uL&&,>. M 4 ~l^ . ~L i ^ ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY Cornell University Gift of Thomas Bass ^-■'''^'--.--^."-- --'-' ~ *^, ' 1' From Home Bakings, by Edna Evans San Francisco, 1912. CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBBAHY 3 1924 089 480 234 The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924089480234 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN f^^y^' iE ARCM a:NB QAKUEIV T^::-VIiK: FRON /v -A'.A.TER GOLOH SKETCH BY 0130RPE B BAKTHOLOMEW A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN BY HELENA RUTHERFURD ELY WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN IN THE author's GARDEN PROFESSOR C. F. CHANDLER JTf Itt fork THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON : MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 1904 All rights reserved Copyright, 1903, By The Macmillan Company Set up and eleetrotyped January, 1903 Reprinted March twice, July, 1903, and February, 1904 Adunt pUaBsnt Wr»aa J. Horace McKarland Company Harrisburf , Penasylvania DeDication TO THE BEST FRIEND OF MY GARDEN, WHO, WITH HEART AND HANDS, HAS HELPED TO MAKE IT WHAT IT IS PREFACE ^T^HIS little book is only meant to tell briefly of a few shrubs, hardy perennials, biennials and annuals of simple culture. I send it forth, hoping that my readers may find within its pages some help to plant and make their gardens grow. Meadowbukn Fakm October, 1902 vn TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTEK I. Inti"oduction .... II. Hardy Gardening and Preparation of the Soil .... III. Laying Out a Gai'den and Borders Around a House .... IV. How to Plant a Small Plot V. The Seed-bed .... VI. Planting ... VII. Annuals ... VIII. Perennials IX. Biennials and a Few Bedding - out Plants X. Roses .... XI. Lilies .... XII. Spring -flowering Bulbs Xin. Shrabs Xl\'. Watfir, Walks, La^vns, Box-Edgings, Sun dial and Pergola XV. Insecticides. Tool -room XVI. Conclusion 17 35 55 63 75 91 115 123 137 147 157 169 187 201 IX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING FAQE Rose arch and garden walk . . Frontispiece From a water -color sketch made by George D. Bartholomew Garden gate, -with Japanese gourds ... 1 September twenty-ninth Broad gi-ass walk ... . , 5 August twenty-iifth A shady garden walk . . . . .12 May thirty-first Asters blooming in a border . . . .16 September fifteenth A clump of Valerian . . . . .19 June sixth Rhododendron maximum and Ferns along north side of house, with Ampelopsis Veitchh . . 23 July fourth 4jch over Rose-walk covered wdth Golden Honeysuckle and Clematis panicidata . . 26 September fifteenth Rhododendron maximum under a cherry ti-ee . 30 July fourth xi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Vase of Delphinium (Perennial Larkspur) . . 33 June twenty-first Vase of Peonies . .39 June sixth LUium speciosum ntbrum . . . .42 September fifteenth Vase of Altheas ..... 48 September sixteenth Planting on the edge of lawn . . .51 August second Asters in rows for picking . . . 55 August twenty-fifth Foxgloves — seedlings ready for final transplanting 58 September twenty-ninth Long grass walk, with Narcissus Poeticus blooming in the border . . . . . .62 April twenty-sixth Long grass walk, with Peonies in the border . 65 June sixth Long grass walk, with Foxgloves blossoming in the border ....... 67 June thirteenth Long grass walk, with Hydi-angeas; Rudbeckias in background . . . . . .78 August twenty-fifth Xll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE A single plant of Astei-s . . . . .80 September tenth Poppies growing in rows . . . , .83 July fourteenth A bowl of Cosmos ...... 87 September twenty-ninth A mass of Plilox; Rudbeckias in the backgromid 90 August second Hollyhocks in blossom . . . . . 94« July twelfth A single plant of Delphinium (Perennial Laikspuv) 97 June twenty-first Yuccas in blossom . . . . . .103 July twelfth Bed of Peonies, on edge of lawn . .106 June sixth A single plant of Phlox . . . . .112 August twenty-fifth A'ase of Canterbuiy Bells . . . .115 June twenty-first A single plant of Foxgloves, White Sweet WiUiam in fi-ont . . . . .119 June thirteentli Vase of Foxgloves . . . . . .122 June fourteenth LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACINe PAGE Siunmer-house covered with Clematis and Crimson Rambler Roses 126 June twenty-first Rose-bed carpeted with Pansies . . .129 June twenty-first Canterbm-y Bells blooming in a border . .133 June twenty-first LUium auratum growing behind Peonies and Columbines that bloomed earlier . . .140 August tenth Vase of LUium auratum . . . . .144 August second Vase of LUium speciosum album, and rubrum, . 147 September sixth Garden arch, covered with Japanese Gourds . 151 August twenty-seventh Vase of Phlox; single blossoms actual size . 154 August second Spircea Van Houttei . . . . .158 May thirty-first Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora . . .161 August twenty-sixth Vase of Hydrangea paniadata grandiflora . 165 September tenth XIV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING FACE Vase of double Hai-dy Sunflowers {Helianihus imdtiflonis plenus) . . . . .172 September fifteenth Vase of Monkshood . . .176 September thirtieth Sun-dial in center of formal gai-den . .179 August second The Pei'gola (first summer) . .190 August twenty-fifth Tritoma (Red-Hot Poker Plant) . .197 September twenty-eighth Bringing in the flowers ..... 