Gardening for Little Girls Part 8

NOTE.--Different varieties of same kind will bloom at different times.

==================+=========+=======+========+========+============+========== START BLOOMING NAME COLOR HEIGHT OUTDOORS GOOD FOR PLACE SEASON ------------------+---------+-------+--------+--------+------------+---------- Akabia Violet- Light May, June (_Akabia brown screen quinata_) Bittersweet Yellow 20 ft. In the Sun or Bright (_Celastrus fall shade seeds scandens_) for winter Cinnamon Vine White 15 to Plant Rapid Sun July, Aug.

(_Dioscorea_) 30 ft. roots in growth early spring Clematis White 5 to Start in Rapid Stands part Different (numerous Red 25 ft. early growth shade kinds at varieties) Purple spring different times.

June to frost Creeping Spindle Evergreen Varies Procure Wall (_Euonymus trailer in roots covering radicans_) height like Ivy Dutchman's Pipe Brownish- Grows May Dense Anywhere (_Aristolochia_) yellow to 30 shade ft. Honeysuckle, Yellow- 15 ft. Procure Trellis June to j.a.panese white plants Fence Aug.

(_Lonicera Walls Halliana_) Hop, Perennial Green 15 to Procure Trellis Sun (_Humulus 20 ft. roots lupulus_) Ivy, Boston or Spreads Procure Covers Sun or j.a.pan rapidly plants walls shade (_Ampelopsis or or trees Veitchii_) Ivy, English Evergreen Procure Wall Shade-loving (_Hedera plants covering helix_) Kudzu Vine, Rosy- 10 ft. Early Thick Sun August j.a.panese purple First spring screen (_Pueraria year Thunbergiana_) from seed Matrimony Vine Purplish Shrubby Procure Ornament Sun Late (_Lycium roots and use summer barbaum_) Pea, Everlasting Red 6 to 8 Plant Trellis Sun August (_Lathyrus White ft. tuber or or rough latifolius_) seed places ------------------+---------+-------+--------+--------+------------+---------

CHAPTER IX

Shrubs We Love to See

"Every yard should be a picture. The observer should catch the entire effect and purpose, without a.n.a.lyzing its parts."

--_Bailey._

OF course you want to know something about shrubs. For what? Possibly just to make a tiny hedge around your garden, or a taller one to shut out the view of some neighbor's untidy backyard. More likely for a lovely specimen plant for your own grounds. In that case, don't, oh, don't! set it out in the middle of the lawn! And two or three thus dotted around (in "spotty planting," so called) are the acme of bad taste, and violate the fundamental principles of landscape gardening.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CLEANING UP AROUND THE SHRUBS]

Our grandmothers all loved the tall syringa, honeysuckle, s...o...b..ll, strawberry shrub, weigela, rose of Sharon and lilac, while they hedged both their yards and gardens with box, privet and evergreens.

Today we use a good deal of the j.a.panese barberry, while Uncle Sam's recent free distribution has widely introduced that pretty little annual bush-like plant--the kochia, or summer cypress, good for low hedges.

But there is that publisher cutting off my s.p.a.ce again! So I can just add a word about the lovely new summer lilac or buddleia. A tiny plant of this, costing only 25 cents, grows into a nice four-foot bush the first summer, and blooms until late in the season.

Most of these shrubs can be easily grown from cuttings, however, so just ask your friends to remember you when they do their pruning.

SHRUBS

================+==========+===========+===============+================ NAME COLOR HEIGHT GROWN FROM BLOOMING SEASON ----------------+----------+-----------+---------------+---------------- Althea, see Rose of Sharon Azalea No blues 1 to 6 ft. Spring, early summer Barberry, j.a.pan Red 4 ft. Seed Red berries all (_Berberis berries winter Thunbergii_) Boxwood Green 4 to 20 ft. (_Buxus sempervirens_) Bridal Wreath, see Spirea (_Thunbergii_) Buddleia Lavender 3 to 6 ft. Cuttings July to frost Currant, Yellow 4 ft. May Flowering (_Ribes aureum_) Deutzia White, 3 to 12 ft. Cuttings May, June Pink Forsythia Yellow 6 to 10 ft. Cuttings or Earliest spring seed Golden Bell, see Forsythia Honeysuckle White, 6 to 12 ft. Cuttings or March to June (numerous Yellow seed varieties) Pink, Red (_Lonicera_) Hydrangea White 8 to 12 ft. Cuttings July to November (_Paniculata generally grandiflora_) j.a.panese Quince Scarlet 8 ft. May (_Cydonia j.a.ponica_) Kochia (small 3 ft. Seed Bush reddens in annual bush) fall Lilac (_Syringa Lavender, 5 to May, June vulgaris_) White 20 ft. Mock Orange White 10 ft. May, June (_Philadelphus coronarius_) Privet Green 15 ft. Cuttings (_Ligustrum unless ovalifolium_) sheared Rose of Sharon White, Up to August to (_Hibiscus Pink to 18 ft. October Syriacus_) Purple s...o...b..ll, White 8 to Cuttings May, June j.a.panese 10 ft. (_Viburnum tomentosum_) Spirea White 2 to May (_Thunbergii_) 4 ft. Spirea (numerous White, 4 to Different months other Pink, Rose 6 ft. from May to varieties) September Strawberry Shrub Chocolate- 6 to By division May colored 10 ft. Syringa, see Mock Orange Viburnum, see s...o...b..ll Weigela White, 6 ft. June (_Diervilla Pink, Red florida_) ----------------+----------+-----------+---------------+----------------

CHAPTER X

Vegetable Growing for the Home Table

The life of the husbandman,--a life fed by the bounty of earth, and sweetened by the airs of heaven.

