55 
April, 1918 
THE WAR GARDEN DEPARTMENT 
All of us who can garden must work harder this year than ever before to make our gardens produce to the 
maximum of their capacity. House & Garden is devoting several pages each issue to the practical side of 
food production. Should you wish additional information or suggestions touching your own particular 
war garden, we shall be more than glad to assist you personally. Just state your problem clearly and in 
detail, enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope for reply, and mail it to .The Information Service, 
House & Garden, 19 West 44 th Street, New York .— Editor 
D. R. EDSON 
APRIL, of course, is always 
the big month of the year 
in the garden and around 
the place. This year, with the 
urgent necessity which exists for 
having a garden for production, 
for every family that possibly 
can to supply itself not only 
with fresh vegetables for sum¬ 
mer but also with all that will 
be wanted during the winter, 
and with the delays that have 
been caused by our upset trans¬ 
portation system, it will be even 
busier than usual. 
The first April work for every 
garden maker and place owner 
is a job at his desk—unless he 
has already done it. I refer to 
the making of an absolutely 
written out black-and-white list 
of the things that are to be 
done. Without such a definite 
plan of action to guide you during the coming busy 
weeks, you will be sure to waste more or less time 
in going front one thing to another, trying to decide 
just what to do and what not to do. By all means, 
map out a definite program of action for yourself; 
it may mean nothing more than a daily reminder in 
your note-book. Go over the fruit trees, the berry 
bushes, the hardy borders, the walks and drives, and 
jot down the various improvements which you have 
been contemplating. Put everything down, but check 
off to be done this year only the things you actually 
expect to accomplish. It is almost as bad to have 
such a big program that you cannot think of com¬ 
pleting it as it would be to have none at all. 
Getting the Early Garden In 
Of course, this month’s first really big job is to 
get the vegetable garden planted. Directions for 
making the garden are given elsewhere in this num¬ 
ber. Here is an idea, however, that you will not 
find among them. If you do not need it for your¬ 
self, suggest it to someone who may. 
With the scores of small gardens that are to be 
planted on vacant lots and other uncultivated bits of 
ground this year, there should be some sort of an 
organization in each community that would make it 
possible for the various lot owners to co-operate and 
cut down the expenses of preparing and planting their 
gardens. In many cases this is being done already. 
Is it being done in your community? Even if you 
have a big garden and are not personally interested 
in any vacant lot movement, that does not let you 
out. This year it is just as much a duty for you to 
help promote the productiveness and success of other 
people’s gardens as of your own. 
“Food will win the war—produce it!” is not meant 
to apply to your own garden alone. And in so far 
as food production this year is concerned, each one 
of us is his brother’s keeper. 
The necessity of empha¬ 
sizing the utility of garden¬ 
ing this year does not 
necessarily imply the neg¬ 
lect of the other things we 
usually do. That extra 
hour of daylight we are go¬ 
ing to have will allow us to 
do a good deal more vege¬ 
table gardening without 
neglecting the other things. 
Therefore, put the whole 
place into shape. It is im¬ 
portant to get at this job 
of cleaning up as early as 
possible, as much of it can 
be done before the ground 
has dried out enough to 
begin planting operations. 
Before that time there will 
be many warm afternoons 
when the grounds can be 
raked over and shrubs and 
berry bushes pruned, fences 
and arbors and roofs 
mended, etc. 
Another of the early jobs 
There is no necessity, even in war times, 
to forego the unique pleasure of the 
early bulb border 
The wheel-hoe is the gardener’s most 
universally useful implement. It saves 
time, labor, and makes for better crops 
A general cleanup of the place should be effected at once, if you have not already 
accomplished it. All mulches can now come off the borders 
outdoors is to put the hardy 
border and other perennial 
plantings into shape for the be¬ 
ginning of growth. All of the 
old stalks and winter-beaten 
debris, left uncovered by the 
melting snows, should be re¬ 
moved as soon as March winds 
have dried off the surface of the 
soil. It is best not to add this 
material to the compost heap, 
because some of it is pretty sure 
to contain disease spores, insect 
eggs and other undesirable win¬ 
ter boarders. In most cases the 
new shoots will be found push¬ 
ing up almost as soon as the 
old ones have been removed. As 
soon as the positions of the 
plants can be fairly distin¬ 
guished, the surface of the soil 
should be thoroughly forked 
over, and a dressing of ground 
bone raked in. A mixture of dried blood and ground 
bone is still better, because the latter contains a 
large percentage of readily available nitrogen which 
the plants need more than anything else at this time 
of the year. 
Spring Pruning of Roses 
Then there is the pruning of the rose garden. 
The roses on the average place are pruned far too 
little to get the best results. The beginner seems 
unable to decide to apply the pruning shears for 
fear of spoiling the plants. But it is the bush that 
is allowed to go unpruned which dies the quickest 
and yields the least satisfaction in flowers while it is 
doing it. Roses belong to that class of shrubs which 
flower on new wood—consequently the only way to 
check their capacity for flowering is to check the 
growth of new wood. But judicious pruning greatly 
stimulates the growth of new wood; therefore even 
quite severe pruning increases the amount of bloom, 
and the quality as well. 
The first roses to prune, if they were not cut back 
during last fall or winter, are the rugosas. These 
are of quite different habit of growth from the ordi¬ 
nary garden roses, and are not pruned in the same 
way; they throw up new canes from underground 
runners, and in the course of a few years become 
so overcrowded that they require thinning out, taking 
out the surplus of old canes clear down to the 
ground. The other canes may be headed back if 
necessary, but under most conditions they present a 
much more artistic appearance if allowed to grow 
naturally. 
In the regular rose garden the hybrid perpetuals 
will be the first to attend to. They can be cut any 
time after the winter mulch—if one has been applied 
—has been removed, so that the branches can be 
followed down to the ground. All the dead wood, 
including that which has 
been winter killed, should 
be cut out; winter killing 
will be indicated by shriv¬ 
eled buds and wood at the 
tops of the canes. After 
this preliminary cutting, 
the next thing to decide is 
whether you want to prune 
to secure the greatest num¬ 
ber of blooms or the very 
finest, or compromise on a 
generous number of mod¬ 
erate sized flowers. If the 
first, prune lightly; if the 
second, prune severely; and 
if the last, prune moder¬ 
ately. 
And here comes in the 
first rule of rose pruning: 
prune the strong growing 
plants least, and the weak¬ 
est ones most. That is, 
of course, speaking of va¬ 
rieties or individuals of the 
same class. To give the 
hybrid perpetuals severe 
(Continued on page 74) 
