SPRING WORK IN THE GARDEN

Not much actual work can be done in the garden, at the north, before the middle of April. But a good deal can be done toward getting ready for active work as soon as conditions become favorable.

Right here let me say that it is a most excellent plan to do all that can be done to advantage as early in the season as possible, for the reason that when the weather becomes warm, work will come with a rush, and in the hurry of it quite likely some of it will be slighted. Always aim to keep ahead of your work.

I believe, as I have several times said, in planning things. Your garden may be small--so small that you do not think it worth while to give much consideration to it in the way of making plans for it--but it will pay you to think over the arrangement of it in advance. "Making garden"

doesn't consist simply in spading up a bed, and putting seed into the ground. Thought should be given to the location and arrangement of each kind of flower you make use of. The haphazard location of any plant is likely to do it injustice, and the whole garden suffers in consequence.

Make a mental picture of your garden as you would like to have it, and then take an inventory of the material you have to work with, and see how near you can come to the garden you have in mind. Try to find the proper place for every flower. Study up on habit, and color, and season of bloom, and you will not be likely to get things into the wrong place as you will be almost sure to do if you do not give considerable thought to this matter. There should be orderliness and system in the garden as well as in the house, and this can only come by knowing your plants, and so locating them that each one of them will have the opportunity of making the most of itself.

Beds can be spaded as soon as the frost is out of the ground, as advised in the chapter on The Garden of Annuals, but, as was said in that chapter, it is not advisable to do more with them at that time. If the ground is worked over when wet, the only result is that you get a good many small clods to take the place of large ones. Nothing is gained by being in a hurry with this part of the work. Pulverization of the soil can only be accomplished successfully after it has parted with the excessive moisture consequent on melting snows and spring rains.

Therefore let it lie as thrown up by the spade until it is in a condition to crumble readily under the application of hoe or rake.

Shrubs can be reset as soon as frost is out of the ground. Remove all defective roots when this is done. Make the soil in which you plant them quite rich, and follow the instruction given in the chapter on Shrubs as carefully as possible, in the work of resetting.

If any changes are to be made in the border, plan for them now. Decide just what you want to do. Don't allow any guesswork about it. If you "think out" these things the home grounds will improve year by year, and you will have a place to be proud of. But the planless system which so many follow never gives satisfactory results. It gives one the impression of something that started for somewhere but never arrived at its destination.

Old border plants which have received little or no attention for years will be greatly benefited by transplanting at this season. Cut away all the older roots, and make use of none that are not strong and healthy.

Give them a rich soil. Most of them will have renewed themselves by midsummer.

If you do not care to take up the old plants, cut about them with a sharp knife, and remove as many of the old roots as possible. This is often almost as effective as transplanting, and it does not involve as much labor.

The lawn should be given attention at this season. Rake off all unsightly refuse that may have collected on it during winter. Give it an application of some good fertilizer. It is quite important that this should be done early in the season, as gra.s.s begins to grow almost as soon as frost is out of the ground, and the sward should have something to feed on as soon as it is ready for work.

Go over all the shrubs and see if any need attention in the way of pruning. But don't touch them with the pruning knife unless they really need it. Cut out old wood and weak branches, if there are any, and thin, if too thick, but leave the bush to train itself. It knows more about this than you do!

Get racks and trellises ready for summer use. These are generally made on the spur of the moment, out of whatever material comes handiest at the time they are needed. Such hurriedly constructed things are pretty sure to prove eyesores. The gardener who takes pride in his work and his garden will not be satisfied with makeshifts, but will see that whatever is needed, along this line, is well made, and looks so well that he has no reason to be ashamed of it. It should be painted a dark green or some other neutral color.

Rake the mulch away from the plants that were given protection in fall as soon as the weather gets warm enough to start them to growing. Or it can be dug into the soil about them to act as a fertilizer. Get it out of sight, for it always gives the garden an untidy effect if left about the plants.

Go over the border plants and uproot all gra.s.s that has secured a foothold there. A s.p.a.ce of a foot should be left about all shrubs and perennials in which nothing should be allowed to grow.

If any plants seem out of place, take them up and put them where they belong. If you cannot find a place where they seem to fit in, discard them. The garden will be better off without them, no matter how desirable they are, than with them if their presence creates color-discord.

Peonies can be moved to advantage now. If you cut about the old clump and lift a good deal of earth with it, and do not interfere with its roots, no harm will be done. But if you mutilate its roots, or expose them, you need not expect any flowers from the plant for a season or two.

Get stakes ready for the Dahlias. These should be painted some un.o.btrusive color. If this is done, and they are taken proper care of in fall, they will last for years. This is true of racks and trellises.

Provide yourself with a hoe, an iron-toothed rake, a weeding-hook, a trowel for transplanting, a wheel-barrow, a spade, and a watering-pot.

