52 
HO USE & GARDEN 
YOUR ALL-YEAR GARDEN 
April Activities Among the Vegetables and Flowers—Work in the Greenhouse, Frames and 
Out-of-doors—Putting the Hardy Border in Trim for the Growing Season 
F. F. ROCKWELL 
The Editor will be glad to answer siibscribcrs’ questions pertaining to individual problems 
connected with the gardens and the grounds. Please enclose self-addressed, stamped envel¬ 
ope, and address your inquiries to The Editor, House & Garden, 440 Fourth Ave., New York 
L AST month I urged the necessity of having 
everything ready so that you could take 
advantage of the first possibility for actually 
starting work. So if your garden is big enough 
to be plowed, you should have a man engaged 
and ready to come just as soon as the soil is 
dry enough. If it is a medium sandy soil with 
good sub-drainage, you can determine this time 
by running a hoe handle or crowbar down into 
the ground. This will prove whether or not the 
frost is all out. If the soil is clayey in character 
or if it remains wet because you have not 
drained it properly, you will have to wait a little 
longer since such soil takes longer to warm up. 
radish and sea kale, may be set out now. 
Among the flowers, pansies and English daisies 
are about the first to be set. Hardy perennials 
may be put out as soon as they are received from 
the nursery; if you have any of your own that 
need moving or dividing, the sooner you can 
attend to them, the better. Small fruits and 
fruit trees should be planted as soon as they are 
received from the nursery. If you have dormant 
roses, it is essential to get them in as soon as 
possible. Later on in the month plant deeply 
second early cabbage plants, cauliflower, lettuce 
(both plants and seeds), leek for subsequent 
transplanting, mustard, parsley, wrinkled peas, 
potatoes, rutabagas, salsify, summer spinach and 
second early turnips. Hardened-off rose plants 
from pots can be set out when danger from hard 
frost is past. 
In the Greenhouse 
While these outdoor activities are occupying 
your time and attention, do not overlook the 
many important things still to be attended to in 
the greenhouse. During this month many plants 
and seedlings started in February and March will 
need _re-potting and transplanting. More atten¬ 
tion in the way of air and watering should be 
given them and they should be moved out-of- 
i* Outdoor Work 
The soil should not be 
plowed or forked until it 
will crumble readily when 
worked over instead of re¬ 
maining in heavy clods or 
slices. But even so you 
need not delay all your op¬ 
erations. Dig up a row a few 
feet wide in the frames 
or some sheltered spot, 
where you can sow a line 
of smooth early peas, a few 
radishes, some onion sets or 
large onions, if you have 
any left over that are be¬ 
ginning to sprout. These 
old sprouting onions will 
break up into several small 
ones and grow with aston¬ 
ishing rapidity when placed 
in the ground. 
Many gardeners make the 
mistake of breaking up only 
as much ground at one 
time as they need to use for 
planting. It is far better, 
both on account of the time 
as well as of the work saved 
and the results obtained, to 
do all this preliminary work 
at one time, if possible. If you get all the surface fine, 
every drop of rain that falls will be readily absorbed 
and evaporation of the moisture will be reduced to 
a minimum. Consequently, your reserve water sup¬ 
ply, when the dry days come, will be much greater 
than it would have been had the ground remained 
untouched. This is no mere theory. It will make 
so great a difference in the condition of the soil later 
on that it may well prove to be the deciding factor 
between success and failure. 
The first vegetable to be planted besides those just 
mentioned will be extra early beets, sown quite thick 
because they will not all come up now. It will be 
well also to put in cabbage plants, kohl rabi, a first 
small sowing of lettuce, spinach and early turnips. 
Vegetable roots, such as asparagus, rhubarb, horse 
doors as fast as they are 
ready to be hardened off 
preparatory to transplant¬ 
ing. 
The greenhouse work is 
by no means done when the 
early stuff such as cabbage, 
lettuce, beets, etc., is out of 
the way. Tomatoes, egg¬ 
plants, peppers, melons and 
squash will have to be 
looked after carefully if 
you want to have them ready 
for setting out at the proper 
time next month. The for¬ 
mer will need potting and 
re-potting until they are 
strong, sturdy plants in 5" 
pots. The things to be 
grown in paper bands, such 
as sweet corn, should be 
sown in rich compost from 
four to six weeks before 
you will want them. Three 
to four weeks is plenty for 
sweet corn. Take pains, 
also, to plan for the things 
with which you will fill 
your greenhouse benches 
and beds or coldframes af¬ 
ter the garden plants have 
been removed. Extra early 
crops of melons, cucumbers, 
etc., could be grown as well 
as not in greenhouses and 
frames that are left empty 
from May until September. 
These plants will require only a foot or so of space 
when they are first set. The idea is to have them 
coming on so they will occupy the greater space by 
the time it is vacated by the other plants. 
In the greenhouse at this time of the year 
you will do well to keep a particularly sharp 
lookout for insect pests. Thorough and frequent 
fumigation and the use of good insecticides and fungi¬ 
cides will do much to enable you to keep things in 
good condition. 
(Continued on page 70) 
The spring-bloom¬ 
ing border is a re¬ 
sult of careful plan¬ 
ning and work 
In setting out the cane fruits and 
other wooded things the soil should 
be well firmed down around their roots 
As soon as the condition of the 
ground permits, work over the 
soil in preparation for planting 
The hole should always be large 
enough to admit the roots in their nat¬ 
ural position and without crowding 
