56 
House & Garden 
April 
THE GARDENER’S KALENDAR Fourth Month 
Birch brush is the 
best for peas. Set it. 
•when they are 6" 
high 
Dig holes for new 
stock large enough 
to provide ample 
root room 
As soon as stock is 
set, sbak the ground 
thoroughly with 
water 
SUNDAY 
MONDAY 
'TUESDAY 
WEDNESDAY 
THURSDAY 
FRIDAY 
SATURDAY 
April, April, 
Laugh thy 
girlish 
laughter ; 
Then , the mo¬ 
ment after. 
Weep thy 
girlish 
tears. 
—William 
Waison. 
Sun rises , 
5:28; Sunsets, 
6:09. 
1. Prepare 
the garden for 
sowing, digging 
under a liberal 
supply of ma¬ 
nure, using 
some lime to 
correct soil ac¬ 
ids, and raking 
the ground 
smooth before 
sowing. Use a 
wooden rake. 
2. A meas¬ 
uring stick and 
line will assure 
straight rows. 
Vegetables 
that remain in 
the garden all 
summer should 
he kept to one 
side, leaving 
plenty of room 
between the 
rows but no 
waste ground. 
Keep all possi¬ 
ble soil work¬ 
ing. 
3. You may 
sow in the open 
ground now, 
Swiss chard, 
parsnips, oys¬ 
ter plant, cel- 
eriac, thyme, 
sage, sweet 
marjoram, 
parsley, tur¬ 
nips, peas, 
radishes, 
onions, onion 
sets, spinach, 
beets, carrots, 
chicory, etc. 
4. Don’t put 
o ff sowing 
sweet peas any 
longer if you 
want good 
flowers. Pre¬ 
pare a trench 
two spades 
deep and add 
plenty of well 
rotted manure 
and some bone 
meal. The 
seeds should he 
about 2" to 4" 
deep 
5. Finish 
the pruning of 
roses, hyd- 
rangeasand 
other bushes 
that flower on 
new wood. 
Cut hack 
newly planted 
stock of all 
kinds and re¬ 
move thin in¬ 
terior branches 
of fruit trees. 
Leave spring 
flowering 
shrubs alone. 
6. All pro¬ 
tecting ma¬ 
terial should 
be removed 
now. Mulches 
can be dug 
under, corn 
stalks, pine 
boughs and 
leaves burned, 
and wooden 
protectors, 
burlap, etc., 
should be put 
away for fu¬ 
ture use. 
7. Lime is 
very beneficial 
to the ground. 
Spade some un¬ 
der around the 
cane fruits, be¬ 
tween the rows 
in the straw¬ 
berry bed, 
around the 
rhubarb, 
shrubbery 
borders, peren¬ 
nials, etc.; but 
not rhododen¬ 
drons. 
8. All new 
plantings of 
perennials 
should be 
finished, old 
plants should 
be lifted, di¬ 
vided and re¬ 
planted, and 
the winter 
mulch dug un¬ 
der. If no 
winter mulch 
was applied, 
use plenty of 
bone meal. 
9. This is 
the last op¬ 
portunity t o 
plant all va¬ 
rieties of de¬ 
ciduous trees 
and shrubs, 
raspberries, 
currants, 
peaches, 
plums, apples, 
pears. All work 
of this sort 
should be com¬ 
pleted at the 
first moment. 
10. Attend 
to your lawns 
at this time; 
any patching, 
sodding, seed¬ 
ing, etc., must 
be done now. 
Rolling the 
lawn or tamp¬ 
ing down the 
frost heaves, 
and applying 
fertilizer, 
should be done 
before growth 
starts. 
11. There 
will be con¬ 
siderable effort 
expended upon 
community 
gardens this 
year, and if the 
soil is not prop¬ 
erly prepared 
it will be in 
vain. Plow 
deep with a 
subsoil plow. 
Good ground 
makes garden¬ 
ing easy. 
12. Potatoes 
should be 
planted early 
—don’t wait 
any longer. 
Early planting 
gives them a 
chance to es¬ 
tablish them¬ 
selves before 
the summer 
droughts ar¬ 
rive, and re¬ 
duces blight 
losses to the 
minimum. 
13. Young 
fruit trees—es¬ 
pecially apples, 
quinces and 
pears—are at- 
tacked by 
borers. It is a 
good practice 
to pile ashes 
around the 
base of the tree. 
Peaches can be 
protected by 
tarred burlap. 
Details in 
March issue. 
14. New as¬ 
paragus plant¬ 
ings should be 
set out now. 
Trench the 
ground 3' deep 
if you want 
your bed to 
last as it 
should. Old 
plantings 
should be thor¬ 
oughly salted 
and the ground 
kept well 
stirred. 
15. Plants 
started in the 
greenhouse for 
early plantings 
should be 
brought into a 
cold-frame and 
hardened off 
gradually. 
Failure will re¬ 
sult if you 
plant them di¬ 
rectly from the 
warm green¬ 
house to the 
open. 
16. Root 
maggots are 
active at this 
time on onions, 
leek, turnips, 
radishes, etc. 
A good pre¬ 
ventive is an 
equal quantity 
of soot and 
lime applied to 
the row. Use 
about two 
quarts to 50' of 
row, and work 
it in. 
17. This is 
the time to 
think of a 
muskmelon 
patch. D i g 
holes about 3' 
across and 2' 
deep and fill 
with sod and 
manure. Place 
the frame on 
top and wait a 
few days for 
the soil to 
warm up be¬ 
fore sowing. 