204 September sixth rv INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION TOVE of flowers and all things green and growing is with many men and women a passion so strong that it often seems to be a sort of primal instinct, coming down through generation after generation, from the first man who was put into a garden "to dress it and to keep it." People whose lives, and those of their parents before them, have been spent in dingy tenements, and whose only garden is a rickety soap-box high up on a fire-escape, share this love, which must have a plant to tend, with those whose gardens cover acres and whose plants have been gathered from aU the countries of the world. How often in summer, when called to town, and when driving through the squalid streets to the ferries or riding on the elevated road, one sees these gardens of 3 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN the poor. Sometimes they are only a Gera- nium or two, or the gay Petunia. Often a tall Sun-flower, or a Tomato plant red with fruit. These efforts tell of the love for the growing things, and of the care that makes them live and blossom against all odds. One feels a thriU of sympathy with the owners of the plants, and wishes that some day their lot may be cast in happier places, w^here they too may have gardens to tend. It has always seemed to me that the punish- ment of the first gardener and his wife was the bitterest of aU. To have lived always in a garden "where grew every tree pleasant to the sight and good for food," to have known no other place, and then to have been driven forth into the great world without hope of retvuning! Oh! Eve, had you not desired wisdom, your happy children might stiU be tiUing the soil of that blessed Eden. The first woman longed for knowledge, as do her daughters of to-day. When the serpent said that eating of the for- bidden fruit would make them "as gods," what 4 , J3 =3 « O 3 m 3 INTRODUCTION wonder that Eve forgot the threatening com- mand to leave untouched the Tree of Life, and, burning to be "wise," ate of the fateful apple and gave it to her Adam ? And then, to leave the lovely place at the lovehest of all times in a garden, the cool of the day I Faint sunset hues tinting the sky, the night breeze gently stirring the trees, LiUes and Roses giving their sweetest perfume, briUiant Venus mounting her accustomed path, while the sleepy twitter of the birds alone breaks the silence. Then the voice of wrath, the Cheru- bim, the turning flaming sword ! Through trials and tribulations and hardly learned patience, I have gained some of the secrets of many of our best hardy flowering plants and shrubs. Many friends have asked me to tell them when to plant or transplant, when to sow this or that seed, and how to prepare the beds and borders ; in fact, this has occurred so often that it has long been in my mind to write down what I know of hardy gardening, that other women might be 5 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN helped to avoid the experiments and mistakes I have made, which only served to cause delay. But just this "please vn-ite it down," while sounding so easy and presenting to the mind such a fascinating picture of a well-printed, well -illustrated and prettily bound book on the garden, is quite a different matter to one who has never written. When you diffidently try to explain the chaos in your brain, family and friends say, "Oh! never mind; just begin." That often-quoted "premier pas! " To-day is the first snow-storm of the winter, and, while sitting by the fireside, my thoughts are so upon my garden, wondering if this or that wiU survive, and whether the plants remember me, that it seems as though to-day I could try that first dreaded step. Living all my hfe, six months and some- times more of each year, in the country, — real country on a large farm, — I have fi-om child- hood been more than ordinarily interested in gardening. Surrounded from babyhood with 6 INTRODUCTION horses and dogs, my time as a little girl was spent out of doors, and whenever I could es- cape from a patient governess, whose eyes early became sad because of the difficulties of her task, I was either riding a black pony of wicked temper, or was to be found in a lovely garden with taU Arborvitse hedges and Box -edged walks, in the company of an old gardener, one of my very best friends, who for twenty years ruled master and mistress, as weU as garden and graperies. Under this old gardener, I learned, even as a chUd, to bud Roses and fruit trees, and watched the transplanting of seedlings and making of slips ; watched, too, the trimming of gi'ape- vines, fi-uit trees and shrubs ; so that whUe still very young I knew more than many an older per- son of practical garden work. Then, as I grew older, the interests of a gay girl, and, later, the claims of early married life and the care of two fat and fascinating babies, ab- sorbed my time and thoughts to the exclu- sion of the garden. But as the babies grew 7 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN into a big boy and girl, the garden came to the front again, and, for more than a dozen years now, it has been my joy, — -joy in sum- mer when watching the growth and bloom, and joy in winter when planning for the spring and summer's work. There is pleasure even in making hsts, reading catalogues of plants and seeds, and wondering whether this year my flowers wiU be like the pictured ones, and always, in imagination, seeing how the sleeping plants will look when robed in fullest beauty. HARDY GARDENING AND