For trees, shrubs, etc., the bottle 
enclosing a label written with indelible 
ink may be wired to a branch, twisting 
the wire tightly around the neck of the 
bottle and leaving a long loop for the 
branch. Labels attached in this way 
may be left in place for years with no 
danger of injury to the branch to which 
it is attached. R. E. T. 
Increase your yield of lima beans by training 
them on strings between the poles 
Permanent Labels 
I N endeavoring to secure a permanent 
label which would be at the same 
time cheap and easily prepared, the fol¬ 
lowing plan was hit upon. First secure 
a sufficient number of small bottles with 
corks. The small tubes that prepared 
photographic developers come in will do, 
or the one or two-drachm homeopathic 
vials may be secured at your druggist’s. 
Wire and some small stakes with one end 
trimmed down to fit the necks of the 
bottles complete the equipment. Copper 
binding wire is best as it is very pliable 
and does not corrode when exposed to the 
weather. 
For the seed bed, clip from the end of 
the seed package the strip bearing the 
