March, 1916 
19 
STARTING THE GARDEN INDOORS 
Gets the Jump on Nature and Proves That Patience Is Not the Only Garden Virtue— 
What, When and How to Plant for Pre-schedule Results 
F. F. ROCKWELL 
T HE success of your veg¬ 
etable and flower garden 
for this season must be deter¬ 
mined to a large extent before 
a single seed goes into the open 
ground. Nature, like the Devil, 
takes care of her own, but as 
man has presumed to improve 
upon Nature and has changed 
the character and the form of 
her children, Nature has dumped 
the responsibility of taking care 
of them very largely upon man’s 
shoulders. 
Furthermore, Nature is pa¬ 
tient and man is not. It makes 
very little difference to Nature 
whether the first radish to reach 
maturity grows in Mr. Smith’s 
garden or in that of Mr. Aren- 
berowsky, but to Mr. S. and Mr. 
A., who are representative gar¬ 
deners, it makes a good deal of 
difference. 
For these reasons, wherever 
there is a gardener the early gar¬ 
den is a matter of great importance; 
and the early garden must, of course, be 
started weeks before the frost is out of 
the ground. 
“Indoors,” in the sense in which it is 
used here, means anywhere out of the 
weather—the small greenhouse, the win¬ 
dow garden or the hotbed. You can buy 
such plants as you will need later, but it 
is cheaper to start them yourself; then 
you can get just the varieties you want, 
and there is the fun of doing the work 
and making all of the garden your own. 
The Indoor Necessities 
First of all, then, you must have a 
place in which to do the work—green¬ 
house, conservatory, hotbed, or warm, 
sunny window. These are desirable in 
the order mentioned; but even 
with the latter, quick results 
may be counted upon, provided 
conditions are favorable and 
your equipment is adequate. 
“Conditions” include tempera¬ 
ture, light, moisture, soil, time 
and good seed. Equipment 
should include shelf, bench or 
table, flats, seed pans, soil in¬ 
gredients, drainage material, 
glass for covering seed, clay or 
paper pots, and, if necessary, a 
starting frame or stand to sup¬ 
ply bottom heat to obtain a 
quick, strong stand of seedlings. 
The temperature should be 
sufficiently high to obtain a 
prompt, strong germination ; the 
longer a seed has to stay in the 
soil before sprouting the less 
chance it has for making a strong plant. To germinate at their 
best, most seeds require a temperature of 5° to 10° more than 
that which will suit growing plants of the same variety. For 
this reason, what is known as “bottom heat” is used where 
possible. This is simply additional heat under the flat, seed 
pan, or box in which the seed has been sown, or in the house 
over a radiator or register. A 
room temperature of 50° to 60° 
is sufficient for most vegetables 
and flowers. Tropical or warm 
blooded vegetables like toma¬ 
toes should, if possible, be 
given 5° to 10° more. There 
is little danger of giving too 
much bottom heat, so long as 
you do not run the risk of set¬ 
ting anything on fire; the soil 
in the box absorbs and dis¬ 
tributes the warmth. 
Although seeds may be 
started in absolute darkness, 
the moment they push above 
the ground they need an abun¬ 
dance of light. And the nearer 
it can come from overhead the 
better, as the little seedlings 
will “draw” toward the light so 
quickly as to be seriously in¬ 
jured in a day or two. Do not 
attempt to start seeds in the 
house unless you have a light 
window, preferably a sunny 
one which can be devoted to them; a 
bay window is, of course, better yet. 
Moisture and Air Control 
Beyond any doubt the thing which 
causes most failures in starting the 
garden indoors is improper control of 
moisture. Fix in your mind and re¬ 
member forever these two facts: too 
much water is as bad as too little; dry 
air is almost as bad as dry soil. In 
wet soil seeds will rot quickly, and many 
kinds are thus destroyed after they have 
germinated. On the other hand, when 
the tiny sprouting rootlets issuing from 
the seed strike dry soil, they perish im¬ 
mediately. 
The usual method is to sow the seed 
in a box of ordinary soil, water heavily 
and put away to sprout. Re¬ 
sult : some of the seed rots, part 
survives and germinates, and by 
that time the surface of the soil 
has become dry so that the little 
sprouts shrivel. What can you 
expect from such a method? 
To get good results, the soil 
about the seed must be moist, 
and kept evenly moist until 
after germination has taken 
place. The little seed sprouts 
as they first grow are very near 
the surface; therefore, it is es¬ 
sential to keep the surface very 
moist. This is exceedingly dif¬ 
ficult in hot, dry air. Seeds 
grow better in a conservatory 
or greenhouse because the air 
is moist. If you attempt to start 
seeds in the house, keep the air 
as moist as possible by evaporating water in open pans on the 
radiator, registers or stove. 
From the day the plants get above the ground, fresh air is 
another important requirement. Ventilation should be given 
at least once every day, and incidentally this will help to keep 
(Continued on page 76) 
Though more pretentious than the 
usual flat and pane of glass, this win¬ 
dow starting frame is not hard to make 
Vegetable seeds that are started in¬ 
doors produce days or weeks ahead 
of the regular open-air growing time 
A pencil point is good for making the 
tiny seed drills, and a ruler will help you 
to get the rows straight and parallel 
