Py wee 
Well fed frase, Crowds Weeds from the Lawn 27 


Your garden, if it is to have a pleasing. personality, 
must be brought up —it cannot be allowed just to grow un- 
restrained. Beauty in gardens is the result of a good plan 
plus a guiding hand when and where needed to bring the 
plan to perfect realization. 
But, as in all forms of training, there is good and bad. 
For instance, unless located in a formal hedge the flowering 
shrubs should be allowed to retain their natural shape and 
development. Continual shearing into globes and restrained 
outlines cuts away all the plant’s natural beauty and in- 
dividuality. 
When pruning**is necessary a good safe rule is: Prune 
those shrubs andi'vines that bloom before July immediately 
after flowering; those that bloom in July or later should be 
pruned in early spring. Clip formal hedges often, especially 
in early summer when growth is most rapid. By clippng 
often, the growth is continually forced along the sides of 
the branches left untrimmed; voids will fill up and the 
desired smooth, dense mass of foliage will result. 
Use the hoe more and the hose less (when we say hoe 
we mean anything from an old table fork to a pickaxe). 
A variety of fork and blade tools will enable you to handle 
different types of cultivation more eff cienily. The new 
Gardex Soil-Flow tools are tremendous labor savers on some 
jobs. A good 12-inch flat file frequently used on edged 
tools is one of your very best aids. Clean, sharp tools do 
the job with a minimum of physical effort. 
When you do water, make it good! Thorough irrigation 
every two weeks will take less water and do more good 
than a sprinkle “irritation” every day. 

Let the hose run just a trickle for half a day or longer 
on newly planted evergreens, until you are sure the soil is 
saturated to two feet or more, every two to three weeks 
(not days!) for the entire first season. Then when the sur- 
face is beginning to dry and before cracks appear stir the 
soil around them lightly. Light syringing, just enough to 
get the foliage dripping, once or twice a day for three 
weeks after they are planted will help them immensely. 
5 ae Bais ~_ 
iy 4011p. Valeo ¥ An Paes, 
Really fine lawns are easy! Even if your lawn, is. thin 
to start with, if the grading is good and ground reasonably 
smooth, regular light feeding throughout the season will 
improve it wonderfully. Let us emphasize this regular, 
light feeding. Rather than one overdose in the spring and 
starvation the rest of the summer do it this way: 
MIDDLE OF APRIL: Vigoro or any other 4-12-4 fer- 
tilizer at the rate of 2 pounds per 100 square feet—no more! 
EARLY JUNE: Ammonium sulphate, 1 pound per 100 
square feet. 
MID-JULY: Ammonium sulphate, 1 pound per 100 
square feet. 
SEPT. 1: Ammonium sulphate, 4% pound; or Vigoro, 1 
pound per 100 square feet. 
ALWAYS: Water-in thoroughly any commercial fer- 
tilizer. . 
NEVER: Scatter messy, smelly barnyard fertilizer 
around your yard. It will bring in more weeds quicker 
than anything you can do—and besides, it’s much more 
valuable on gardens and borders. The feeding program out- 
lined above, followed faithfully for two seasons, positively 
eliminates dandelions! : 
Perennial flowers can’t just be planted any old place 
then forgotten. With Shasta Daisies, for example, annual 
or at least biennial division is required (early May). The 
soil should be loaded with humus, preferably very . old 
manure, and the plants should always have ample moisture. 
Steamed bonemeal, 8 pounds per 100 square feet, lightly 
scratched-n and a one-inch summer mulch of rotted 
manure will give you plenty of king size Shastas. 
This same culture goes for the tall, summer-blooming 
phlox, and chrysanthemums. But never put manure on 
ris, peonies, or babysbreath. 
We can’t begin to cover the subject here. It would 
take a book to do that—and we have just the book: Biles’ 
Garden Magic, 320 big pages with 17 full color illustra- 
tions and hundreds of “how to ___-______ ” line. drawings— 
the most complete, practical garden book we have ever seen. 
$3.00 
