Conducted by The Editor will be glad to answer subscriber’s queries pertaiing to individual problems connected with the 
F. F. Rockwell garden and grounds. When a direct personal reply is desired please enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope 
May 
Pi’LE Blossoms and the Birds! 
Why say more? — there's none so 
poor but shares the wealth of May when 
she comes scattering largesse over the re¬ 
vivified land. Then there is inspiration and 
new life for poet and peasant, beggar and 
king. Everyone knows it, but most feel it 
with a sigh and the painful thought, “It is 
not always May, and Spring is fleeting; 
tomorrow we—To them the month is 
lost forever, for the message is misunder¬ 
stood. The glad-hearted man greets May 
and keeps her with him throughout the 
circle of the year, husbands her charms 
and calls them to him from violet time 
until the fall cosmos blows or the white 
Christmas rose peeps through the snow. 
And for this magic he uses a spade! 
In the Flower Garden 
HIS, then, is the time to plant so that 
the summer and fall may be beauti¬ 
ful. Almost all the garden annuals and 
perennials may be sown, among them 
ageratum, alyssum, aster, balsam, calen¬ 
dula, corn-flower, cosmos, lobelia, mari¬ 
gold, mignonette, morning-glory, nastur¬ 
tium, petunia, stock, verbena and zinnia. 
This year try a few lupines and salpiglos- 
sis; both are easily grown and very beauti¬ 
ful. The peculiar metallic tints and velvet 
texture of the salpiglossis in particular is 
matched by those of no other flower that 
I know. It should be much more widely 
known. 
In planting flower seeds be sure to have 
the bed both very finely prepared and 
fresh. As most of the seed is very minute, 
it should be barely covered at all. A good 
way is to use a piece of flat board, several 
feet long, and make the drills — just a 
straight mark — along one edge: sow the 
seed, and press firmly in with the edge of 
the board. Then, very lightly, go over the 
beds crossways with the back of the rake, 
following with a good watering, applied 
with a fine nozzle, so as not to wash out 
any seed. As a rule, it will be more satis¬ 
factory to start all the flowers in some 
specially prepared place, and when large 
enough, transplant to their permanent 
places. This plan insures better plants 
and obviates unsightly bare spots where 
seed came up poorly. 
Among the flowers of which it will be 
better to buy plants, instead of seed, are 
early asters, begonias, tuberous begonias, 
cannas, coleus, geraniums, heliotrope, early 
lobelia, pansies (for spring bloom), salvias 
Clarkia’s pink or white blossoms should be 
better known. It is an old annual lately 
much improved. 
and verbenas. Don't expect, because these 
plants look flourishing when you get them 
from the florists, that they will continue to 
grow luxuriantly no matter how poor or 
hard the soil in which you place them — 
enrich your flower beds ! Give them some 
manure. Spade them up deep! If neces¬ 
sary, dig them out, and put in cinders, cob¬ 
bles or some other rough material to fur¬ 
nish sufficient drainage. A dozen good 
healthy plants will make a great deal more 
show than fifty struggling, scraggly ones. 
Try mass effects! In one bed, or spot, 
put in plants all of one kind and color — 
just to compare its effectiveness with the 
old style of bed, made up in rows. Trans¬ 
plant now clumps of iris, phlox and other 
hardy perennials that are to be moved or 
divided, if this was not done last fall. 
Vines and shrubs should be moved or set 
out; in the former case especially, don’t 
be afraid to prune back well. 
Do not be content to read the sugges¬ 
tions over and think how delightful it 
would be if you had this or that effect on 
your own place. Select a few — two or 
three, or even one, if you cannot afford 
the time or the money for more — and adapt 
it to your own opportunities. You can 
afford a vine-wreathed shady porch, for 
bulbs of the madeira vine can be had at 
thirty-five to fifty cents a dozen, or a group 
of brilliant and beautiful gladioli — in 
mixed shades they cost from a dollar to 
three or five per hundred, or an edging 
of one of the new named, solid-colored 
nasturtiums, fronting a mass of asters, for 
both of which the seed would not cost over 
fifty or seventy-five cents; or a hedge of 
the symmetrical quick-growing Kochia 
(summer cypress or burning-bush) a 
packet of which costs ten cents. 
It is not the cost, not the difficulty of 
finding out how to use inexpensive plants 
effectively that prevents the owner of the 
small place from having individual and at¬ 
tractive home surroundings. It is simply 
that he doesn’t act. Why not, right now, 
make a little sketch of at least some spot 
of the grounds, plan out what to plant, 
order the necessary seeds or bulbs, and as 
a result of your quarter or half-hour’s 
work, have something in which to find in¬ 
terest and pleasure all summer. 
In the Vegetable Garden 
N the vegetable garden there is work 
aplenty. In the first place, there are 
a lot of second sowings, for succession 
crops — among them beans, beets, carrot, 
kohlrabi, lettuce, leek, peas, potatoes, rad¬ 
ish, spinach and turnip. In this depart¬ 
ment for last month, detailed information 
( 366 ) 
