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FIGHTING PLANT ENEMIES.
The devices and implements used for fighting plant enemies
are of two sorts:
(1) those used to afford mechanical protection to the
plants;
(2) those used to apply insecticides and fungicides.
Of the first the most useful is the covered frame. It
consists usually of a wooden box, some eighteen inches to two feet square and
about eight high, covered with glass, protecting cloth, mosquito netting or
mosquito wire. The first two coverings have, of course, the additional advantage
of retaining heat and protecting from cold, making it possible by their use to
plant earlier than is otherwise safe. They are used extensively in getting an
extra early and safe start with cucumbers, melons and the other vine vegetables.
Simpler devices for protecting newly-set plants, such as
tomatoes or cabbage, from the cut-worm, are stiff, tin, cardboard or tar paper
collars, which are made several inches high and large enough to be put around
the stem and penetrate an inch or so into the soil.
For applying poison powders, the home gardener should
supply himself with a powder gun. If one must be restricted to a single
implement, however, it will be best to get one of the hand-power, compressed-air
sprayers. These are used for
applying wet sprays, and should be supplied with one of the several forms of
mist-making nozzles, the non-cloggable
automatic type being the best. For more extensive work a barrel pump, mounted on
wheels, will be desirable, but one of the above will do a great deal of work in
little time. Extension rods for use in spraying trees and vines may be obtained
for either. For operations on a very small scale a good hand-syringe may be
used, but as a general thing it will be best to invest a few dollars more and
get a small tank sprayer, as this throws a continuous stream or spray and holds
a much larger amount of the spraying solution. Whatever type is procured, get a
brass machine it will out-wear three or four of those made of cheaper metal,
which succumbs very quickly to the, corroding action of the strong poisons and
chemicals used in them.
Of implements for harvesting, beside the spade, prong-hoe
and spading- fork, very few are used in the small garden, as most of them need
not only long rows to be economically used, but horse- power also. The onion
harvester attachment for the double wheel hoe, may be used with advantage in
loosening onions, beets, turnips, etc., from the soil or for cutting spinach.
Running the hand- plow close on either side of carrots, parsnips and other
deep-growing vegetables will aid materially in getting them out. For fruit
picking, with tall trees, the wire-fingered fruit-picker, secured to the end of
a long handle, will be of great assistance, but with the modern method of using
low-headed trees it will not be needed.
Another class of garden implements are those used in
pruning but where this is attended to properly from the start, a good sharp
jack-knife and a pair of pruning shears will easily handle all the work of the
kind necessary.
Still another sort of garden device is that used for
supporting the plants; such as stakes, trellises, wires, etc. Altogether too
little attention usually is given these, as with proper care in storing over
winter they will not only last for years, but add greatly to the convenience of
cultivation and to the neat appearance of the garden.
As a final word to the intending purchaser of garden tools,
I would say: first thoroughly investigate the different sorts available, and
when buying, do not forget that a good tool or a well-made machine will be
giving you satisfactory use long, long after the price is forgotten, while a
poor one is a constant source of discomfort. Get good tools, and
take good care of them. And
let me repeat that a few dollars a year, judiciously spent, for tools afterward
well cared for, will soon give you a very complete set, and add to your garden
profit and pleasure.
GARDEN PESTS.
If we could garden without any interference from the pests
which attack plants, then indeed gardening would be a simple matter. But all the
time we must watch out for these little foes little in size, but tremendous in
the havoc they make.
As human illness may often be prevented by healthful
conditions, so pests may be kept away by strict garden cleanliness. Heaps of
waste are lodging places for the breeding of insects. I do not think a compost
pile will do the harm, but unkempt, uncared-for spots seem to invite trouble.
There are certain helps to keeping pests down. The constant
stirring up of the soil by earthworms is an aid in keeping the soil open to air
and water. Many of our common birds feed upon insects. The sparrows, robins,
chickadees, meadow larks and orioles are all examples of birds who help in this
way. Some insects feed on other and harmful insects. Some kinds of ladybugs do
this good deed. The ichneumon-fly helps too. And toads are wonders in the number
of insects they can consume at one meal. The toad deserves very kind treatment
from all of us.
Each gardener should try to make her or his garden into a
place attractive to birds and toads. A good birdhouse, grain sprinkled about in
early spring, a water-place, are invitations for birds to stay a while in your
garden. If you wish toads, fix things up for them too. During a hot summer day a
toad likes to rest in the shade. By night he is ready to go forth to eat but not
to kill, since toads prefer live food. How can one "fix up" for toads? Well, one
thing to do is to prepare a retreat, quiet, dark and damp. A few stones of some
size underneath the shade of a shrub with perhaps a carpeting of damp leaves,
would appear very fine to a toad.
There are two general classes of insects known by the way
they do their work. One kind gnaws at the plant really taking pieces of it into
its system. This kind of insect has a mouth fitted to do this work. Grasshoppers
and caterpillars are of this sort. The other kind sucks the juices from a plant.
This, in some ways, is the worst sort. Plant lice belong here, as do mosquitoes,
which prey on us. All the scale insects fasten themselves on plants, and suck
out the life of the plants.
Now can we fight these chaps? The gnawing fellows may be
caught with poison sprayed upon plants, which they take into their bodies with
the plant. The Bordeaux mixture which is a poison sprayed upon plants for this
purpose.
In the other case the only thing is to attack the insect
direct. So certain insecticides, as they are called, are sprayed on the plant to
fall upon the insect. They do a deadly work of attacking, in one way or another,
the body of the insect.
Sometimes we are much troubled with underground insects at
work. You have seen a garden covered with ant hills. Here is a remedy, but one
of which you must be careful.
This question is constantly being asked, 'How can I tell
what insect is doing the destructive work?' Well, you can tell partly by the
work done, and partly by seeing the insect itself. This latter thing is not
always so easy to accomplish. I had cutworms one season and never saw one. I saw
only the work done. If stalks of tender plants are cut clean off be pretty sure
the cutworm is abroad. What does he look like? Well, that is a hard question
because his family is a large one. Should you see sometime a grayish striped
caterpillar, you may know it is a cutworm. But because of its habit of resting
in the ground during the day and working by night, it is difficult to catch
sight of one. The cutworm is around early in the season ready to cut the flower
stalks of the hyacinths. When the peas come on a bit later, he is ready for
them. A very good way to block him off is to put paper collars, or tin ones,
about the plants. These collars should be about an inch away from the plant.
Of course, plant lice are more common. Those we see are
often green in color. But they may be red, yellow or brown. Lice are easy enough
to find since they are always clinging to their host. As sucking insects they
have to cling close to a plant for food, and one is pretty sure to find them.
But the biting insects do their work, and then go hide. That makes them much
more difficult to deal with.
Rose slugs do great damage to the rose bushes. They eat out
the body of the leaves, so that just the veining is left. They are soft-bodied,
green above and yellow below.