18. Carna¬ 
tions in the 
greenhouse 
should be 
shaded so that 
they will hold 
their color and 
not burst. 
Young plants 
should he 
planted out in 
the garden, 
where they are 
kept well culti- 
vated and 
pinched. 
19. Flower 
seeds may he 
sown out of 
doors now. 
Asters, phlox, 
zinnia, ver¬ 
bena, snap¬ 
dragons, stocks 
—in fact, any 
of the annuals 
—m ay be 
sown. You can 
also start per¬ 
ennials from 
seed sown now 
outdoors. 
20. Old 
plantings of 
rhubarb should 
be lifted, di¬ 
vided and re¬ 
planted after 
first digging an 
abundance of 
manure into 
the ground. A 
barrel or two 
placed over a 
couple of 
plants will 
hurry their 
development. 
21. If you 
want a good 
garden don’t 
neglect to sow 
seeds of peas, 
radishes, spin¬ 
ach, turnips, 
carrots, beets 
and lettuce. A 
second sowing 
should be 
made just as 
the fi r s t is 
showing 
through the 
ground. 
22. Summer 
bulbous plants 
may be set out 
now, such as 
montbretias, 
gladioli, tube- 
roses, etc. 
Gladioli and 
montbretias 
should be 
planted in 
batches at in¬ 
tervals of three 
weeks to give a 
contin uous 
supply. 
'23. Very 
shortly you 
will need a 
quantity of 
shading ma¬ 
terial for trans¬ 
planting seed¬ 
lings. Straw¬ 
berry baskets 
are good, while 
paper cones are 
easily made 
and hoards are 
splendid. Get 
this material 
ready now. 
24. All 
kinds of newly 
planted stock 
should be kept 
well supplied 
with water. 
Heavy mulch¬ 
ings will do 
much to check 
evaporation 
around the 
roots. Protect 
the trunks of 
large trees with 
straw until 
they are estab¬ 
lished. 
25. All the 
decorative 
plants in tubs, 
such as bay 
trees, box¬ 
wood, hydran¬ 
geas, olean- 
ders, etc ., 
should be over¬ 
hauled and the 
tubs painted. 
Those that re¬ 
quire it should 
he retubbed at 
this time. Use 
clean tubs. 
26. This is a 
good time to 
set out box¬ 
wood edgings 
from cuttings. 
The shoots 
should he cut 
about 8" long, 
and you can 
insert them in 
the ground a- 
bout 5". Keep 
them well 
watered until 
they root and 
start growing. 
27. All kinds 
of the more 
hardy vege¬ 
tables such as 
cabbages, cau¬ 
liflower, let¬ 
tuce, parsley, 
etc., can be 
planted in the 
garden if they 
have been 
p r o p e r 1 y 
hardened off to 
accustom them 
to the change 
of temperature. 
28. Sweet peas 
started in the 
greenhouse 
and hardened 
oil in frames 
can now be 
planted out. 
Dig deep 
trenches and 
add plenty of 
manure Lime 
and hone meal 
should he 
mixed with the 
soil. 
This Kalendar of the 
gardener’s labors is 
aimed as a reminder 
for undertaking all his 
tasks in season. It is 
fitted to the latitude of 
the Middle States, but 
its service should be 
available for the whole 
country if it be re- 
29. Thin¬ 
ning is a neces- 
s a r y evil, 
though most 
gardeners dis¬ 
like to do it. 
All early seed¬ 
lings of beets, 
carrots, tur¬ 
nips, kohlrabi, 
parsnip, etc., 
must be thin¬ 
ned out. Pull 
the weeds at 
the same time. 
* 
membered that for 
every one hundred 
miles north or south 
there is a difference of 
from five to seven 
days later or earlier in 
performing garden op¬ 
erations. The dates 
given are, of course, 
for an average season. 
30. Sun 
rises, 4:41; 
Sun sets, 6:42. 
Keep the 
soil stirred 
constantly be¬ 
tween the rows 
in the garden. 
Seeds slow to 
start can be 
protected 
while cultivat¬ 
ing by stretch¬ 
ing a garden 
line where the 
drill was made. 
J WAS down along the edge of the woodlot the other day, cutting a load of pea brush. It 
1 was kind of a warmish day, real springlike, and somehow I got to studying about how like 
people some garden things • are. There’s beets, for instance—all their good points hidden down 
underground till you pull ’em out by the roots. Or crab-grass—always crowding everything ejse 
off the map. And as for peas — well, they just have to have something to hang onto.'else they’ll 
make an awful mess of life. Though at that, I calculate a clinging vine, whether it’s vegetable 
or human, is a lot better than one you have to tack up. 
—Old Doc Lemmon 
The mulch around 
cane fruits should 
be dug under this 
month 
Spring plowing and 
all other soil prepa¬ 
ration should be 
finished at once 
Many shrubs can be 
moved early in the 
month if care is used 
not to let them dry 
When cutting aspar¬ 
agus, do not go deep 
enough to injure the 
crown 
Sweet peas are planted in a well prepared, 
well enriched trench. See March House 
& Garden for full directions as to planting 
and general culture 
Potatoes are one of the important war 
crops, but do not attempt growing them 
unless you are sure the conditions are 
right. They will not-grow without care 
A few branches 
laid over sprouting 
corn protect it from 
chickens 
