HOUSE AND GARDEN 
September, 1910 
163 
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arrangement will 
give off a very- 
drying and uneven 
heat, and require a 
lot of attention, to 
say nothing of its 
danger. 
By far the most 
satisfactory way 
will be to use hot 
water. If the size 
of the house will 
not justify the pur¬ 
chase of a small 
heater — and a sec¬ 
ond-hand one may 
often be had at a 
very reasonable 
figure, a substitute 
may be had by inserting a hot water coil in a stove, or in the 
house furnace, as described in the preceding article. In one of 
the diagrams is shown an arrangement of pipes for heating a 
house 21 x 50 feet, and in another piping for a lean-to such as 
described in the August House & Garden. With the small pipe 
sufficient for such a house as that illustrated in the latter diagram, 
the work can be done by anyone at all acquainted with the use 
of pipe tools; if possible, the pipes should be given a slight 
downward slope, say one inch in ten feet, from as near the 
heater as practical. For all this work second-hand piping, newly 
threaded, will answer very 
well, and it may be bought 
for about four cents per foot 
for one-inch pipe; six cents 
for one and one-half inch, 
and eight cents for two-inch. 
In putting the stove or heater 
in place, it should be sunk 
below the level upon which 
the pipes will run, and atten¬ 
tion should also be given to 
the matter of caring for the 
fire, removing ashes, etc., 
making the management of 
these things as convenient as 
possible. 
Experience only can teach 
the beginner just “how to” 
manage his vegetables and 
plants in this new winter 
garden. But at the outset he 
must remember one thing: 
If it is true that he has con¬ 
trol of this miniature world 
of growing things, it is also 
true that he can leave noth¬ 
ing, as he does with his out¬ 
side garden, to the treatment 
of old Nature. The control 
is in his hands—the warmth, 
the moisture, the fresh air, 
the soil—none can be left to 
chance; he must think of 
them all. And before going 
into details, which might at 
first be confusing, let us take 
up the elements of this little 
world over which we 
are to reign, and try 
to elucidate first a 
few general rules 
to guide us. The 
house, after count¬ 
less little delays and 
unforeseen problems 
conquered by per¬ 
sonal interest and 
ingenuity, is at last 
ready, and the bare 
board benches look 
ugly enough in the 
bright, hot sunlight. 
How are they to be 
converted into a small garden of Eden, when all outdoors is 
chained in the silent desolation of drifted snow? Here is a new 
task. No longer Nature’s assistant, the gardener has been given 
entire management of this new sort of garden. It is almost a fac¬ 
tory, where he must take his raw materials—earth, water, heat, 
light, and the wonderful thread of life, and mould these all into 
a hundred marvelous forms of beauty and of utility. Something 
of art, something of science, something of business, must all be 
brought to his interesting task. 
Let us begin then at the bottom. What is the best kind of 
dirt to use? It should be friable, so that it will not bake and cake 
in the pots; rich, that the little plants may readily find ample 
nourishment; porous, that water may be soaked up readily, and 
any surplus drained off freely. 
A soil answering all these re¬ 
quirements is made as follows: 
Cut from an old ditch or 
fence-side, thick sods, and stack 
them with the grass sides to¬ 
gether to rot. This heap should 
be forked over several times, 
when it has begun to decom¬ 
pose. In dry weather, if with¬ 
in reach of the hose, a good 
soaking occasionally will help 
the process along. The sods 
should be cut during spring or 
summer. To this pile of sod, 
when well rotted (or at time 
of using), add one-third in 
bulk of thoroughly rotted 
manure—cow and horse mixed, 
and a year old, if it can be ob¬ 
tained—and mix thoroughly. 
If the soil is clayey or heavy, 
add enough coarse sand and 
make it fine and friable, or use 
a larger proportion of the 
manure. Leaf mold, from the 
woods, will also be good to 
lighten it with. This one mix¬ 
ture will do for all your pot¬ 
ting. Keep enough of it under 
cover, or where it will not 
freeze, to last you during the 
winter and early spring. Store 
some of it in old barrels, or in 
boxes under the greenhouse 
bench, if there is not a more 
(Continued on page 178) 
1 i 
Hot water is undoubtedly the most satisfac¬ 
tory method of heating the small green¬ 
house. The diagram shows a iC-inch 
supply pipe leading out from the boiler, 
with i-inch returns under the benches. 
If you are a true garden lover you will not be satisfied with merely 
a fair weather garden during the summer months 
For the larger greenhouse of the isolated 
double-slope type, 21x50 feet in size, a 2- 
inch supply pipe, with five iC-inch returns 
under the outer benches, will secure a tem¬ 
perature of 55 degrees 