A beetle, the striped beetle, attacks young melons and
squash leaves. It eats the leaf by riddling out holes in it. This beetle, as its
name implies, is striped. The back is black with yellow stripes running
lengthwise.
Then there are the slugs, which are garden pests. The slug
will devour almost any garden plant, whether it be a flower or a vegetable. They
lay lots of eggs in old rubbish heaps. Do you see the good of cleaning up
rubbish? The slugs do more harm in the garden than almost any other single
insect pest. You can discover them in the following way. There is a trick for
bringing them to the surface of the ground in the day time. You see they rest
during the day below ground. So just water the soil in which the slugs are
supposed to be. How are you to know where they are? They are quite likely to
hide near the plants they are feeding on. So water the ground with some nice
clean lime water. This will disturb them, and up they'll poke to see what the
matter is.
Beside these most common of pests, pests which attack many
kinds of plants, there are special pests for special plants. Discouraging, is it
not? Beans have pests of their own; so have potatoes and cabbages. In fact, the
vegetable garden has many inhabitants. In the flower garden lice are very
bothersome, the cutworm and the slug have a good time there, too, and ants often
get very numerous as the season advances. But for real discouraging insect
troubles the vegetable garden takes the prize. If we were going into fruit to
any extent, perhaps the vegetable garden would have to resign in favor of the
fruit garden.
A common pest in the vegetable garden is the tomato worm.
This is a large yellowish or greenish striped worm. Its work is to eat into the
young fruit.
A great, light green caterpillar is found on celery. This
caterpillar may be told by the black bands, one on each ring or segment of its
body.
The squash bug may be told by its brown body, which is long
and slender, and by the disagreeable odor from it when killed. The potato bug is
another fellow to look out for. It is a beetle with yellow and black stripes
down its crusty back. The little green cabbage worm is a perfect nuisance. It is
a small caterpillar and smaller than the tomato worm. These are perhaps the most
common of garden pests by name.
LANDSCAPE GARDENING.
Landscape gardening has often been likened to the painting
of a picture. Your art-work teacher has doubtless told you that a good picture
should have a point of chief interest, and the rest of the points simply go to
make more beautiful the central idea, or to form a fine setting for it. So in
landscape gardening there must be in the gardener's mind a picture of what he
desires the whole to be when he completes his work.
From this study we shall be able to work out a little
theory of landscape gardening.
Let us go to the lawn. A good extent of open lawn space is
always beautiful. It is restful. It adds a feeling of space to even small
grounds. So we might generalize and say that it is well to keep open lawn
spaces. If one covers his lawn space with many trees, with little flower beds
here and there, the general effect is choppy and fussy. It is a bit like an
over-dressed person. One's grounds lose all individuality thus treated. A single
tree or a small group is not a bad arrangement on the lawn. Do not center the
tree or trees. Let them drop a bit into the background. Make a pleasing side
feature of them. In choosing trees one must keep in mind a number of things. You
should not choose an overpowering tree; the tree should be one of good shape,
with something interesting about its bark, leaves, flowers or fruit. While the
poplar is a rapid grower, it sheds its leaves early and so is left standing,
bare and ugly, before the fall is old. Mind you, there are places where a row or
double row of Lombardy poplars is very effective. But I
think you'll agree with me that one lone poplar is not. The catalpa is quite
lovely by itself. Its leaves are broad, its flowers attractive, the seed pods
which cling to the tree until away into the winter, add a bit of picturesque
ness. The bright berries of the ash, the brilliant foliage of the sugar maple,
the blossoms of the tulip tree, the bark of the white birch, and the leaves of
the copper beech all these are beauty points to consider.
Place makes a difference in the selection of a tree.
Suppose the lower portion of the grounds is a bit low and moist, then the spot
is ideal for a willow. Don't group trees together which look awkward. A
long-looking poplar does not go with a nice rather rounded little tulip tree. A
juniper, so neat and prim, would look silly beside a spreading chestnut. One
must keep proportion and suitability in mind.
I'd never advise the planting of a group of evergreens
close to a house, and in the front yard. The effect is very gloomy indeed.
Houses thus surrounded are over capped by such trees and are not only gloomy to
live in, but truly unhealthful. The chief requisite inside a house is sunlight
and plenty of it.
As trees are chosen because of certain good points, so
shrubs should be. In a clump I should wish some which bloomed early, some which
bloomed late, some for the beauty of their fall foliage, some for the color of
their bark and others for the fruit. Some spireas and the forsythia bloom early.
The red bark of the dogwood makes a bit of color all winter, and the red berries
of the barberry cling to the shrub well into the winter.
Certain shrubs are
good to use for hedge purposes. A hedge is rather prettier usually than a fence.
The Californian privet is excellent for this purpose. Osage
orange, Japan
barberry, buckthorn, Japan
quince, and Van Houtte's spirea are other shrubs which make good hedges.
I forgot to say
that in tree and shrub selection it is usually better to choose those of the
locality one lives in. Unusual and foreign plants do less well, and often
harmonize but poorly with their new setting.
Landscape gardening may follow along very formal lines or
along informal lines. The first would have straight paths, straight rows in
stiff beds, everything, as the name tells, perfectly formal. The other method
is, of course, the exact opposite. There are danger points in each.
The formal arrangement is likely to look too stiff; the
informal, too fussy, too wiggly. As far as paths go, keep this in mind, that a
path should always lead somewhere. That is its business to direct one to a
definite place. Now, straight, even paths are not unpleasing if the effect is to
be that of a formal garden. The danger in the curved path is an abrupt curve, a
whirligig effect. It is far better for you to stick to straight paths unless you
can make a really beautiful curve. No one can tell you how to do this.
Garden paths may be of gravel, of dirt, or of grass. One
sees grass paths in some very lovely gardens. I doubt, however, if they would
serve as well in your small gardens. Your garden areas are so limited that they
should be re-spaded each season, and the grass paths are a great bother in this
work. Of course, a gravel path makes a fine appearance, but again you may not
have gravel at your command. It is possible for any of you to dig out the path
for two feet. Then put in six inches of stone or clinker. Over this, pack in the
dirt, rounding it slightly toward the center of the path. There should never be
depressions through the central part of paths, since these form convenient
places for water to stand. The under layer of stone makes a natural drainage
system.
A building often needs the help of vines or flowers or both
to tie it to the grounds in such a way as to form a harmonious whole. Vines lend
themselves well to this work. It is better to plant a perennial vine, and so let
it form a permanent part of your landscape scheme. The Virginia creeper,
wistaria, honeysuckle, a climbing rose, the clematis and trumpet vine are all
most satisfactory.
close your eyes and picture a house of natural color, that
mellow gray of the weathered shingles. Now add to this old house a purple
wistaria. Can you see the beauty of it? I shall not forget soon a rather ugly
corner of my childhood home, where the dining room and kitchen met. Just there
climbing over, and falling over a trellis was a trumpet vine. It made beautiful
an awkward angle, an ugly bit of carpenter work.