THE PREPARATION OF THE SOIL CHAPTER II HARDY GARDENING AND THE PREPARATION OF THE SOIL TT has not been all success. I have had to learn the soil and the location best suited to each plant; to know when each bloomed and which lived best together. Mine is a garden of bulbs, annuals, biennials and hardy perennials; in addition to which there are Cannas, Dahhas and Gladioli, whose roots can be stored, through the winter, in a cellar. All the rest of the garden goes gently to sleep in the autumn, is well covered up about Thanksgiving time, and slumbers quietly through the winter ; until, with the first spring rains and sunny days, the plants seem fairly to bound into life again, and the never- ceasing miracle of nature is repeated before our wondering eyes. 11 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN I have no glass on my place, not even a cold-frame or hot-bed. Everything is raised in the open ground, except the few bedding plants mentioned whose roots are stored through the winter. Therefore, mine can truly be called a hardy garden, and is the only one I know at all approaching it in size and quantity of flowers raised, where similar conditions exist. I have observed that, with few exceptions, the least success with hardy perennials is found in the gardens of those of my friends whose gardeners are supposed to be the best, because paid the most. These men will grow wonderful Roses, Orchids, Carnations, Grapes, etc., under glass, and wiU often have fine displays of Rhododendrons. But to most of them the perennial or biennial plant, the old friend blossoming in the same place year after year, is an object unworthy of cultiva- tion. Their souls rejoice in the bedding-out plant, which must be yearly renewed, and which is beautiful for so short a time, dying 12 HARDY GARDENING with the early frost. I was astounded last summer on visiting several fine places, where the gardeners were considered masters of their ai't, to see the poor planting of perennials and annuals. I recall particularly two Italian gai'dens, perfectly laid out by landscape gar- deners, but Avhich amounted to nothing be- cause the planting was insufficient, — here a Phlox, there a Lily, then a Rose, with per- haps a Larkspur or a Marigold, all rigidly set out in single plants far apart, with noth- ing in masses, and no colour effects. To attain success in growth, as well as in effect, plants must be so closely set that when they are developed no ground is to be seen. If so placed, their foliage shades the earth, and moisture is retained. In a border planted in this way, individual plants are far finer than those which, when grown, are six inches or a foot apart. First of all in gardening, comes the prepa- ration of the soil. Give the plants the food they need and plenty of water, and the 13 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN blessed sunlight will do the rest. It is won- derful what can be done with a small space, and how from April to November there can always be a mass of bloom. I know of one woman's garden, in a small country town, — house and ground only covering a lot hardly fifty by one hundred feet, — where, with the help of a man to work for her one day in the week and perhaps for a week each spring and fall, she raises immense quantities of flowers, both perennials and annuals. For six months of the year she has always a dozen vases fuU in the house, and plenty to give away. More than half the time her httle garden supplies flowers for the church, while others in the same village owning large places and employing several men "have really no flowers." I remember returning once from a two weeks' trip, to find that my entire crop of Asters had been destroyed by a beetle. It was a horrid black creature about an inch long, which appeared in swarms, devoured all the 14 HARDY GARDENING plants and then disappeared, touching noth- ing else. Such a thing had never before hap- pened in my garden. One of the men had sprayed them with both slug- shot and kero- sene emulsion to no effect, — and so no Asters. INIy fi-iend with the little garden heard me bemoaning my loss, and the next day sent me, over the five intervening miles, a hamper — almost a small clothes-basket — full of the beautiftil things. It quite took my breath away. I wondered how she could do it, and thought she must have given me every one she had. Yet, upon driving over in hot haste to pour out thanks and regrets, lo ! there were Asters all a -blow in such quantities in her garden that it seemed as if none had been gathered. Except by the sea -coast, our dry sum- mers, with burning sun and, in many places, frequent absence of dew, are terribly hard on a garden ; but with deep, rich soil, and plenty of water and proper care, it will yield an ahnost tropical growi;h. Therefore, when- 15 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN ever a bed or border is to be made, make it right. Unless one is willing to take the trouble properly to prepare the groimd, there is no use in expecting success in gardening. I have but one rule : stake out the bed, and then dig out the entire space two feet in depth. Often stones will be found requiring the strength and labor of several men, with crowbars and levers, to remove them ; often there will be rocks that require blasting. Stones and earth being aU removed, put a foot of well -rotted manure in the bottom ; then fill up with alternate layers, about four inches each, of the top soil, taken out of the first