50 
House & Garden 
THE WAR GARDEN DEPARTMENT 
With the opening or tin new year comes the certainty that it will be the patriotic duty of each of us who 
can to raise his or her bit of the purely utilitarian garden crops. The war garden seal of last season must 
be repeated in 1918 with that increased effectiveness which comes of greater experience on the part of the 
gardeners Each month we will devote this page, as well as many others m the magazine, to attaining 
greater productiveness in the home garden. The practical side of raising vegetables and other food crops 
will be strongly emphasised. Should you wish additional information or suggestions touching your own 
Particular war garden, wc shall be more than glad to assist you. Simply state your problem dearly and in 
detail enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope for reply, and mail it to I he Information Service, House 
& Garden, 19 West 44 th Street, Neiu York.— Editor. 
D. R . E D S O N 
© J 
A LWAYS the first tiling we think about 
growing in the garden, after the holi¬ 
days, is a new crop of resolutions A 
few good resolutions are all right. But too 
big a crop of them, like flowers and vege¬ 
tables that have been planted too thickly, 
become weeds and merely interfere with 
each other’s growth, so that the net results 
are worse than if there had been none at all. 
So the first New Year’s resolution that you 
make for your garden should be not to plan 
too many things; and the second should be 
to carry out those which you do plan. 
That the first step in the year’s garden¬ 
ing is to make a plan is one of the self- 
evident truths that every gardener is pre¬ 
pared to admit. The trouble in too many 
instances is that when this admission has 
been made nothing further is done about 
the matter until it is nearly time to plant. 
It is important to make definite plans for 
your year’s work, and to make them soon, 
for they should serve as the basis for every¬ 
thing that you order and for every hour’s 
time that you have to utilize in your differ¬ 
ent gardens. Trying to get along without 
some definite plan of this kind is like attempt¬ 
ing to build wooden ships without keels— 
nothing to tie to, nothing to co-ordinate your efforts. 
To begin with, send now for a generous number 
of catalogs. They contain much raw material which 
you will find useful in working out your plan, be¬ 
sides more garden information and inspiration than 
you can get in any other way for the same amount 
of money. The average reader has no conception of 
the really careful study and thought which are put 
into the best catalogs. 
A big supply of catalogs and all the books and 
magazines you can read will not, however, in them¬ 
selves get you anywhere in your planning. Much 
so-called garden planning is merely the compilation of 
lists which a gardener may fancy he or she would like. 
The selection of varieties should be the last thing 
done in the making of the year's plans. 
A Plan of the Place 
The basis of all the planning during the next few 
weeks should be a plan of your place, no matter how 
large or how small that place may be, prepared in 
sufficient detail to show tire location of the house 
and other buildings, the boundary lines and all per¬ 
manent features such as stone walls, large trees, 
evergreen hedges or drives. The advantages of such 
a plan are numerous. It will enable you to keep 
track of all the different things you would like to 
accomplish without forgetting about some while you 
are attending to others, as you might if 
you simply did the work “on tire ground.” 
From this plan you can see how much 
space can be used for one particular thing 
or another, how. much fertilizer you will 
need for the different flower beds or plant¬ 
ings you may have in mind and, in general, 
it will help you to keep an active perspec¬ 
tive of the things you are trying to do to 
make the place better each year. It is as 
important to your garden campaign as a 
war map is to the chief of staff of an 
invading army. 
By making your little plan to scale, allow¬ 
ing or %" to the foot, you will get a 
plan that will be big enough to show you 
the things you ought to know. Make it 
on fairly stiff paper, or better still linen 
backed paper, so that it can be folded and 
put out of harm’s way when not in use. 
The boundary lines and other permanent 
features mentioned above may be drawn in 
ink, and other items which you may want 
to change from time to time, such as the 
location of flower beds, shrubs that have 
been put out where they do not belong, 
a walk or drive that does not just suit you, 
may be drawn in pencil. An hour’s work 
with tape measure and pencil, the first 
sunny afternoon after New Year’s, will give 
House 
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A problem in remodeling. (A) Hedge; (D) flower border 
and garden; ( E) walk; (G) shrubs (move to L in lower 
plan); (/) shrub or low tree; (K) shade tree; (M) tall 
shrubs (move toM'); ( N) cold-frames; (U) drive (change 
to U') 
you the measurements and other data necessary for 
making up such a plan. 
Once you have the plan you will find frequent 
enough use for it. All the improvements may be set 
down on it in dotted lines, to be filled in as the 
work is done. The amount of seed, fertilizer, etc., 
used in different flower plots or gardens can be jotted 
down and totaled up at the end of the year. Above 
all, you will have a general scheme of improvement 
to which all new ideas for individual things can be 
co-ordinated, and used or rejected as they fit in with 
other improvements which are under way or have 
been determined upon. 