See that the latter is made from galvanized iron if you want it to last.

Tin pots will rust out in a short time.

Take your watering-pot to the tinsmith and have him fit it out with an extension spout--one that can be slipped on to the end of the spout that comes with the pot. Let this be at least two feet in length. This will enable you to apply water to the roots of plants standing well back in the border, or across beds, and get it just where it will do the most good, but a short-spouted plant will not do this unless you take a good many unnecessary steps in making the application.

Be sure to send in your orders for seed and plants early in the season.

Have everything on hand, ready for putting into the ground when the proper time comes to do this.

SUMMER WORK IN THE GARDEN

If weeds are kept down through the early part of the season, there will not be a great deal of weeding to do in midsummer. Still, we cannot afford to take it for granted that they require no attention, for they are most aggressive things, and so persistent are they that they will take advantage of every opportunity for perpetuating themselves.

Therefore be on the lookout for them, and as soon as you discover one that has thought to escape your notice by hiding behind some flowering plant, uproot it. One weed will furnish seed enough to fill the entire garden with plants next year if let alone.

If the season happens to be very dry, some of your plants--Dahlias, for instance,--will have to be watered if you want them to amount to anything. These must have moisture at their roots in order to flower well.

Other plants may be able to get along with a mulch of gra.s.s-clippings from the lawn. Most of our annuals will stand quite a drouth.

If one is connected with a system of waterworks it is an easy matter to tide a garden over a drouth. But where there is nothing but the pump to depend on for a supply of water, I would not advise beginning artificial watering except in rare cases, like that of the Dahlia. We always find that so much work is required in supplying our plants from the pump that after a little we abandon the undertaking, and the result is that the plants we set out to be kind to are left in a worse condition, when we give up our spasmodic attention, than they would have been in if we had not begun it.

It is well to use the hoe constantly if the season is a dry one. Keep the surface of the soil open that it may take in all the moisture possible. On no account allow it to become crusted over.

Seed of perennials can be sown now to furnish plants for flowering next season.

Look to the Dahlias, and make sure they are properly staked.

Be on the lookout for black beetle on Aster and Chrysanthemum. As soon as one is discovered apply Nicoticide, and apply it thoroughly, all over the plant. Promptness is demanded in fighting this voracious pest.

During the latter part of summer, when the extreme hot weather that we have at the north sets in, cut away nearly all the top of the Pansy-plants. This will give the plants a chance to rest during the season when they are not equal to the task of flowering, because of the hot, dry weather which is so trying to them. Along in September, when the weather becomes cooler, they will take a fresh start and give us fine flowers all through the fall.

Look over the perennials and satisfy yourself that there is color-harmony everywhere. If you find a discord anywhere, mark the plant that makes it for removal later on.

Be sure to keep all seed from developing on the Sweet Peas. This you _must_ do if you would have a good crop of flowers during the fall months.

If any plants seem too thick, sacrifice some of them promptly. No plant can develop itself satisfactorily if it is crowded.

Poor plants will find their way into all collections. If you find one in yours, remove it at once. There are so many good ones at our disposal that we cannot afford to give place, even for a season, to an inferior kind.

Let neatness prevail everywhere. Gather up dead leaves and fallen flowers, cut away the stalks of plants upon which no more flowers can be expected, and keep the walks looking as if you expected visitors at any time, and were determined not to be caught in untidy garments.

While the good gardener can always find something to do in the garden, he will not have as much work on his hands at this season as at any other, therefore it is the time in which he can get the greatest amount of pleasure from his flowers, and in proportion to his care of them earlier in the season will be the pleasure they afford now.

FALL WORK IN THE GARDEN

Because the growth of gra.s.s on the lawn is not as luxuriant and rapid in fall as it is in midsummer, is no reason why the lawn should be neglected after summer is over. It should be mowed whenever the gra.s.s gets too tall to look well, clear up to the end of the season. The neat and attractive appearance of the home-grounds depends more upon the lawn than anything else about them. It is a good plan to fertilize it well in fall, thus enabling the roots of the sward to store up nutriment for the coming season. Fine bonemeal is as good for this purpose as anything I know of except barnyard manure, and it is superior to that in one respect--it does not contain the seeds of weeds.

Go over the garden before the end of the season and gather up all plants that have completed their work. If we neglect to give attention to the beds now that the flowering-period is over, a general appearance of untidiness will soon dominate everything. Much of the depressing effect of late fall is due to this lack of attention. The prompt removal of all unsightly objects will keep the grounds looking _clean_ after the season has pa.s.sed its prime, and we all know what the Good Book's estimate of cleanliness is.

Seedlings of such perennials as Hollyhock, Delphinium, and other plants of similar character, ought to be transplanted to the places they are to occupy next season by the last of September. If care is taken not to disturb their roots when you lift them they will receive no check.