First Principles and Definitions 
BY RUSSELL FISHER 
/ T A 0 start with, let me impress upon you one big “Don’t”: 
-*■ Don’t go into a seed store or nurseryman’s as soon as 
you have succumbed to the garden fever—one of the most 
delightful of all diseases, by the way, — and buy a packet of 
every seed that has an attractive name; and, to continue 
this same “ Don’t,” don’t take these home and scatter them 
about in the new garden wherever your fancy and enthu¬ 
siastic faith shall dictate. Successful gardens are not 
made in just that way. 
T he first work in garden making should be with a tape- 
line and a piece of paper. Measure up the space that is to 
be devoted to growing things and draw it out to scale on a 
sheet of heavy paper, locating upon it the position of the 
house, existing trees, walks and all other such features 
that must be taken into consideration in the planting 
scheme. Even if you are merely intending to have a 
border of flowers around the base of your house, plot the 
outline of the building on paper, or, better still, hunt up 
the architect’s working plan and trace its outline. 
Before you drop a seed into the ground or spade up a 
square foot of soil, make your garden plan. 
And to make a plan you will have to read up seedsmen’s 
catalogues, back numbers of the gardening magazines and 
any books on the subject that you can lay your hands upon. 
Don’t think that this is going to be tedious work, either — 
there is all the joy of anticipation in it. But before you 
begin to read up on the subject, so that you will not plant 
a six-inch edging plant behind a row of tall hollyhocks, 
let us give you a short garden vocabulary and some defini¬ 
tions, so that you will read understanding^. 
Hardy perennials are plants that withstand the winter 
in the ground and live for years, often indefinitely. They 
form increasingly large clumps which may be divided from 
time to time to make new plants, and these may be trans¬ 
planted as desired, usually in the fall. Plants may be 
raised from seed planted in the spring or in August, and will 
bloom the following season. 
Hardy annuals are plants that are sown from seed in the 
spring, last through several months of summer, and then 
die. The seeds may be sown in the open ground in April or 
in May, or under glass frames or in flat boxes indoors in 
late February or March. 
Hardy biennials are sown one year, bloom the next year, 
and then die. These should have a light winter protection 
of straw, or leaves held down with brush. The seeds are 
sown outdoors or under glass in April. 
Half-hardy perennials and half-hardy biennials are usually 
started under glass, but may be sown in the open ground 
after May 15th. They require heavier winter covering. 
Tender perennials and tender biennials require still more 
care in starting them. Sow under glass and do not trans¬ 
plant to the open ground until after May 15th. 
Tender annuals are sown under glass in early spring 
and the seedlings protected from both excessive sun and 
cold. They are transplanted from the flats to pots or other 
boxes and finally set out after May 25th. 
Half-hardy annuals are treated in much the same way as 
tender annuals, but they may be sown outdoors after 
June 1st. 
Mulching plants means the placing of a layer of loose 
material -old leaves, grass cuttings, etc., about the base of 
the plant in order to prevent too rapid evaporation of the 
moisture about the roots. 
A shrub is nothing more than a dwarf tree having 
branches which start at the ground level. 
Compost means a mixture of various materials to be used 
as fertilizers — manure, decayed leaves, old vegetation, etc. 
Loam is a soil in which the sand, silt and clay are evenly 
balanced, making it mellow and friable. 
Deep soil means that having a depth of at least eight 
inches from the surface to the less productive sub-soil. 
Light soil is a term that has nothing to do with the act¬ 
ual weight, but means loose or sandy — open textured. 
A hot-bed consists of a hole in the ground, about two feet 
deep, three-quarters of the depth of which is filled with 
fresh horse manure to supply heat to the upper layer of 
soil containing the seeds. The whole is sheltered by glazed 
sash raised a foot above the ground on the south or east 
side, and sloping up to a height of eighteen inches at the 
opposite side. Seeds are sown in here early in March. 
A cold-frame is like a hot-bed, excepting that the excava¬ 
tion need not be so deep and old manure is used instead of 
fresh, the idea being to provide protection from the cold of 
winter or early spring rather than to warm the soil arti¬ 
ficially. Seeds are sown in the cold-frame about April 1st, or 
the frame is used to carry young plants through the winter. 
Self-sowing plants are those which perpetuate them¬ 
selves through the seed which they drop upon the ground 
around them. They cannot be depended to come up in 
just the right place, but they may usually be transplanted. 
(Poppies do not survive transplanting.) 