foot dug up, and of manure. Fill the bed or border very fuU, as it will sink with the disintegration of the manm-e. Finish off the top with three inches of soU. Then it is ready for planting. If the natural soil is stiff" or clayey, put it in a heap and mix with one- fourth sand, to Ughten it, before returning to the bed. Thus prepared, it will retain mois- ture, and not pack and become hard. 16 LAYING OUT A GARDEN AND BORDERS AROUND THE HOUSE ■3^ 1^ CHAPTER III LAYING OUT A GARDEN AND BORDERS AROUND THE HOUSE "PERPLEXITIES assail a would-be gar- dener on every side, from the day it is decided to start a garden. The most attrac- tive books on the subject are English; and yet, beyond the suggestions for planting, and the designs given in the illustrations, not much help is to be derived in this latitude from following their directions. In England the chmate, which is without great extremes of heat and cold, and the frequent rains, with the soft moist atmosphere, not only enable the English gardener to accomplish what would be impossible for us, but permit him to grow certain flowers out of doors that here must be housed in the winter. Daffo- dils and Narcissi bloom in England, near the 19 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN coast, at the end of February and early in IVIarch, — Lilies-of-the- Valley in IMarch. Many Roses live out of doors that would perish here during our winters. Gardening opera- tions are begun there much earher than in this part, at least, of the United States, and many of the methods for culture differ from those employed here. In England there is excess of moisture; therefore, care in securing good drainage is essential, while here, except in low places near streams, special provision for drainage is rarely necessary. It is more im- portant to have a deep, rich preparation of the soil, so that plants may not be dried out. A serious part of the gardener's work during the average summer consists in judicious watering of the garden. One writer wiU say that this or that plant shoidd have sun, another that it does best in the shade. One advocates a rich soil, an- other a hght sandy soil; so that after all, in gardening, as in aU else in life, experience is the best teacher, either your own or that of 20 LAYING OUT A GARDEN others who have ah-eady been successful under similai' conditions. A garden is almost sure to be gradually increased in size, and its capacity hmited only by the grounds of the owner and his pocket- book. The possibihties and capabilities of a couple of acres are gTcat, and will give the OAvner unlimited pleasm-e and occupation. Individuality is one of the most mai-ked of American chai'acteristics ; hence, m making a place, whetlier it is big or httle, tlie tastes juid indi^-iduaJity of the OA\Tier "ndll g-eneraUy direct his efforts, and no hard and fost rules can be given. In stalling a g-ai-den, the fii-st question, of course, is where to plant If you ai-e a be- o-imier in tlie art, and the place is new and Im-ge. go to a good landscape gardener and let him give ad^ ice and make you a plan. But dont follow it; at least not at once, nor all at one time. Live tliere for a while, until you yourself begin to feel what you want, and where you want it. See all the gardens 21 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN and places you can, and then, when you know what you want, or think you do,"Tstart in. The relation of house to grounds must always be borne in mind, and simphcity in grounds should correspond with that of the house. A craze for Itahan gardens is seizing upon people generally, regardless of the archi- tecture of their houses. To my mind, aii: Itahan garden, with its balustrades, terraces, fountains and statues, is as inappropriate for surrounding a colonial or an ordinary country house as would be a Louis XV drawing- room in a farm-house. What is beautiful in one place becomes- incongruous and ridiculous in another. Not long ago, a woman making an afternoon visit asked me to show her the gardens. Daintily balancing herself upon sUppers with the high- est possible heels, clad in a costume appro- priate only for a f§te at Newport, she strolled about. She thought it all "quite lovely" and "reaUy, very nice," but, at least ten times, while making the tour, wondered "Why in 22 ft? LAYING OUT A GARDEN the M^orld don't you have an Italian garden?" No explanation of the lack of taste that such a gai'den would indicate in connection with the house, had any efFect. The simple, formal gardens of a hundi-ed years ago, with Box- edged paths, borders and regular Box-edged beds, are always beautiful, never become tiresome, and have the additional merit of being appropriate either to the fine country- place or the simple cottage. For a small plot of gi'ound, like the one before mentioned, the plan of which is on page 24, the matter is simple, because of the natural limitations. I love to see a house bedded, as it were, in flowers. This is par- ticulai'ly suitable for the usual American comitry house, colonial in style, or low and rambling. JNIake a bed perhaps four feet ■wide along three sides of the house, — south, east and west. Close against the house plant the vines. Every one has an individual taste in vines,— more so, perhaps, than in any other ornamental gi"owth. If the house be of stone. MARIGOLDS PHLOX RUOaECKIAS DAHLIAS LAYING OUT A GARDEN and the climate not too severe, nothing is more beautiful than the Enghsh Ivy. It flourishes