MAKING THE GARDEN
The first thing to do in making a garden is to spade up the soil to the depth of a foot.
The second thing to do is to work this spaded-up soil over and over until it is thoroughly pulverized.
The third thing to do is to add to it whatever fertilizer you decide on using. This may be old, well-rotted manure from the cow-yard, if you can get it, for it is the ideal fertilizer for nearly all kinds of plants. But if you live in city or village the probabilities are that you will be obliged to make use of a substitute. Bone meal—the finely ground article—is about as good as anything I know of for amateur use. The amount to use will depend on the condition of the soil to which you apply it. If of simply ordinary richness, I would advise a teacupful of the meal to a yard square of ground. If the soil happens to be poor, a large quantity should be used. It is not possible to say just how much or how little, because no two soils are exactly alike. One can decide about this when he sees the effect of what has been used on the plants whose cultivation he has undertaken. I speak of using it by measure rather than by weight because the gardener will find it easier to use a cup than a set of scales.
When the soil has been thoroughly pulverized and the fertilizer has been well worked into it you are ready for sowing seed—that is, if the weather conditions are favorable. It is always advisable to wait until all danger from frost is over and the ground is warm enough to facilitate prompt germination. At the North the seed of our hardier plants can safely be put into the ground about the middle of May, but the tenderer kinds can well afford to wait until the first of June.
In sowing seed don't follow the old way of making a furrow an inch deep in the soil, by drawing the hoe-handle along it, and then covering the seed deeply. Fine seed often fail to germinate when given this treatment. Simply scatter the seed on the surface, and then sift a little fine soil over it, or press the ground down firmly with a smooth board, thus imbedding the seed in the ground to a depth that is sufficient to insure enough moisture to facilitate the process of germination.
Large seed, like that of the sweet-pea, nasturtium, mirabilis, and morning-glory can be covered with half an inch of soil.
Weeding should begin as soon as you can tell the weeds and the flowering plants apart. It is absolutely necessary to keep the beds clean if you would have good flowers. Allow weeds to remain, and in an incredibly short time they will get such a start of the other plants in the bed that these will have received a check from which it will take them a long time to recover, when given an opportunity to do so by the removal of the enemy. There can be no compromise between weeds and flowering plants. One must give way to the other, and weeds will have it all their own way if given the ghost of a chance.
Every gardener should be the owner of a wheelbarrow, a hoe, a spade, an iron rake, a watering-pot, and a weeding-hook. The last, which will cost ten or fifteen cents, will enable you to destroy as many weeds in half an hour as you could pull in half a day by hand, and it will leave the soil in as light and porous a condition as would result from going over it with rake or hoe.
MAKING A LAWN
Most home-makers labor under the impression that it would be useless for them to undertake the making of a lawn, thinking it requires the knowledge and experience of the professional gardener to make such an undertaking successful. This is where they make a mistake. Anybody can make a lawn that will afford a great deal of pleasure if he sets about it, provided he is willing to do some hard work.
The first thing to do is to make the surface of the ground level. This can be done by the use of spade and hoe. Take off the tops of the hillocks, if there happens to be any, and fill the hollows with the soil thus obtained.
When you have a fairly even surface, go over it with an iron-toothed rake and make it fine and mellow. It is very important that all stones and rubbish of every kind should be removed if you want a good sward.
After reducing the soil to the necessary degree of fineness, add whatever fertilizer to it you propose to make use of, and then go over the ground again with the rake and work this fertilizer in thoroughly. It is necessary to have it evenly distributed. If it is not, there will be patches where the grass will be thick and luxuriant, and others where it will be scanty and poor. Such a result should be guarded against by working the fertilizer into the soil so evenly that no part of it will be without its proper share.
Then you are ready for sowing the seed.
The seed to sow is the very best kind in the market. This will cost you a little more than the inferior kind that is offered each season, but it is worth a good deal more, and it is what you must have if you would make your lawn a thing of beauty. Procure it from some reliable dealer who makes a specialty of "lawn-grass mixtures."
If you tell the dealer the size of your lawn and ask how much seed you will need, he will give you what he considers a fair estimate. I would advise you to double the amount, for this reason: a thickly seeded lawn will have the appearance, by the middle of the first season, of a lawn a year or two old. And because of the thickness of the grass it will be better able to stand the effect of drought and heat. You will find that the extra money invested in seed was a wise investment, and you will never have cause to regret making it.