Vegetables First 
This year it is again going to be up to everybody who 
can grow vegetables to do everything possible in that 
direction. No one can tell how serious a food situa¬ 
tion we may have to face by another winter. You 
cannot have a garden of maximum efficiency unless 
you plan it in advance. Include a larger percentage 
than usual of the root crops—they produce much 
more food value to the square foot than do such 
things as corn, peas and the vine crops. Plan to 
use all the ground you can for vegetables, and keep 
that ground busy producing all the season. Else¬ 
where in this issue you will find more detailed in¬ 
formation on just how to figure out the number of 
(.A) Hedge; ( B) new walk; (C) hydrangeas; ( F ) new 
flower border; (H) low shrubs; (G) low shrubs and ever¬ 
greens for winter; ( J ) shrub or low tree; ( K ) shade tree; 
(L) shrub border; ( M') tall shrubs; (N') greenhouse and 
new frames; (O) pergola; ( P ) sundial and rose garden; 
(Q) apple tree; ( R) overhead irrigation; (S) hardy bor¬ 
der; (U') drive 
feet of rows of ‘the different vegetables you 
will need to maintain a supply, and how 
to lay out your garden to the best possible 
advantage. 
One of the first things to determine, be¬ 
fore going further with the year’s work, is 
whether replanting of the things already 
on the place is needed more than the addi¬ 
tion of new things. Frequently a wrong 
start makes it almost impossible to give 
the place a really attractive appearance in 
spite of all your efforts in that direction. 
The trouble is not that the new work is 
not well considered, but that what has been 
done before makes it impossible to achieve 
what is now desired. 
As an illustration of what may be done 
toward the replanting of a place without 
going to any great expense, compare the 
two plans of the same place which illus¬ 
trate this article. The first shows a rather 
poor arrangement, but one which is not 
worse than many to be found in any sub¬ 
urban section. The second shows the re¬ 
sults of applying a few of the first prin¬ 
ciples of home landscaping—keeping an 
open center for the main lawn, so arrang¬ 
ing the walks and drives that the effect of 
distance is secured by the use of curves and endings 
backed by shrubbery, and the screening of unsightly 
objects by the use of trees and shrubs so arranged 
that they look like natural groupings. Make a plan 
of your own place to correspond with the first of 
these two plans, and then see how much you can 
improve it by rearranging the objectionable features. 
While these paragraphs give some idea of the gen¬ 
eral method of making your plan for the year’s work, 
they do not go into any details concerning when to 
plant, distances apart, etc. All such data for the 
vegetable garden will be found elsewhere in this issue. 
If you are planning to put out any shrubs this spring, 
allow 3' to S' for the smallest sorts, and 5' to 7' for 
the largest. They should be set out just as early in 
the spring as the ground can be worked. You can 
send in your order for some as soon as you get the 
catalog, with instructions to have them shipped on 
notification or as soon as ready. 
Planning Details 
Roses—which should also be planted just as soon 
as possible if dormant roots are used, and immedi¬ 
ately after danger of hard freezing is past, if growing 
plants—require about 15" each way for the smaller 
garden sorts such as the hybrid teas and teas, and 
24" for the hardy hybrid perpetuals. 
When it comes to the small fruits, there is some 
latitude, particularly if they are to be 
planted in single rows such as along a 
fence or used partly as a hedge. The regu¬ 
lar distance for the cane fruits such as 
raspberries is 3' by 6'. Blackberries need 
almost twice as much space as this. Cur¬ 
rants require 5' to 6' each way, and goose¬ 
berries 5' to 7'. Grapes should be put 
about 6' or 8' apart. Strawberries depend 
upon the system of planting used. Plants 
in single rows go 2' apart; if in beds of 
three or four rows, 1' apart, with 2' be¬ 
tween the beds. 
Dwarf fruit trees and plums, pears and 
peaches require 100 to 400 square feet each. 
Standard apple trees, when fully grown, 
need a space 30' to 35' in diameter. Dwarf 
apples on Doucin stock require about 15', 
and on Paradise stock, which is still dwarf- 
er growing, only 8' to 10'. If you haven’t 
room to have fruit any other way, you can 
get the dwarf stocks and train the trees 
against a wall or building. The dwarf fruit 
trees offer a great opportunity for the plant¬ 
ing of the small place, but comparatively 
few people take advantage of it. Many 
home gardeners seem to think that the 
dwarf is merely a hobby for the profes¬ 
sional gardener on some estate. But you 
(Continued on page 62) 