as far north as Princeton, New Jei"sey. I have never grown it, feai-ing it would be winter -killed. Ampelopsis feitc/iii, sometimes called Bos- ton I^y, gi'ows rapidly, cHnging closely to the wall and turning a dark red in the autumn, and is most satisfactory. The Virginia Creeper, and the Trumpet Creeper, with its scarlet flowers, are both beau- tiful, perfectly hardy, and of rapid gro^^th. AU of these vines chng to stone and wood, and, beyond a little help for the first two or three feet, need not be fastened to the house. Care must be taken to prevent the vines growdng too thickly to admit sun and air to the house. If the house be of wood, the question of repainting must be considered. Both the "N'^^liite and the Pm-ple Wistaria, which can be twined about heavy Avire and fastened at the eaves. Rambler Roses and Honeysuckles may 25 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN be grown. They can be laid down, to per- mit painting. But, if the house be of wood and well covered with vines, put off the evil day of pamting until it can be deferred no longer, and then have it done early in No- vember. Never, never permit it to be done in the spring, or before November, unless you would take the risk of killing the vines; or of losing at least a season's growth. The house surrounded by my gardens is colonial, something over a hundred and fifty years old, stern and very simple. Tall locusts, towering above the roof, and vines that cover it from ground to eaves, have taken away its other- wise puritanical and somewhat uncompro- mising aspect. These vines are mostly the ordinary Virginia Creeper, which I had dug from the woods and planted when the first fat baby was two months old. Now their main trunks are, in places, as large as my arm. They have never been laid down. Whenever the house has been repainted, I have been constantly by, and admonished the men to 26 Arch o\er rose-walk, covered with Golden Honeysuckle and Cii'itiii/in jxDiiciilafa. September fifteenth LAYING OUT A GARDEN gently lift the heavy branches while painting under them, and not to paint the light ten- drils. When the master -painter has remon- strated, that it was not a "good job" and took three times as long as if the vines were laid down, my reply has been, that "three times" was nothing in comparison with the years it had taken to grow them, and that stunting or killing the vines could never be a "good job.'' Among the creepers are the Crimson Ram- bler Rose and the Honeysuckle. In three years the Roses have grown above the sec- ond-story windows. Clematis panicidata, with its deUcate foliage and mass of starry bloom in early autumn, is particularly good to plant by veranda posts in connection with other vines. It gl-oM-^s luxuriantly and is absolutely hardy. The large white - flowered Henryi and purple - flowered Jackmani Clematis, though of slow growth, should always have a place, either about a veranda, a summer-house or a trellis, for the sake of their beautiful flowers. 27 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN While waiting for the hardy vines to make their first year's growth, the seeds of the Japanese Morning-Glory, the Japanese Moon- Flower and Cohoea scandens may be planted. All of these wiU grow at least ten feet in a summer, and cover the bare places. But I would not advise sowing them among the hardy vines, except the first summer. In their luxuriance they may suffocate the Roses and Clematis. The seeds of the Moon- Flower must be soaked in hot water, and left over night, before sowing. So much for the vines about a house. In front of the vines, and on the south side in the same bed, plant masses of Holly- hocks, from eight to twelve in a bunch, and Rudbeckia in bunches of not more than five, as they grow so large. Hollyhocks and Rudbeckias plant two feet apart ; they wiU grow to a sohd mass. In front of these, again, put a clump of Phloxes, seven in a bunch, and Larkspur, Delphinium formosuvi being the best. On either side of the Del- 28 LAYING OUT A GARDEN phinium have clumps of about a dozen LiUum, candidum, which bloom at the same time. Edge the border with Sweet ^"N^illiams, three kinds only, — white, pink and dai-k scarlet. I should not ad\dse making all the borders around a house alike. The easterly one will be most lovely if planted with taU ferns or brakes, taken from near some stream in early April, before they begin to groAV. These will become about four feet high if you get good roots and keep them wet. Plant in among them everywhere Auratum LUies, and you wiU have a border that will fill your heart with joy. On the north side of the house it is not possible to h&ve much success with vines, as they need tlie sun. They will gi-oAv, but not with great luxuriance. Here plant t^o rows of the common Rhododendron maxi- mum, which grows in our woods. I crave pardon for caUing it '"common," since none that grows is more beautifid. In fi-ont of these plant ferns of all kinds from the woods, and edge the border with 29 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN Columbines. If these Rhododendrons do not grow in your vicinity, they can be ordered from a florist. In the hUIs, about five miles from us, acres of them grow wild, and twice a year I send my men with wagons to dig them up. They stand transplanting per- fectly if care is taken to get all the roots, which is not difficult, as they do not grow deep. Keep them quite wet for a week after planting, and never let them get very dry. A good plan is to mulch them in early June to the depth of six inches or more with the cUppings of the lawn grass, or with old manure. When once weU rooted, the Rho- dodendrons wiU last a hfetime. They seem to bear transplanting at any season. Some think they do best if taken when in full bloom. I have always done this in April or late Octo- ber, and, of a wagon- load transplanted last October, all have Uved. Many of these were like trees, quite eight feet taU. and too large to be satisfactory about the house, so they were set among the evergreens in a shrubbery. 