Of course, the morning-glory is an annual vine, as is the
moon-vine and wild cucumber. Now, these have their special function. For often,
it is necessary to cover an ugly thing for just a time, until the better
things and better times come. The annual is 'the chap' for this work.
Along an old fence a hop vine is a thing of beauty. One
might try to rival the woods' landscape work. For often one sees festooned from
one rotted tree to another the ampelopsis vine.
Flowers may well go along the side of the building, or
bordering a walk. In general, though, keep the front lawn space open and
unbroken by beds. What lovelier in early spring than a bed of daffodils close to
the house? Hyacinths and tulips, too, form a blaze of glory. These are little or
no bother, and start the spring aright. One may make of some bulbs an exception
to the rule of unbroken front lawn. Snowdrops and crocuses planted through the
lawn are beautiful. They do not disturb the general effect, but just blend with
the whole. One expert bulb gardener says to take a basketful of bulbs in the
fall, walk about your grounds, and just drop bulbs out here and there. Wherever
the bulbs drop, plant them. Such small bulbs as those we plant in lawns should
be in groups of four to six. Daffodils may be thus planted, too. You all
remember the grape hyacinths that grow all through Katharine's side yard.
The place for a flower garden is generally at the side or
rear of the house. The backyard garden is a lovely idea, is it not? Who wishes
to leave a beautiful looking front yard, turn the corner of a house, and find a
dump heap? Not I. The flower garden may be laid out formally in neat little
beds, or it may be more of a careless, hit-or-miss sort. Both have their good
points. Great masses of bloom are attractive.
You should have in mind some notion of the blending of
color. Nature appears not to consider this at all, and still gets wondrous
effects. This is because of the tremendous amount of her perfect background of
green, and the limitlessness of her space, while we are confined at the best to
relatively small areas. So we should endeavor not to blind people's eyes with
clashes of colors which do not at close range blend well. In order to break up
extremes of colors you can always use masses of white flowers, or something like
mignonette, which is in effect green.
Finally, let us sum
up our landscape lesson. The grounds are a setting for the house or buildings.
Open, free lawn spaces, a tree or a proper group well placed, flowers which do
not clutter up the front yard, groups of shrubbery these are points to be
remembered. The paths should lead somewhere, and be either straight or well
curved. If one starts with a formal garden, one should not mix the informal with
it before the work is done.
MAKING A GARDEN.
The first thing in garden making is the selection of a
spot. Without a choice, it means simply doing the best one can with conditions.
With space limited it resolves itself into no garden, or a box garden. Surely a
box garden is better than nothing at all.
But we will now suppose that it is possible to really
choose just the right site for the garden. What shall be chosen? The greatest
determining factor is the sun. No one would have a north corner, unless it were
absolutely forced upon him; because, while north corners do for ferns, certain
wild flowers, and begonias, they are of little use as spots for a general
garden.
If possible, choose the ideal spot a southern exposure.
Here the sun lies warm all day long. When the garden is thus located the rows of
vegetables and flowers should run north and south. Thus placed, the plants
receive the sun's rays all the morning on the eastern side, and all the
afternoon on the western side. One ought not to have any lopsided plants with
such an arrangement.
Suppose the garden faces southeast. In this case the
western sun is out of the problem. In order to get the best distribution of
sunlight run the rows northwest and southeast.
The idea is to get the most sunlight as evenly distributed
as possible for the longest period of time. From the lopsided growth of window
plants it is easy enough to see the effect on plants of poorly distributed
light. So if you use a little diagram remembering that you wish the sun to shine
part of the day on one side of the plants and part on the other, you can juggle
out any situation. The southern exposure gives the ideal case because the sun
gives half time nearly to each side. A northern exposure may mean an almost
entire cut-off from sunlight; while northeastern and southwestern places always
get uneven distribution of sun's rays, no matter how carefully this is planned.
The garden, if possible, should be planned out on paper.
The plan is a great help when the real planting time comes. It saves time and
unnecessary buying of seed.
New garden spots are likely to be found in two conditions:
they are covered either with turf or with rubbish. In large garden areas the
ground is ploughed and the sod turned under; but in small gardens remove the
sod. How to take off the sod in the best manner is the next question. Stake and
line off the garden spot. The line gives an accurate and straight course to
follow. Cut the edges with the spade all along the line. If the area is a small
one, say four feet by eighteen or twenty, this is an easy matter. Such a narrow
strip may be marked off like a checkerboard, the sod cut through with the spade,
and easily removed. This could be done in two long strips cut lengthwise of the
strip. When the turf is cut through, roll it right up like a roll of carpet.
But suppose the garden plot is large. Then divide this up
into strips a foot wide and take off the sod as before. What shall be done with
the sod? Do not throw it away for it is full of richness, although not quite in
available form. So pack the sod grass side down one square on another. Leave it
to rot and to weather. When rotted it makes a fine fertilizer. Such a pile of
rotting vegetable matter is called a compost pile. All through the summer add
any old green vegetable matter to this. In the fall put the autumn leaves on. A
fine lot of goodness is being fixed for another season.
Even when the garden is large enough to plough, I would
pick out the largest pieces of sod rather than have them turned under. Go over
the ploughed space, pick out the pieces of sod, shake them well and pack them up
in a compost heap.
Mere spading of the ground is not sufficient. The soil is
still left in lumps. Always as one spades one should break up the big lumps. But
even so the ground is in no shape for planting. Ground must be very fine indeed
to plant in, because seeds can get very close indeed to fine particles of soil.
But the large lumps leave large spaces which no tiny root hair can penetrate. A
seed is left stranded in a perfect waste when planted in chunks of soil. A baby
surrounded with great pieces of beefsteak would starve. A seed among large lumps
of soil is in a similar situation. The spade never can do this work of
pulverizing soil. But the rake can. That's the value of the rake. It is a great
lump breaker, but will not do for large lumps. If the soil still has large lumps
in it take the hoe.
Many people handle the hoe awkwardly. The chief work of
this implement is to rid the soil of weeds and stir up the top surface. It is
used in summer to form that mulch of dust so valuable in retaining moisture in
the soil. I often see people as if they were going to chop into atoms everything
around. Hoeing should never be such vigorous exercise as that. Spading is
vigorous, hard work, but not hoeing and raking.
After lumps are broken use the rake to make the bed fine
and smooth. Now the great piece of work is done.
PLANTING SEEDS.
Any reliable seed house can be depended upon for good
seeds; but even so, there is a great risk in seeds. A seed may to all
appearances be all right and yet not have within it vitality enough, or power,
to produce a hardy plant.
