August, i 9 1 7 
43 
One of the mistakes which the beginning 
gardener almost always makes, and which 
thousands of war gardeners who have 
planted a plot for the first time this year 
will make, is to stop planting long before 
there is any real necessity for it. 
It is not the date on the calendar, but the 
date at which you are likely to have killing 
frosts in your section, which determines 
the last planting date for your garden. 
If early varieties are used, beans will be 
ready to use in six or eight weeks from 
planting; beets in seven to eight; carrots 
in eight to nine; sweet corn in eight to ten; 
cress in four to five; cucumber in eight to 
ten; kohl-rabi in eight to ten; lettuce in six 
to eight; mustard in four to five; peas in 
eight to ten; radish in four to five; spinach 
in eight to nine; squash, seven to eight; 
Swiss chard, six to eight; turnip, eight to ten. 
With the exception of beans, corn, squash, 
and cucumbers, it will take quite a severe 
frost to put these things out of business for 
the season. Even the tenderer things will 
often survive the first light frost or two 
with a slight blackening of the leaves, so 
that they can enjoy the one week to three 
weeks of fine weather we usually get after 
the first “snap.” Therefore, if you are not 
likely to have a frost in your section until 
the middle of October, there are still some 
ten weeks of growing weather left, and if 
you plant immediately and use early varie¬ 
ties, quite an assortment can help swell the 
total returns from your war plot. 
Keep in mind that success will depend 
on a quick, strong start. Use plenty of high- 
in-nitrogen fertilizer, and insure prompt 
germination by planting just after a rain, 
or soaking the ground before planting. 
Of course, all these suggestions for July 
planted crops apply to August plantings. 
Gaining a Year On Flowers 
So far in these articles, though they have 
had to do for the most part with plants in 
general, the individual crops discussed have 
been annuals, mostly vegetables. We have 
all been, and are still, more than usually 
interested in vegetables, because of the part 
they are playing, and must continue to play 
in “making the world safe for democracy.” 
But there is no reason to neglect entirely 
the flowers; in fact, in so far as the war 
may affect our flower gardens next year, 
there is every reason to sow flower seeds 
this fall to supply plants to set out next 
spring, rather than to wait until then to 
buy the plants. For the price of one plant, 
you can get a whole packet of seeds. 
You plant them now, because in the 
first place not all flowers will bloom the 
first season from seed, and in the second, 
even many of those which would, would 
flower only very late in the fall. It prob¬ 
ably seems to you, as a garden beginner, 
that the natural time to sow any seeds is 
the spring. But the thing that makes you 
think spring is the natural time for seed¬ 
sowing is because the seed catalogs come out 
then. As a matter of fact, Old Mother 
Nature does a great deal of her seed sowing 
through mid-summer and early fall. She 
scatters the seeds as they ripen, though 
knowing that they will not have time to 
grow and flower before Winter locks up the 
gates of her great park. 
But the old lady has learned from experi¬ 
ence that these little plants, though appar¬ 
ently frozen stiff and dead, will revive again 
in the spring, and go on, achieving the de¬ 
For starting seeds for next year’s 
plants use a flat with plenty of drain¬ 
age in the bottom 
How aired from the hand, distribut¬ 
ing the seed over the surface as even¬ 
ly as possible 
Watering of the flats should be thor¬ 
oughly done with a fine rose on the 
sprinkler 
velopment of flowers that will attract the 
birds or bees from other b'ooms, thus help¬ 
ing them in the formation of the seed that 
completes their cycle of life. 
The flowers that die after producing one 
crop of seeds, the second year or season 
after they start to grow, are called biennials. 
Still others live on, even though they have 
produced seeds, and grow again the next 
year; these are called perennials. 
Any summer catalog will give you a long 
list of the biennials and perennials which 
are adapted for fall sowing—usually in 
August. But August is often a very un¬ 
favorable month for sowing seeds, espe¬ 
cially such minute seeds as many of the 
flowers have. However, if poor old ineffi¬ 
cient, tradition-bound Nature can succeed 
at it, we ought to be able to. 
Nature's Sowing 
The seeds are scattered and fall loosely 
on the top of the soil; but dead leaves, and 
pieces of decaying grass, etc., finally cover 
them from sight with a very light covering; 
and the leaves and plants above them keep 
their hiding place shaded and cool and 
moist, furnishing just the conditions that 
are best to insure germination. 
To duplicate these conditions, we must 
provide a light friable soil, something so 
soft and spongy that it will not form a crust. 
If leaf mould from the woods is available, 
or any decaying wood or vegetable matter 
such as rotted wood, that can be run through 
a sieve, and made fine and even, it will serve 
admirably. Otherwise we can buy humus, 
which is merely decayed vegetable matter 
commercially dried and ground. This with 
a little soil added to it. a quarter to a third 
in bulk, will answer for our seed sowing. 
We must select a suitable place in which 
to make the seed bed. If an old cold frame 
is available, we need not go further, as that 
will be easy to use, can conveniently be 
shaded, and has water handy. If not, find 
some sheltered spot, well lighted. 
The spot selected should be dug up and 
“surfaced” with 4" or so of the prepared 
soil. If it is very dry, soak it down with 
the hose two or three times, until it will 
absorb no more water. Then prepare it 
for sowing by making it perfectly firm and 
fine and smooth on the surface, and marking 
out on it, with a small pointed stick and a 
lath or something similar with a straight 
edge, shallow drills a few inches apart. 
In sowing the different seeds be very care¬ 
ful to distribute them evenly along the rows, 
as they will have a tendency to “bunch”— 
and the hunches will be much more apparent 
later than when you are planting! 
After sowing, cover very lightly with 
your prepared soil, and press down gently. 
Then over the soil place some loose pieces 
of sphagnum moss, if you have it (obtain¬ 
able at any florist’s) or some pieces of news¬ 
paper, which may be dampened first. Over 
the cold frame or above the bed, stretch a 
piece of muslin or two or three thicknesses 
of mosquito netting. The moss or news¬ 
paper should he removed entirely just as 
soon as the first little seedlings begin to 
peep through, which will be from five or six 
days to two weeks or so, according to varie¬ 
ties and conditions. The cloth shading can 
be left on longer, however, to protect from 
glaring sun and from heavy rains. It should 
be removed at the first sign of the plants 
“drawing up” and looking spindling. 