30 LAYING OUT A GARDEN In cold localities, where the thermometer in winter falls below zero, Rhododendrons should be mulched with stable litter or leaves to the depth of one foot, after the ground has frozen. They should also have some protection from the winter sun, which can be easily given them by setting evergreen boughs of any kind into the gi-ound here and there among them. Rhododendi'ons are as likely to be killed by alternate freezing imd thawing of the ground in winter as by smmmer drought. The lovely Azalea mollis, and many beau- tiful varieties of imported Rhododendrons, are usually described as "hardy," but I cannot recommend them to those who hve where the winters are severe. In such places their gro"^^'th is very slow, and many perish. INIaidenhair, the most beautiful of the hardy ferns, is to be found in quantities in many of our woods, pai-ticularly those covering hill- sides. Then- favorite spot is along the edges of mountain brooks. I know such a hillside, iil A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN where Maidenhair Ferns are superb. But nothing would induce me to venture there again, since I have been told it was infested with rattlesnakes, and that the woodchoppers kill a number of them every year. This fact, too, gives me scruples about sending the men to dig them up, although it is an awful temptation. All ferns should be transplanted late in the autumn, or very early in the spring be- fore the fronds are started, as they are very easily broken. This is particularly the case with ferns from wet places. When planted on the east or north side of a house, the tall ones at the back, and Maidenliair and other low varieties in front, they make a beautiful bank of cool green. They must be kept moist, however, to be successful, and in dry weather require a daily soaking. The Cardinal Flower, whose natural haunt is along the banks of streams, and whose spikes are of the most beautiful red, can also be safely transplanted, and will bloom 32 ?-3 1?; s . ^-^ ^ wK^I^Kk^K^^ - ■■■if. ^i^^\^ ^^■^^EtatRSB^ Vase of Delphinium (Perennial Larkspur) June twenty- first LAYING OUT A GARDEN in deep, rich soil equally well in shade or sun and will be very effective among the Ferns. About the end of November, after cutting the dead stalks, cover each plant with a piece of sod, laid grass -side down. Remove this the fii-st of April, and the little sprouts will soon appear above the ground. Cardinal Flowers bloom for nearly a month — during the last two weeks of August and first two weeks of September. 33 HOW TO PLANT A SMALL PLOT CHAPTER IV HOW TO PLANT A SMALL PLOT T AM frequently surprised to hear people say, "Oh, a flower garden is very nice, but such a trouble ! " I have heard this expression several times from friends who employ a number of men and have large places with extensive lawns, shrubberies and vegetable gardens, but without flowers, ex- cept, perhaps, a few annuals growing among the vegetables. Yet no one is indifferent to the beauty of a garden, or unobservant of the improvement which even a few flowers can make around the humblest cottage. Think of the pretty thatched cottages one sees everywhere in England and France, covered to the eaves with Roses and Clematis, and surrounded by flowers growing wherever they can find root 37 A WOMAN^S HARDY GARDEN in the tiny gardens. Yet all this is the re- sult of only a half hour's daily care after the long day's work is done. One should begin with a few plants — per- haps a dozen only — and the "trouble" will soon become a delight, unless one is devoid of all love for flowers. Whenever I hear remarks on the "trouble" of a flower garden, I think of those peasant homes, and also of a httle plot grown and cared for by a certain tenant farmer's vnfe I know. She has six children, and must cook and bake and clean for four men in addition ; yet, some time every day, she finds a few minutes to tend her flowers. She has a bor- der along the fence four by fifty feet, filled with perennials; a border across the front of her house with Phlox and Funkias, and a couple of beds with Asters, Poppies, Balsams, Portulaca and Pinks. The perennials were given her, a few at a time. She separated the roots, saved the seeds to raise othei-s, and has been able in this way to increase her 38 Vase of Peonies June sixth HOW TO PLANT A SMALL PLOT borders. The seeds of the few annuals she buys do not cost more than a dollar a year. Thus, for a trifling expenditure and a short time every day, this woman makes her humble surroundings beautiful, whUe her soul finds an object upon which to expend its love of beauty, and her thoughts have a respite from the daily cares of hfe. Many people have the mistaken idea that a flower garden, however small, is an expen- sive luxury, and are so convinced of this, that they never venture any attempt at gar- dening, and pass their lives knowing nothing of its pleasures. Let