If you save seed from your own plants you are able to
choose carefully. Suppose you are saving seed of aster plants. What blossoms
shall you decide upon? Now it is not the blossom only which you must consider,
but the entire plant. Why? Because a weak, straggly plant may produce one fine
blossom. Looking at that one blossom so really beautiful you think of the
numberless equally lovely plants you are going to have from the seeds. But just
as likely as not the seeds will produce plants like the parent plant.
So in seed selection the entire plant is to be considered.
Is it sturdy, strong, well shaped and symmetrical; does it have a goodly number
of fine blossoms? These are questions to ask in seed selection.
If you should happen to have the opportunity to visit a
seedsman's garden, you will see here and there a blossom with a string tied
around it. These are blossoms chosen for seed. If you look at the whole plant
with care you will be able to see the points which the gardener held in mind
when he did his work of selection.
In seed selection
size is another point to hold in mind. Now we know no way of telling anything
about the plants from which this special collection of seeds came. So we must
give our entire thought to the seeds themselves. It is quite evident that there
is some choice; some are much larger than the others; some far plumper, too. By
all means choose the largest and fullest seed. The reason is this: When you
break open a bean and this is very evident, too, in the peanut you see what
appears to be a little plant. So it is. Under just the right conditions for
development this 'little chap' grows into the bean plant you know so well.
This little plant must depend for its early growth on the
nourishment stored up in the two halves of the bean seed. For this purpose the
food is stored. Beans are not full of food and goodness for you and me to eat,
but for the little baby bean plant to feed upon. And so if we choose a large
seed, we have chosen a greater amount of food for the plantlet. This little
plantlet feeds upon this stored food until its roots are prepared to do their
work. So if the seed is small and thin, the first food supply insufficient,
there is a possibility of losing the little plant.
You may care to know the name of this pantry of food. It is
called a cotyledon if there is but one portion, cotyledons if two. Thus we are
aided in the classification of plants. A few plants that bear cones like the
pines have several cotyledons. But most plants have either one or two
cotyledons.
From large seeds
come the strongest plantlets. That is the reason why it is better and safer to
choose the large seed. It is the same case exactly as that of weak children.
There is often another trouble in seeds that we buy. The
trouble is impurity. Seeds are sometimes mixed with other seeds so like them in
appearance that it is impossible to detect the fraud. Pretty poor business, is
it not? The seeds may be unclean. Bits of foreign matter in with large seed are
very easy to discover. One can merely pick the seed over and make it clean. By
clean is meant freedom from foreign matter. But if small seed are unclean, it is
very difficult, well nigh impossible, to make them clean.
The third thing to look out for in seed is viability. We
know from our testings that seeds which look to the eye to be all right may not
develop at all. There are reasons. Seeds may have been picked before they were
ripe or mature; they may have been frozen; and they may be too old. Seeds retain
their viability or germ developing power, a given number of years and are then
useless. There is a viability limit in years which differs for different seeds.
From the test of seeds we find out the germination
percentage of seeds. Now if this percentage is low, don't waste time planting
such seed unless it be small seed. Immediately you question that statement. Why
does the size of the seed make a difference? This is the reason. When small seed
is planted it is usually sown in drills. Most amateurs sprinkle the seed in very
thickly. So a great quantity of seed is planted. And enough seed germinates and
comes up from such close planting. So quantity makes up for quality.
But take the case of large seed, like corn for example.
Corn is planted just so far apart and a few seeds in a place. With such a method
of planting the matter of per cent, of germination is most important indeed.
Small seeds that germinate at fifty per cent. may be used
but this is too low a per cent. for the large seed. Suppose we test beans. The
percentage is seventy. If low-vitality seeds were planted, we could not be
absolutely certain of the seventy per cent coming up. But if the seeds are
lettuce go ahead with the planting.
REQUISITES
OF THE HOME
VEGETABLE
GARDEN.
In deciding upon the site for the home vegetable garden it
is well to dispose once and for all of the old idea that the garden "patch" must
be an ugly spot in the home surroundings. If thoughtfully planned, carefully
planted and thoroughly cared for, it may be made a beautiful and harmonious
feature of the general scheme, lending a touch of comfortable homeliness that no
shrubs, borders, or beds can ever produce.
With this fact in mind we will not feel restricted to any
part of the premises merely because it is out of sight behind the barn or
garage. In the average moderate-sized place there will not be much choice as to
land. It will be necessary to take what is to be had and then do the very best
that can be done with it. But there will probably be a good deal of choice as
to, first, exposure, and second, convenience. Other things being equal, select a
spot near at hand, easy of access. It may seem that a difference of only a few
hundred yards will mean nothing, but if one is depending largely upon spare
moments for working in and for watching the garden and in the growing of many
vegetables the latter is almost as important as the former this matter of
convenient access will be of much greater importance than is likely to be at
first recognized. Not until you have had to make a dozen time-wasting trips for
forgotten seeds or tools, or gotten your feet soaking wet by going out through
the dew-drenched grass, will you realize fully what this may mean.
Exposure.
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But the thing of first importance to consider in picking
out the spot that is to yield you happiness and delicious vegetables all summer,
or even for many years, is the exposure. Pick out the "earliest" spot you can
find a plot sloping a little to the south or east, that seems to catch sunshine
early and hold it late, and that seems to be out of the direct path of the
chilling north and northeast winds. If a building, or even an old fence,
protects it from this direction, your garden will be helped along wonderfully,
for an early start is a great big factor toward success. If it is not already
protected, a board fence, or a hedge of some low-growing shrubs or young
evergreens, will add very greatly to its usefulness. The importance of having
such a protection or shelter is altogether underestimated by the amateur.
The soil.
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The chances are that you will not find a spot of ideal
garden soil ready for use anywhere upon your place. But all except the very
worst of soils can be brought up to a very high degree of productiveness
especially such small areas as home vegetable gardens require. Large
tracts of soil that are almost pure sand, and others so heavy and mucky that for
centuries they lay uncultivated, have frequently been brought, in the course of
only a few years, to where they yield annually tremendous crops on a commercial
basis. So do not be discouraged about your soil. Proper treatment of it is much
more important, and a garden- patch of average run-down, or "never-brought-up"
soil will produce much more for the energetic and careful gardener than the
richest spot will grow under average methods of cultivation.
The ideal garden soil is a "rich, sandy loam." And the fact
cannot be overemphasized that such soils usually are made, not found. Let us
analyze that description a bit, for right here we come to the first of the four
all-important factors of gardening food. The others are cultivation, moisture
and temperature. "Rich" in the gardener's vocabulary means full of plant food;
more than that and this is a point of vital importance it means full of plant
food ready to be used at once, all prepared and spread out on the garden table,
or rather in it, where growing things can at once make use of it; or what we
term, in one word, "available" plant food. Practically no soils in long-
inhabited communities remain naturally rich enough to produce big crops. They
are made rich, or kept rich, in two ways; first, by cultivation, which helps to
change the raw plant food stored in the soil into available forms; and second,
by manuring or adding plant food to the soil from outside sources.