--_Jerrold._

IT is predicted that this year,--1917,--will be the greatest year for gardening that the country ever has known!

The high cost of living first stimulated interest. Then after war was declared, the slogan, "Food as important as men or munitions," stirred young and old. Garden clubs sprang up everywhere, and in free lectures people were instructed how to prepare, plant and cultivate whatever ground they could get, from small backyards to vacant lots.

In our neighborhood last year a man with a plot of ground less than half the size of a tennis court, grew $50.00 worth of vegetables,--enough to supply his whole family! He got his planting down to a science, however,--what he called "intensive gardening," so that every foot of the soil was kept busy the whole summer. He fertilized but once, too, at the beginning of the season, when he had a quant.i.ty of manure thoroughly worked in. Then between slow growing crops, planted in rows as closely as possible, he planted the quick-growing things, which would be out of the way before their s.p.a.ce was needed.

Incidentally he worked out a chart (which he afterwards put on the market), ruled one way for the months, and the other for the number of feet, with name cards for the vegetables that could be fitted in so as to visualize--and make a record of the entire garden the entire season.

Such a plan means a great saving of both time and s.p.a.ce.

Garden soil must be warm, light and rich. It must be well spaded to begin with, well fertilized, well raked over, and kept well cultivated.

Vegetables require plenty of moisture, and during dry weather especially must be thoroughly watered. As I have said before, simply wetting the surface of the ground is almost useless, and often, by causing the ground then to cake over the top as it dries, worse than none at all, if the soil were cultivated instead. Pests must be watched for on all the crops, and treated according to the special needs of each variety when whale-oil, soapsuds, tobacco dust or insect powder seem ineffective.

Then with weeding, and reasonable care, you can safely expect to keep your table supplied with that greatest of all luxuries,--your own green vegetables, fresh from the soil.

VEGETABLE GUIDE

_Beans. Bush_

Plant from early May on, every two weeks, for succession of crops. Drop beans 3 in. apart, in 2-in. deep drills, allowing 2 ft. between rows.

Hoe often, drawing the earth up towards the roots. Be sure that the ground is warm and dry before planting, however, or the beans will rot.

_Beans. Pole_

Set stakes 5 to 8 feet high, in rows 3 ft. apart each way; or plant in drills to grow on a trellis. Put four or five beans around each stake, and when well started, thin out the poorest, leaving but three at each pole. A cheap trellis is made by stretching two wires (one near the ground and the other six feet above), and connecting them with stout twine for the vines to run on.

_Beans. Lima_

As these are more tender, they should be planted a couple of weeks later than other beans. They need especially good, rich soil, with plenty of humus or the fine soft earth that is full of decayed vegetable matter.

Allow each plant 6 in. in the row, and make rows 2 ft. apart. Give a good dose of fertilizer about the time they start, and keep well cultivated. Beans are among the easiest of all vegetables to grow, and as they can be dried for winter use, are especially valuable.

_Beets._

Any well-tilled, good garden soil will produce nice beets. Make drills or rows 18 in. apart, and plant the seed about 1 in. deep if earth is light and sandy, but only half an inch if heavy and sticky, as early as the ground can be put in condition. Cultivate often, and thin out the plants to about 3 in. apart. Sow at intervals of two or three weeks for successive crops up to the middle of July. An extra early lot can be had by starting seed in the house in boxes in February or March, and then setting the young plants out at time of first outdoor planting.

_Cabbage._

For early crop, start seed indoors in February or March and transplant, when four leaves appear, to another seed box until you can plant in open ground in May. For later crop sow seeds in rows in open ground during April and May, and transplant during July and August, to 20 in. apart, in rows 3 ft. apart. Cultivate often, to keep moisture in the soil.

Prepare to fight pests, early and late. After the seventy or more remedies suggested by one authority, for maggots alone, the amateur might feel like abandoning cabbage, but at the price this moment of $160.00 a ton, wholesale, in New York City, a person with even a handkerchief bed feels like attempting this luxury.

_Carrots._

Hardy and easily grown, they can be sown in rows that are 12 in. apart, and thinned out to 3 in. apart in the row. They can be started as early as April, and sown for succession up to the middle of July. Cultivate often.

_Cauliflower._

Treat like cabbage, except that you must start as early as possible, to get ahead of the hot weather, and give the plants plenty of water. When the heads are well-formed and firm, bring the outside leaves up and tie together, to shut out the sun and keep the heads white and tender. And don't forget,--plenty of water!