us suppose some one is starting a sub- lu-ban home in a simple way, and see how flowers can be had for many months at small cost. If one has a place in a town or vil- lage, the plot of ground not over fifty by two hundred feet, stfll the possibilities are great, and the owner can easily gather flowers for herself and her friends from April until mid-November. A house or cottage on such 39 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN a piece of ground generally stands back from twenty to fifty feet, with a gravel or flagged walk running to the street. If the owner be a beginner in gardening and expects to do most of the work herself, let her commence with a few plants in a small space. As the plants thrive and become beautiful, the care of them win give an added pleasure to life, and, httle by httle, the beds and borders can be increased. In beginning to plant a small plot, the most natural place first is a border, say two feet wide, on either side of the walk leading from the house to the street. Have these borders dug out and made properly. Then, if the owner wishes to see them continuafly abloom, bulbs must be planted, to give the early spring flowers. Tuhps can be had for eighty cents a hundred, Nardsstis Poeticus for sixty-five cents a hundred, and Yellow Daffo- dils for one doUar and twenty-five cents a hundred. Hyacinths are more expensive, and cost from four dollars a hundred up. If a 40 HOW TO PLANT A SMALL PLOT hundred each of the Tuhps, Narcissi, Hya- cinths and Daffodils were planted they would make the borders lovely from early in April vmtil late in INIay. The Daffodils will bloom first, then the Hyacinths, followed by the Narcissi, and the Tulips last, if care is taken to buy a late variety. There should certainly be three or four Peonies in the borders, — pink, white, and dark red ; good roots of these can be had for about thuty-five cents each. Once planted, they should not be disturbed for years; and, although the first season they may not yield more than two or three blossoms, in each succeeding year the flowers wiU increase in number. A friend told me, not long ago, tliat she had counted sixty blossoms upon each of several of her plants. There should also be at least a dozen Columbines (Aquilegias) to bloom the end of ]May and the first of June. The roots of these can be bought for a dollar and a half a dozen, or they can be raised from seed ; in 41 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN the latter case, however, they would not bloom until the second year, being perennials. No border can be complete without Del- phiniums ( Larkspur). Good -sized roots of the Delphinium formosum, lovely dark blue, are a dollar and twenty- five cents a dozen. Formosum Ccelistina, the hght blue varietyj is two dollars and a half a dozen. Then, of course, there must be other perennials, — Phlox, at least a dozen plants in the differ- ent colours, which will cost a dollar and a half. A few Lilies wiU add greatly to the beauty of the borders. Tiger Lihes, which are only sixty cents a dozen; Auratums, which can be had from eighty- five cents a dozen up, according to the size of the bulbs ; Spedosum ruhrum from eighty - five cents a dozen up, and Candidums, or Ma- donna Lilies, a dollar and a half a dozen. German Iris, a dollar a dozen, and Japanese Iris, at a doUar and a quarter a dozen, should also have a place. 42 IS HOW TO PLANT A SMALL PLOT Excellent Gladioli can be bought for a dollar and fifty cents a hundred, and these wiU be most satisfactory if planted in the border about ISIay fifteenth in groups of six to ten. A dozen Chrysanthemums of the hardiest varieties to be obtained, and costing a doUar and a half a dozen, will, with the other plants mentioned, about fill two borders two feet wide by thirty long. It would also be well to sow the seeds of some Calendulas, Nasturtiums and Asters wherever there may be a vacant place. Or better, perhaps, sow the seeds in boxes in mid -April, and transplant to the border the early part of June. The first cost wUl be the only ex- pense for these borders, except in the case of the Auratum Lilies, which wiU die out in about three years, and of the few flower seeds. The only care needed is to keep the borders free from weeds, to stir the soil every week, and to water after sunset in dry weather, 43 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN It will be seen, from the following list, that such borders can easily be made and planted at a cost of less than thirty dollars. This can be reduced by omitting the Hya- cinths. Directions for planting are given elsewhere. PHICE Tulips $0 80 Narcissi 65 Daffodils 1 25 Hyacinths 4 00 Peonies 1 40 Columbines 1 SO Delphinium Formoaum 1 25 Delphinium Coelestina 2 50 Phlox 1 50 Tiger Lilies 60 Auratum 85 Lilium rubrum 85 IMium candidmn 1 50 Japanese Iris 1 25 Iris Germanica 1 00 Chrysanthemums 1 50 Flower seeds 1 00 • Three days' work, at $1.50 per day 4 50 Manure 1 50 Total §29 40 44 HOW TO PLANT A SMALL PLOT After a year or two, the owner of the cot- tage may want to increase the flower garden, and the next place to plant is close about the house. It is to be taken for granted that the house and piazzas have the proper gutters. This is necessary, of course, for the preservation of the house, and without gut- ters the drip from the eaves would be such that nothing could grow directly against the house. The bed might be three feet wide and run across the front of the house on either side of