"Sandy" in the
sense here used, means a soil containing enough particles of sand so that water
will pass through it without leaving it pasty and sticky a few days after a
rain; "light" enough, as it is called, so that a handful, under ordinary
conditions, will crumble and fall apart readily after being pressed in the hand.
It is not necessary that the soil be sandy in appearance, but it should be
friable.
"Loam: a rich, friable soil," says Webster. That hardly
covers it, but it does describe it. It is soil in which the sand and clay are in
proper proportions, so that neither greatly predominate, and usually dark in
color, from cultivation and enrichment. Such a soil, even to the untrained eye,
just naturally looks as if it would grow things. It is remarkable how quickly
the whole physical appearance of a piece of well cultivated ground will change.
An instance came under my notice last fall in one of my fields, where a strip
containing an acre had been two years in onions, and a little piece jutting off
from the middle of this had been prepared for them just one season. The rest had
not received any extra manuring or cultivation. When the field was plowed up in
the fall, all three sections were as distinctly noticeable as though separated
by a fence. And I know that next spring's crop of rye, before it is plowed
under, will show the lines of demarcation just as plainly.
THE CULTIVATION OF VEGETABLES.
Before taking up the garden vegetables individually, I
shall outline the general practice of cultivation, which applies to all.
The purposes of cultivation are three to get rid of weeds,
and to stimulate growth by (1) letting air into the soil and freeing unavailable
plant food, and (2) by conserving moisture.
As to weeds, the gardener of any experience need not be
told the importance of keeping his crops clean. He has learned from bitter and
costly experience the price of letting them get anything resembling a start. He
knows that one or two days' growth, after they are well up, followed perhaps by
a day or so of rain, may easily double or treble the work of cleaning a patch of
onions or carrots, and that where weeds have attained any size they cannot be
taken out of sowed crops without doing a great deal of injury. He also realizes,
or should, that every day's growth means just so much available plant food
stolen from under the very roots of his legitimate crops.
Instead of letting the weeds get away with any plant food,
he should be furnishing more, for clean and frequent cultivation will not only
break the soil up mechanically, but let in air, moisture and heat all essential
in effecting those chemical changes necessary to convert non- available into
available plant food. Long before the science in the case was discovered, the
soil cultivators had learned by observation the necessity of keeping the soil
nicely loosened about their growing crops. Even the lanky and untutored
aborigine saw to it that his squaw not only put a bad fish under the hill of
maize but plied her shell hoe over it. Plants need to breathe. Their roots need
air. You might as well expect to find the rosy glow of happiness on the wan
cheeks of a cotton-mill child slave as to expect to see the luxuriant dark green
of healthy plant life in a suffocated garden.
Important as the question of air is, that of
water ranks beside it. You
may not see at first what the matter of frequent cultivation has to do with
water. But let us stop a moment and look into it. Take a strip of blotting
paper, dip one end in water, and watch the moisture run up hill, soak up through
the blotter. The scientists have labeled that "capillary attraction" the water
crawls up little invisible tubes formed by the texture of the blotter. Now take
a similar piece, cut it across, hold the two cut edges firmly together, and try
it again. The moisture refuses to cross the line: the connection has been
severed.
In the same way the water stored in the soil after a rain
begins at once to escape again into the atmosphere. That on the surface
evaporates first, and that which has soaked in begins to soak in through the
soil to the surface. It is leaving your garden, through the millions of soil
tubes, just as surely as if you had a two-inch pipe and a gasoline engine,
pumping it into the gutter night and day! Save your garden by stopping the
waste. It is the easiest thing in the world to do cut the pipe in two. By
frequent cultivation of the surface soil not more than one or two inches deep
for most small vegetables the soil tubes are kept broken, and a mulch of dust is
maintained. Try to get over every part of your garden, especially where it is
not shaded, once in every ten days or two weeks. Does that seem like too much
work? You can push your wheel hoe through, and thus keep the dust mulch as a
constant protection, as fast as you can walk. If you wait for the weeds, you
will nearly have to crawl through, doing more or less harm by disturbing your
growing plants, losing all the plant food (and they will take the cream) which
they have consumed, and actually putting in more hours of infinitely more
disagreeable work. If the beginner at gardening has not been convinced by the
facts given, there is only one thing left to convince him experience.
Having given so much space to the
reason for constant care in
this matter, the question of methods naturally follows. Get a wheel hoe. The
simplest sorts will not only save you an infinite amount of time and work, but
do the work better, very much better than it can be done by hand. You
can grow good vegetables,
especially if your garden is a very small one, without one of these
labor-savers, but I can assure you that you will never regret the small
investment necessary to procure it.
With a wheel hoe, the work of preserving the soil mulch
becomes very simple. If one has not a wheel hoe, for small areas very rapid work
can be done with the scuffle hoe.
The matter of keeping weeds cleaned out of the rows and
between the plants in the rows is not so quickly accomplished. Where hand-work
is necessary, let it be done at once. Here are a few practical suggestions that
will reduce this work to a minimum, (1) Get at this work while the ground is
soft; as soon as the soil begins to dry out after a rain is the best time. Under
such conditions the weeds will pull out by the roots, without breaking off. (2)
Immediately before weeding, go over the rows with a wheel hoe, cutting shallow,
but just as close as possible, leaving a narrow, plainly visible strip which
must be hand- weeded. The best tool for this purpose is the double wheel hoe
with disc attachment, or hoes for large plants. (3) See to it that not only the
weeds are pulled but that every
inch of soil surface is broken up.
It is fully as important that the weeds just sprouting be destroyed, as that the
larger ones be pulled up. One stroke of the weeder or the fingers will destroy a
hundred weed seedlings in less time than one weed can be pulled out after it
gets a good start. (4) Use one of the small hand-weeders until you become
skilled with it. Not only may more work be done but the fingers will be saved
unnecessary wear.
The skilful use of the wheel hoe can be acquired through
practice only. The first thing to learn is that it is necessary to watch
the wheels only: the blades,
disc or rakes will take care of themselves.
The operation of "hilling" consists in drawing up the soil
about the stems of growing plants, usually at the time of second or third
hoeing. It used to be the practice to hill everything that could be hilled "up
to the eyebrows," but it has gradually been discarded for what is termed "level
culture"; and you will readily see the reason, from what has been said about the
escape of moisture from the surface of the soil; for of course the two upper
sides of the hill, which may be represented by an equilateral triangle with one
side horizontal, give more exposed surface than the level surface represented by
the base. In wet soils or seasons hilling may be advisable, but very seldom
otherwise. It has the additional disadvantage of making it difficult to maintain
the soil mulch which is so desirable.
Rotation of crops.
------------------
There is another thing to be considered in making each
vegetable do its best, and that is crop rotation, or the following of any
vegetable with a different sort at the next planting.
