House & Garde 
The 
GARDENER’S CALENDAR FOR JANUARY 
SUNDAY 
MONDAY 
TUESDAY 
WEDNESDAY 
THURSDAY 
FRIDAY 
SATURDAY 
Of herbys 
now I 
Will you telle 
by and by. 
As I fynde wry- 
ten in a boke 
That in borrow- 
yng I betok 
Of a gretladyes 
preste. 
15th Century 
Herbal 
1. Why not 
order or build 
some forcing 
frames to help 
the garden 
along this sea¬ 
son. You will 
be surprised to 
find how easily 
they can be 
constructed 
and how much 
better garden 
you will have 
by using them 
consistently. 
2. Prepara¬ 
tion should be 
made to re-pot 
all exotic 
plants, as they 
will soon begin 
active growth. 
Use plenty of 
drainage in the 
bottom of the 
pot and have 
the soil so that 
it will not be¬ 
come sodden 
if over-watered 
by mistake. 
3. C u t 
branches of any 
of the early 
flowering 
shrubs such as 
pussy-willow, 
fire bush, gold¬ 
en bell, etc., 
will flower if 
placed in jars 
of water in a 
warm room. A 
little later, 
cherry and ap¬ 
ple can be 
forced. 
4. The gar¬ 
den furniture 
should be 
painted while 
it is stored for 
the winter. All 
tools that are 
left out during 
the growing 
season should 
also be painted. 
This is much 
better than fre¬ 
quently buying 
new ones as 
replacements. 
5. Specimen 
trees of all 
kinds can be 
easily trans¬ 
planted if they 
are cut out 
with fair-sized 
balls of earth 
and allowed to 
freeze before 
handling. This 
is a very safe 
method of 
handling sub¬ 
jects of this 
class. 
6. Do not 
postpone the 
ordering of 
your garden 
seeds — make 
the order out 
now. If you 
have made the 
proper garden 
notes this will 
be an easy task. 
Our advice to 
expert as well 
as beginner is 
to buy the best 
quality. 
7. All hardy 
hard - wooded 
plants such as 
lilacs, wistaria, 
deutzia, etc., 
may now be 
brought Into 
the warm 
greenhouse. 
Keep the wood 
well moistened 
by frequent 
spraying until 
the buds start 
to open along 
the stems. 
8. Trees 
that are cover¬ 
ed with moss 
can be easily 
cleaned by 
scrubbing with 
wire brushes, 
or spraying 
with a light so¬ 
lution of caus¬ 
tic soda. Damp 
weather is the 
best time for 
the former 
method of 
treatment. 
9. Seed sow¬ 
ing time will 
soon be here. 
Have you all 
the material 
ready — soil 
which has been 
screened, sand, 
stones or brok¬ 
en flower pots 
for drainage, 
moss, boxes 
seed pans, label 
sticks, 'te.? If 
not, better get 
them at once. 
10. One o 
our finest salad 
vegetables is 
what we call 
chicory or 
French endive. 
From mature 
roots this plant 
is easily forced 
in any warm 
house cellar or 
under the 
benches in the 
greenhouse. It 
yields abun¬ 
dantly. 
11. It is quite 
safe now to 
force any of the 
bulbous plants 
that have been 
buried long 
enough to have 
built up a sub¬ 
stantial rooting 
system. Most 
of these bulb¬ 
ous plants call 
for low tem¬ 
perature and 
plenty of wa¬ 
ter. 
12. In case of 
severe freezing 
weather, don’t 
fail to pile 
plenty of leaves 
on the vege¬ 
table trenches 
to protect them 
from the frost. 
Always keep 
tar-paper over 
the leaves, to 
keep out the 
water. If any 
gets in the frost 
will follow. 
13. Have you 
ever thought 
seriously of the 
advantages of 
an orchard? 
Don’t reason 
that it takes 
too long to 
grow a produc¬ 
tive orchard— 
if our forefath¬ 
ers had felt 
that way about 
it, we should be 
the losers. Start 
one this year. 
14. This is 
the logical time 
to plan a small 
fruit garden 
comprising 
blackberries, 
raspberries, 
dewberries, 
currants, 
gooseberries 
and strawber¬ 
ries. It may be 
located at one 
side of the gar¬ 
den or entirely 
separated. 
15. The green¬ 
house plants 
must be 
sprayed fre¬ 
quently with a 
strong force of 
water to keep 
the red spider 
in check. This 
is one of our 
worse green¬ 
house pests if 
neglected, yet 
the easiest of 
all to keep un¬ 
der control. 
16. Do not 
scrape loose 
bark from trees 
with a scraper; 
it is impossible 
to get into all 
the crevices, 
and much live 
bark is re¬ 
moved in the 
operation. In 
this way more 
harm than 
good will be 
the probable 
final result. 
17. Rhubarb 
may be grown 
successfully 
under the 
benches in the 
greenhouse, or 
in the cellar of 
the dwelling. 
Lift good-sized 
clumps from 
the garden and 
plant them in 
light soil, keep¬ 
ing the tops 
dark until they 
develop. 
18. Start the 
year right by 
making an in¬ 
ventory of your 
garden sup¬ 
plies. Tools, 
fertilizers, 
seeds and other 
necessities 
should be list¬ 
ed and orders 
placed early 
where new ones 
are required. 
Be sure your 
list is complete. 
19. Nitrate of 
soda is one of 
the best plant 
i nvigorators 
that we have. 
It must not be 
used exclusive¬ 
ly. as it is not 
a balanced 
food, but to 
hasten growth 
and increase 
root action it 
is indispens¬ 
able if used 
properly. 
20. Roses and 
carnations 
must be kept 
disbudded if 
you want high 
quality flowers. 