Sowing seems, to the amateur gardener, a matter of so little importance that it requires no special attention. All there is to do is to scatter the seed over the ground. But nine out of ten amateurs who do the work with this idea in mind will speedily discover their mistake. When the grass comes up thickly here and there, with vacant places between, they will come to the conclusion that sowing grass seed evenly isn't the easiest thing in the world, for the seed is so light that the slightest puff of air will blow it away, and some will settle where you want it to, and some will lodge where other seed has already lodged, and the result will be very unsatisfactory. In order to prevent such a condition of things as far as possible, I would advise sowing from north to south, and then from east to west. Do this on a still, damp day, if possible, and hold your hand close to the ground as you scatter the seed. Don't attempt to broadcast it, as you may have seen some gardener do, but be content to scatter it over a small portion of soil each time you sow a handful of it. By doing this you will prevent most of it from being blown away.
THE BORDER
The owner of a small lot is often puzzled to know what to do with it. Of course there must be flowers, but where shall they be put? As a general thing, they are set out here and there, indiscriminately, and the result of such haphazard planting is far from pleasing. There ought always to be at least a suggestion of system in all garden arrangements. To scatter shrubs all over the lawn breaks up the sense of breadth and dignity which should characterize it, however small it may be. This being the case, the best place for shrubs and perennials is at the sides of the lot, leaving the rear for the vegetable garden.
A border extending along the sides of the lot will serve as a frame for the home picture, and will be found the most satisfactory arrangement possible for small places. It ought to be at least four feet wide—six or eight will be found much better if ground can be spared for it—and a pleasing effect can be secured by letting it increase in width as it approaches the rear of the lot. It will be far more attractive if its inner edge curves a little here and there than if it is confined to straight lines.
I would advise a "mixed border." By that is meant one in which shrubs and perennials are grown together and where annuals and spring-flowering bulbs can be used effectively to "fill in."
The soil for such a border must be made and kept quite rich, for almost always we put so many plants into it that great demands are made upon the nutriment contained in it, and in order to have fine plants they must get all the food they can make good use of. You can't grow plants to perfection unless you feed them well. Every season—preferably in spring—manure should be applied liberally.
In setting out shrubs one should take a look ahead and endeavor to see, with the mind's eye, what they will be likely to be when fully developed. If this is not done we are pretty sure to plant them so close that by and by we have a thicket of them, in which none of them can properly display their charms.
Between the shrubs plant perennials and such summer-flowering plants as dahlias and gladioli.
Plant the taller perennials at the rear, and those of medium height in the center, of the row, with low-growing kinds in front. By doing this we secure a sort of banklike effect which will be very pleasing. In order to plant intelligently, study the catalogues of the florists, for most of them give the height of each plant listed in them.
If I were asked to name the best shrubs for amateur use, I would choose these: spiræa (especially the Van Houttei variety), weigelia deutzia, lilacs in variety, flowering currant, and golden elder—the last a shrub with rich yellow foliage, capable of producing a most delightful effect when planted among richly colored flowering plants like the hollyhock and delphinium. From the perennial list I would select peonies, phlox, delphinium, iris, and hollyhocks.
My selection would include the kinds named above because of their hardiness and ease of culture as well as their beauty. There are many other kinds which richly deserve a place in all gardens that are large enough to allow of free selection, but the owner of the average home lot will be obliged to draw a line somewhere, and he will be safe in confining his choice to the kinds I have mentioned. They are among the very best plants we have in their respective classes.
ANNUALS
The owner of a garden that is so small that but few plants can be grown in it naturally desires to confine her selection to such kinds as will be likely to give the greatest amount of bloom and require the least amount of care.
is an old favorite that holds its own against any of the new-comers. So is the verbena, and the calliopsis, and the good old "bachelor's-button," which you will find masquerading in the florists' catalogues as centaurea. It must not be blamed for this, as it has no reason to be ashamed of its old-fashioned name. The seedsmen alone are responsible for the change in nomenclature.
Other stand-bys among the annuals are poppies, larkspur, petunias, ten-week stock, marigolds, scabiosa, mignonette, eschscholtzia (better known as California poppy).
Of course the list of really desirable kinds could be extended almost indefinitely, but I do not think it advisable to make mention of other kinds here, because it is not the part of wisdom for the amateur gardener to attempt growing "a little of everything." It is better to confine one's attention to a few of the kinds with which success is reasonably sure until experience justifies one in undertaking the culture of those which are not so self-reliant and unexacting as the kinds mentioned.