With some vegetables, such as cabbage, this is almost
imperative, and practically all are helped by it. Even onions, which are
popularly supposed to be the proving exception to the rule, are healthier, and
do as well after some other crop,
provided the soil is as finely
pulverized and rich as a previous crop of onions would leave it.
Here are the fundamental rules of crop rotation:
(1) Crops of the same vegetable, or vegetables of the same
family (such as turnips and cabbage) should not follow each other.
(2) Vegetables that feed near the surface, like corn,
should follow deep-rooting crops.
(3) Vines or leaf crops should follow root crops.
(4) Quick-growing crops should follow those occupying the
land all season.
These are the principles which should determine the
rotations to be followed in individual cases. The proper way to attend to this
matter is when making the planting plan. You will then have time to do it
properly, and will need to give it no further thought for a year.
With the above suggestions in mind, and
put to use , it will not be difficult to give the crops those special
attentions which are needed to make them do their very best.
THE GENESIS OF SOIL.
Soil primarily had its beginning from rock together with
animal and vegetable decay, if you can imagine long stretches or periods of time
when great rock masses were crumbling and breaking up. Heat, water action, and
friction were largely responsible for this. By friction here is meant the
rubbing and grinding of rock mass against rock mass. Think of the huge rocks, a
perfect chaos of them, bumping, scraping, settling against one another. What
would be the result? Well, I am sure you all could work that out. This is what
happened: bits of rock were worn off, a great deal of heat was produced, pieces
of rock were pressed together to form new rock masses, some portions becoming
dissolved in water. Why, I myself, almost feel the stress and strain of it all.
Can you?
Then, too, there were great changes in temperature. First
everything was heated to a high temperature, then gradually became cool. Just
think of the cracking, the crumbling, the upheavals, that such changes must have
caused! You know some of the effects in winter of sudden freezes and thaws. But
the little examples of bursting water pipes and broken pitchers are as nothing
to what was happening in the world during those days. The water and the gases in
the atmosphere helped along this crumbling work.
From all this action of rubbing, which action we call
mechanical, it is easy enough to understand how sand was formed. This represents
one of the great divisions of soil sandy soil. The sea shores are great masses
of pure sand. If soil were nothing but broken rock masses then indeed it would
be very poor and unproductive. But the early forms of animal and vegetable life
decaying became a part of the rock mass and a better soil resulted. So the soils
we speak of as sandy soils have mixed with the sand other matter, sometimes
clay, sometimes vegetable matter or humus, and often animal waste.
Clay brings us right to another class of soils clayey
soils. It happens that certain portions of rock masses became dissolved when
water trickled over them and heat was plenty and abundant. This dissolution took
place largely because there is in the air a certain gas called carbon dioxide or
carbonic acid gas. This gas attacks and changes certain substances in rocks.
Sometimes you see great rocks with portions sticking up looking as if they had
been eaten away. Carbonic acid did this. It changed this eaten part into
something else which we call clay. A change like this is not mechanical but
chemical. The difference in the two kinds of change is just this: in the one
case of sand, where a mechanical change went on, you still have just what you
started with, save that the size of the mass is smaller. You started with a big
rock, and ended with little particles of sand. But you had no different kind of
rock in the end. Mechanical action might be illustrated with a piece of lump
sugar. Let the sugar represent a big mass of rock. Break up the sugar, and even
the smallest bit is sugar. It is just so with the rock mass; but in the case of
a chemical change you start with one thing and end with another. You started
with a big mass of rock which had in it a portion that became changed by the
acid acting on it. It ended in being an entirely different thing which we call
clay. So in the case of chemical change a certain something is started with and
in the end we have an entirely different thing. The clay soils are often called
mud soils because of the amount of water used in their formation.
The third sort of soil which we farm people have to deal
with is lime soil. Remember we are thinking of soils from the farm point of
view. This soil of course ordinarily was formed from limestone. Just as soon as
one thing is mentioned about which we know nothing, another comes up of which we
are just as ignorant. And so a whole chain of questions follows. Now you are
probably saying within yourselves, how was limestone first formed?
At one time ages ago the lower animal and plant forms
picked from the water particles of lime. With the lime they formed skeletons or
houses about themselves as protection from larger animals. Coral is
representative of this class of skeleton-forming animal.
As the animal died the skeleton remained. Great masses of
this living matter pressed all together, after ages, formed limestone. Some
limestones are still in such shape that the shelly formation is still visible.
Marble, another limestone, is somewhat crystalline in character. Another
well-known limestone is chalk. Perhaps you'd like to know a way of always being
able to tell limestone. Drop a little of this acid on some lime. See how it
bubbles and fizzles. Then drop some on this chalk and on the marble, too. The
same bubbling takes place. So lime must be in these three structures. One does
not have to buy a special acid for this work, for even the household acids like
vinegar will cause the same result.
Then these are the three types of soil with which the
farmer has to deal, and which we wish to understand. For one may learn to know
his garden soil by studying it, just as one learns a lesson by study.
VEGETABLE CULTURE.
As a rule, we choose to grow bush beans rather than pole
beans. I cannot make up my mind whether or not this is from sheer laziness. In a
city backyard the tall varieties might perhaps be a problem since it would be
difficult to get poles. But these running beans can be trained along old fences
and with little urging will run up the stalks of the tallest sunflowers. So that
settles the pole question. There is an ornamental side to the bean question.
Suppose you plant these tall beans at the extreme rear end of each vegetable
row. Make arches with supple tree limbs, binding them over to form the arch.
Train the beans over these. When one stands facing the garden, what a beautiful
terminus these bean arches make.
Beans like rich, warm, sandy soil. In order to assist the
soil be sure to dig deeply, and work it over thoroughly for bean culture. It
never does to plant beans before the world has warmed up from its spring chills.
There is another advantage in early digging of soil. It brings to the surface
eggs and larvae of insects. The birds eager for food will even follow the plough
to pick from the soil these choice morsels. A little lime worked in with the
soil is helpful in the cultivation of beans.
Bush beans are planted in drills about eighteen inches
apart, while the pole-bean rows should be three feet apart. The drills for the
bush limas should be further apart than those for the other dwarf beans say
three feet. This amount of space gives opportunity for cultivation with the hoe.
If the running beans climb too high just pinch off the growing extreme end, and
this will hold back the upward growth.
Among bush beans are the dwarf, snap or string beans, the
wax beans, the bush limas, one variety of which is known as brittle beans. Among
the pole beans are the pole limas, wax and scarlet runner. The scarlet runner is
a beauty for decorative effects. The flowers are scarlet and are fine against an
old fence. These are quite lovely in the flower garden. Where one wishes a vine,
this is good to plant for one gets both a vegetable, bright flowers and a screen
from the one plant. When planting beans put the bean in the soil edgewise with
the eye down.