It is important 
that this be at¬ 
tended to when 
the buds are 
small, in order 
to conserve the 
strength of the 
plants and con¬ 
centrate it in 
the blossoms. 
21. The soil 
on the house- 
plant pots 
should be top- 
dressed with 
sheep manure 
or some of the 
regular plant 
foods that 
come for the 
purpose. And 
do not forget 
to sponge the 
foliage fre¬ 
quently with 
insecticide. 
22. Why not 
buy some? 
houses for the 
birds, those 
never-tiring 
friends of the 
gardener? 
Rustic ones are 
practical and 
ornamental, 
and there are 
other good 
styles. They 
should be put 
up before 
spring opens. 
23. All edged 
tools should be 
gone over and 
sharpened for 
the coming 
season. New 
handles should 
be placed in 
tools that re¬ 
quire them, and 
the lawn- 
mowers should 
be overhauled 
while you have 
ample time to 
do it right. 
24. Now is 
the time to or¬ 
der garden fur¬ 
nishings — a 
settee, an 
arched arbor, a 
sundial or urn. 
Somewhere on 
your grounds 
there is a point 
which can be 
made more at¬ 
tractive. more 
interesting by 
adding one of 
these. 
25. The soil 
in the growing 
beds in the 
greenhouse 
should be top- 
dressed with a 
mixture of 
equal parts of 
turfy loam and 
sheep manure. 
This should be 
scratched into 
surface with 
rake or claw, 
then thorough¬ 
ly watered. 
26. Make a 
blue - print of 
your garden 
and lay out 
the crops in 
proper rota¬ 
tion. A plant¬ 
ing plan that 
has been well 
studied out will 
save time and 
space, and cer¬ 
tainly iilcrease 
the yield of the 
garden the 
coming season. 
27. The soil 
on top of the 
benches and 
pots in the 
greenhouse 
should be kept 
stirred con¬ 
stantly. Plants 
that are being 
forced suffer 
because of lack 
of air, the sup¬ 
ply of which 
can be in¬ 
creased by 
cultivation. 
28. Why not 
get the manure 
carted into the 
garden while 
the ground is 
still frozen? 
This is some¬ 
times left until 
spring, and 
then the paths 
and borders 
are torn up un¬ 
necessarily by 
the wagons and 
horses going 
back and forth. 
29. Destroy 
all caterpillar 
nests on the 
trees. An as¬ 
bestos torch is 
a good tool for 
the work, al¬ 
though one 
made of burlap 
and soaked in 
kerosene so as 
to burn will 
answer every 
practical re¬ 
quirement of 
use. 
30. What 
about the per¬ 
gola you have 
been consider¬ 
ing so long? 
You might as 
well order the 
arbor and vines 
at the same 
time, which 
means now. 
Bear in mind 
that goods may 
be scarce, and 
that orders are 
filled in turn. 
31. Pea brush, 
bean poles, etc. 
may be gath¬ 
ered any time 
now and 
stacked away 
for use at the 
pioper time. 
Their butts 
should be proo- 
erly pointed 
with an axe to 
save work later 
on in the sea¬ 
son when time 
presses. 
This calendar 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 ser¬ 
vice should be available for the whole 
country if it be remembered 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 
operations. The dates given are, of course, 
for an average season. 
AL¬ 
BRECHT 
MEYER 
Fifteenth 
Century 
The most significant work accom¬ 
plished for horticulture by the herb¬ 
alists and botanists of the fifteenth 
and sixteenth centuries, of which Al¬ 
brecht Meyer, the German, was one, 
was the beginning of an attempt to 
classify the plants and set down de¬ 
scriptions of them which became an 
extremely valuable record. 
JOHN 
PARKIN¬ 
SON 
Sixteenth 
Century 
This English botanist ( London, 
1567) became apothecary to King 
James I and botanist to Charles I, 
and was the author of Paradisi in 
Sole, or Paradisus Terristris, A 
Choice Garden of all Sorts of Rarest 
Flowers, which came out in 1629 
dedicated to the Queen of Charles I. 
It was for long the chief botanical 
authority. 
HEIN¬ 
RICH 
FUELL- 
MAURER 
Fifteenth 
Century 
MAT¬ 
THIAS 
DE 
LOBEL 
Sixteenth 
Century 
De Lobel, after whom the little garden flower — 
lobelia—is named, spent the greater part of his 
life in England. He was a Fleming by birth 
and a doctor by profession, and he was physician 
to William the Silent until his assassination. 
He based his system of plant classification upon 
pictorial representation. 
D. REM- 
BERT 
DO- 
DOENS 
1517-1585 
Although Dodoens neither lived 
in England nor had any of his 
works printed there, his Cruydt- 
boeck became one of the standard 
works in that country through 
Lyte’s translation. He studied at 
Louvain, visited the schools of 
France, Italy, and Germany, be¬ 
came the physician to Maximilian 
II arid Rudolf II, and later Pro¬ 
fessor of Medicines at Leyden. 
A typical extract from a 15 th century 
herbal: The lily hath a long stalk and 
seldom more than one, howbeit it hath 
somtyme 11. I1 is 11 or 111 cubites 
higgle. It hath long leves and som- 
thyng of the fashion of the great satyrion. 
The flour is excedyng white and it hath 
the forme or fashion of a long quiver, 
that is to say, smal at the one end and 
byg at the other. 
TOHN 
GERARDE 
1545-1607 
Gcrarde was probably the 
greatest of all English herb¬ 
alists, certainly the most 
famous. Someone says of his 
monumental work: One reads 
his critics with the respect 
due their superior learning, 
and then returns to Gerardes' 
Herbal with the comfortable 
sensation of slipping away 
from a boring sermon into 
the pleasant spaciousness of 
an old fashioned fairy-tale. 