Beets like rich, sandy loam, also. Fresh manure worked into
the soil is fatal for beets, as it is for many another crop. But we will suppose
that nothing is available but fresh manure. Some gardeners say to work this into
the soil with great care and thoroughness. But even so, there is danger of a
particle of it getting next to a tender beet root. The following can be done;
Dig a trench about a foot deep, spread a thin layer of manure in this, cover it
with soil, and plant above this. By the time the main root strikes down to the
manure layer, there will be little harm done. Beets should not be transplanted.
If the rows are one foot apart there is ample space for cultivation. Whenever
the weather is really settled, then these seeds may be planted. Young beet tops
make fine greens. Greater care should be taken in handling beets than usually is
shown. When beets are to be boiled, if the tip of the root and the tops are cut
off, the beet bleeds. This means a loss of good material. Pinching off such
parts with the fingers and doing this not too closely to the beet itself is the
proper method of handling.
There are big coarse members of the beet and cabbage
families called the mangel wurzel and ruta baga. About here these are raised to
feed to the cattle. They are a great addition to a cow's dinner.
The cabbage family is a large one. There is the cabbage
proper, then cauliflower, broccoli or a more hardy cauliflower, kale, Brussels
sprouts and kohlrabi, a cabbage-turnip combination.
Cauliflower is a kind of refined, high-toned cabbage
relative. It needs a little richer soil than cabbage and cannot stand the frost.
A frequent watering with manure water gives it the extra richness and water it
really needs. The outer leaves must be bent over, as in the case of the young
cabbage, in order to get the white head. The dwarf varieties are rather the best
to plant.
Kale is not quite so particular a cousin. It can stand
frost. Rich soil is necessary, and early spring planting, because of slow
maturing. It may be planted in September for early spring work.
Brussels sprouts are a very popular member of this family.
On account of their size many people who do not like to serve poor, common old
cabbage will serve these. Brussels sprouts are interesting in their growth. The
plant stalk runs skyward. At the top, umbrella like, is a close head of leaves,
but this is not what we eat. Shaded by the umbrella and packed all along the
stalk are delicious little cabbages or sprouts. Like the rest of the family a
rich soil is needed and plenty of water during the growing period. The seed
should be planted in May, and the little plants transplanted into rich soil in
late July. The rows should be eighteen inches apart, and the plants one foot
apart in the rows.
Kohlrabi is a go-between in the families of cabbage and
turnip. It is sometimes called the turnip-root cabbage. Just above the ground
the stem of this plant swells into a turnip-like vegetable. In the true turnip
the swelling is underground, but like the cabbage, kohlrabi forms its edible
part above ground. It is easy to grow. Only it should develop rapidly, otherwise
the swelling gets woody, and so loses its good quality. Sow out as early as
possible; or sow inside in March and transplant to the open. Plant in drills
about two feet apart. Set the plants about one foot apart, or thin out to this
distance. To plant one hundred feet of drill buy half an ounce of seed. Seed
goes a long way, you see. Kohlrabi is served and prepared like turnip. It is a
very satisfactory early crop.
Before leaving the cabbage family I should like to say that
the cabbage called Savoy is an
excellent variety to try. It should always have an early planting under cover,
say in February, and then be transplanted into open beds in March or April. If
the land is poor where you are to grow cabbage, then by all means choose
Savoy.
Carrots are of two general kinds: those with long roots,
and those with short roots. If long-rooted varieties are chosen, then the soil
must be worked down to a depth of eighteen inches, surely. The shorter ones will
do well in eight inches of well-worked sandy soil. Do not put carrot seed into
freshly manured land. Another point in carrot culture is one concerning the
thinning process. As the little seedlings come up you will doubtless find that
they are much, much too close together. Wait a bit, thin a little at a time, so
that young, tiny carrots may be used on the home table. These are the points to
jot down about the culture of carrots.
The cucumber is the next vegetable in the line. This is a
plant from foreign lands. Some think that the cucumber is really a native of
India. A light, sandy and rich soil is needed I
mean rich in the sense of richness in organic matter. When cucumbers are grown
outdoors, as we are likely to grow them, they are planted in hills. Nowadays,
they are grown in hothouses; they hang from the roof, and are a wonderful sight.
In the greenhouse a hive of bees is kept so that cross-fertilization may go on.
But if you intend to raise cucumbers follow these
directions: Sow the seed inside, cover with one inch of rich soil. In a little
space of six inches diameter, plant six seeds. Place like a bean seed with the
germinating end in the soil. When all danger of frost is over, each set of six
little plants, soil and all, should be planted in the open. Later, when danger
of insect pests is over, thin out to three plants in a hill. The hills should be
about four feet apart on all sides.
Before the time of Christ, lettuce was grown and served.
There is a wild lettuce from which the cultivated probably came. There are a
number of cultivated vegetables which have wild ancestors, carrots, turnips and
lettuce being the most common among them. Lettuce may be tucked into the garden
almost anywhere. It is surely one of the most decorative of vegetables. The
compact head, the green of the leaves, the beauty of symmetry all these are
charming characteristics of lettuces.
As the summer advances and as the early sowings of lettuce
get old they tend to go to seed. Don't let them. Pull them up. None of us are
likely to go into the seed-producing side of lettuce. What we are interested in
is the raising of tender lettuce all the season. To have such lettuce in mid and
late summer is possible only by frequent plantings of seed. If seed is planted
every ten days or two weeks all summer, you can have tender lettuce all the
season. When lettuce gets old it becomes bitter and tough.
Melons are most interesting to experiment with. We suppose
that melons originally came from Asia, and parts of
Africa. Melons are a summer fruit. Over in
England
we find the muskmelons often grown under glass in hothouses. The vines are
trained upward rather than allowed to lie prone. As the melons grow large in the
hot, dry atmosphere, just the sort which is right for their growth, they become
too heavy for the vine to hold up. So they are held by little bags of netting,
just like a tennis net in size of mesh. The bags are supported on nails or pegs.
It is a very pretty sight I can assure you. Over here usually we raise our
melons outdoors. They are planted in hills. Eight seeds are placed two inches
apart and an inch deep. The hills should have a four foot sweep on all sides;
the watermelon hills ought to have an allowance of eight to ten feet. Make the
soil for these hills very rich. As the little plants get sizeable say about four
inches in height reduce the number of plants to two in a hill. Always in such
work choose the very sturdiest plants to keep. Cut the others down close to or a
little below the surface of the ground. Pulling up plants is a shocking way to
get rid of them. I say shocking because the pull is likely to disturb the roots
of the two remaining plants. When the melon plant has reached a length of a
foot, pinch off the end of it. This pinch means this to the plant: just stop
growing long, take time now to grow branches. Sand or lime sprinkled about the
hills tends to keep bugs away.
The word pumpkin stands for good, old-fashioned pies, for
Thanksgiving, for grandmother's house. It really brings more to mind than the
word squash. I suppose the squash is a bit more useful, when we think of the
fine Hubbard, and the nice little crooked-necked summer squashes; but after all,
I like to have more pumpkins. And as for Jack-o'-lanterns why they positively
demand pumpkins. In planting these, the same general directions hold good which
were given for melons. And use these same for squash-planting, too. But do not
plant the two cousins together, for they have a tendency to run together. Plant
the pumpkins in between the hills of corn and let the squashes go in some other
part of the garden.
WILD-FLOWER
GARDEN.
A wild-flower garden has a most attractive sound. One
thinks of long tramps in the woods, collecting material, and then of the fun in
fixing up a real for sure wild garden.
Many people say they have no luck at all with such a
garden. It is not a question of luck, but a question of understanding, for wild
flowers are like people and each has its personality. What a plant has been
accustomed to in Nature it desires always. In fact, when removed from its own
sort of living conditions, it sickens and dies. That is enough to tell us that
we should copy Nature herself. Suppose you are hunting wild flowers. As you
choose certain flowers from the woods, notice the soil they are in, the place,
conditions, the surroundings, and the neighbors.
Suppose you find dog-tooth violets and wind-flowers growing
near together. Then place them so in your own new garden. Suppose you find a
certain violet enjoying an open situation; then it should always have the same.
You see the point, do you not? If you wish wild flowers to grow in a tame garden
make them feel at home. Cheat them into almost believing that they are still in
their native haunts.
Wild flowers ought to be transplanted after blossoming time
is over. Take a trowel and a basket into the woods with you. As you take up a
few, a columbine, or a hepatica, be sure to take with the roots some of the
plant's own soil, which must be packed about it when replanted.
The bed into which these plants are to go should be
prepared carefully before this trip of yours. Surely you do not wish to bring
those plants back to wait over a day or night before planting. They should go
into new quarters at once. The bed needs soil from the woods, deep and rich and
full of leaf mold. The under drainage system should be excellent. Then plants
are not to go into water-logged ground. Some people think that all wood plants
should have a soil saturated with water. But the woods themselves are not
water-logged. It may be that you will need to dig your garden up very deeply and
put some stone in the bottom. Over this the top soil should go. And on top,
where the top soil once was, put a new layer of the rich soil you brought from
the woods.
Before planting water the soil well. Then as you make
places for the plants put into each hole some of the soil which belongs to the
plant which is to be put there.
I think it would be a rather nice plan to have a
wild-flower garden giving a succession of bloom from early spring to late fall;
so let us start off with March, the hepatica, spring beauty and saxifrage. Then
comes April bearing in its arms the beautiful columbine, the tiny bluets and
wild geranium. For May there are the dog-tooth violet and the wood anemone,
false Solomon's seal, Jack-in-the-pulpit, wake robin, bloodroot and violets.
June will give the bellflower, mullein, bee balm and foxglove. I would choose
the gay butterfly weed for July. Let turtle head, aster, Joe Pye weed, and Queen
Anne's lace make the rest of the season brilliant until frost.
Let us have a bit about the likes and dislikes of these
plants. After you are once started you'll keep on adding to this wild-flower
list.
There is no one who doesn't love the hepatica. Before the
spring has really decided to come, this little flower pokes its head up and puts
all else to shame. Tucked under a covering of dry leaves the blossoms wait for a
ray of warm sunshine to bring them out. These embryo flowers are further
protected by a fuzzy covering. This reminds one of a similar protective covering
which new fern leaves have. In the spring a hepatica plant wastes no time on
getting a new suit of leaves. It makes its old ones do until the blossom has had
its day. Then the new leaves, started to be sure before this, have a chance.
These delayed, are ready to help out next season. You will find hepaticas
growing in clusters, sort of family groups. They are likely to be found in
rather open places in the woods. The soil is found to be rich and loose. So
these should go only in partly shaded places and under good soil conditions. If
planted with other woods specimens give them the benefit of a rather exposed
position, that they may catch the early spring sunshine. I should cover
hepaticas over with a light litter of leaves in the fall. During the last days
of February, unless the weather is extreme take this leaf covering away. You'll
find the hepatica blossoms all ready to poke up their heads.
The spring beauty hardly allows the hepatica to get ahead
of her. With a white flower which has dainty tracings of pink, a thin, wiry
stem, and narrow, grass-like leaves, this spring flower cannot be mistaken. You
will find spring beauties growing in great patches in rather open places. Plant
a number of the roots and allow the sun good opportunity to get at them. For
this plant loves the sun.
The other March flower mentioned is the saxifrage. This
belongs in quite a different sort of environment. It is a plant which grows in
dry and rocky places. Often one will find it in chinks of rock. There is an old
tale to the effect that the saxifrage roots twine about rocks and work their way
into them so that the rock itself splits. Anyway, it is a rock garden plant. I
have found it in dry, sandy places right on the borders of a big rock. It has
white flower clusters borne on hairy stems.
The columbine is another plant that is quite likely to be
found in rocky places. Standing below a ledge and looking up, one sees nestled
here and there in rocky crevices one plant or more of columbine. The nodding red
heads bob on wiry, slender stems. The roots do not strike deeply into the soil;
in fact, often the soil hardly covers them. Now, just because the columbine has
little soil, it does not signify that it is indifferent to the soil conditions.
For it always has lived, and always should live, under good drainage conditions.
I wonder if it has struck you, how really hygienic plants are? Plenty of fresh
air, proper drainage, and good food are fundamentals with plants.
It is evident from study of these plants how easy it is to
find out what plants like. After studying their feelings, then do not make the
mistake of huddling them all together under poor drainage conditions.
I always have a feeling of personal affection for the
bluets. When they come I always feel that now things are beginning to settle
down outdoors. They start with rich, lovely, little delicate blue blossoms. As
June gets hotter and hotter their color fades a bit, until at times they look
quite worn and white. Some people call them Quaker ladies, others innocence.
Under any name they are charming. They grow in colonies, sometimes in sunny
fields, sometimes by the road-side. From this we learn that they are more
particular about the open sunlight than about the soil.
If you desire a flower to pick and use for bouquets, then
the wild geranium is not your flower. It droops very quickly after picking and
almost immediately drops its petals. But the purplish flowers are showy, and the
leaves, while rather coarse, are deeply cut. This latter effect gives a certain
boldness to the plant that is rather attractive. The plant is found in rather
moist, partly shaded portions of the woods. I like this plant in the garden. It
adds good color and permanent color as long as blooming time lasts, since there
is no object in picking it.
There are numbers and numbers of wild flowers I might have
suggested. These I have mentioned were not given for the purpose of a flower
guide, but with just one end in view your understanding of how to study soil
conditions for the work of starting a wild-flower garden.
If you fear results, take but one or two flowers and study
just what you select. Having mastered, or better, become acquainted with a few,
add more another year to your garden. I think you will love your wild garden
best of all before you are through with it. It is a real study, you see.
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