the steps. The owner would proba- bly wish to plant vines over the porch or piazza, in case it has not ah'eady been done. The best for this purpose are mentioned elsewhere. Should the house front the south, east or west, nearly everything can be grown; but should it face the north, nothing but Ferns and Rhododendrons would be successfvd on the front. Dahlias of the Cactus variety, in diiferent colours, could be planted at the back i5 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN of the bed on one side of the steps. Get good-sized roots, plant them two feet apart. They will grow against the house like a tail hedge. If planted the third week in April quite deep, say eight inches, they will begin to bloom about the sixth of July, and con- tinue to be covered with flowers until killed by frost. In front of the Dahlias, plant white Phlox. In front of the Phlox sow a row of Centaurea or Cornflowers, the Emperor Wil- Uam variety. These should be sown early in April, win begin to bloom by June tenth, and, if they are not allowed to go to seed, will blossom all summer. Sow in front of the Cornflowers, at the same time, a row of white Cand5rtuft, of the Empress variety. This also win bloom continuously if the flowers are cut as soon as they wither. On the other side of the steps, at the back of the bed, plant Rudbeckia (Golden Glow) two feet apart. The roots should be bought and planted, preferably in October, otherwise as soon as the frost is out of the ground in the spring, 46 HOW TO PLANT A SMALL PLOT as they start very early. In front of the Rudbeckias plant Cannas — the Tarrjrtown, of most vivid scarlet hue, I have found the best and freest-flowering of all. The roots should be planted about May fifteenth. On the edge of the bed, sow by April fifteenth a row of salmon -pink Zinnias, and when they are well up, thin out to six inches apart. They begin to blossom when very smaU, and will stand considerable frost. The expense of these beds will be trifling, Rudbeckias of the Golden Glow variety, one doUar a dozen ; the Tarrytown Canna, two dollars and a half a dozen ; Cactus Dahlias, two dollars a dozen ; Phlox, one dollar and a half a dozen. The small quan- tity of flower seeds required will cost less than a doUar. A man can easily make the beds in three days. Therefore, the cost Avith manure wiU be less than fifteen doUars. After a hard frost has killed the tops, the Dahlias, Cannas and Gladioli should be taken up, the tops cut off", the roots well 47 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN dried, and then stored in a cellar that does not freeze. The Canna and Dahlia roots wiU have grown so large that they can be divided and it wUl be found that there are enough to plant, the following spring, nearly twice the space they occupied before. It is impossible, if successful with the bor- ders already planned, for the owner not to wish for more garden. She sees the neigh- bors' gardens with newly opened eyes ; flowers and their treatment become an absorbing topic of conversation, and the exchange of plants a deUghtful transaction. It will be seen that the next places to plant are along the boundary hues of the property. Even if one side only be laid out at a time, a large number of plants will be required. The owner wiU find great pleasure in raising as many of these herself as possible. To accompUsh this, somewhere at the back of the place, a seed-bed should be made, and in April the seeds of perennials and annuals sown. The border must be made by Sep- 48 Vase of Altheas September sixteenth HOW TO PLANT A SMALL PLOT tember the twentieth and should be at least four feet wide. Either a hedge can be placed at the back of the border, or tall- growing flowering shrubs, such as white and purple Lilacs (not the Persian), Mock Oranges (Syringa), Deutzia and Roses of Sharon (Althea). These shrubs will grow about equally high, yield an abundance of flowers, the Altheas in August, the others in May or June, and in four or five years will form a complete screen fi-om the neigh- boring grounds. In front of the shrubs perennials can be planted, taller ones at the back, lower - growing ones in front, and annuals along the edge. Such a border, if from fifty to a hundred feet in length, will be a garden by itself. The plants wOl do best if closely set, and every vacant space fiUed in June with annuals. Weeds then have httle chance to grow, and a short time every day will keep such a border in order. The border can be of any width from four to twelve feet, but 49 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN when more than four feet, the front edge should be made with irregular curves to avoid a stiiF appearance. Shrubs should be set out not later than October tenth, and, as they or the hedge would be at the back of the bed, the plant- ing of them win not interfere with the per- ennials that have already been transplanted from the seed-bed. Hedges are so much more beautiful than any fence that ever was buUt that, in towns or villages where cattle are not allowed to run at large, hedges should, wherever possible, be used in place of fences. To prepare the ground for a hedge, make a trench eighteen inches deep, put a good layer of well-rotted manure in the bottom and fiU up with earth. When the hedge is planted give it a good top-dressing of manure, and continue this top-dressing, with a httle bone-meal sown on the surface of the groimd, every spring. The best and hardiest evergreen hedge is of Hemlock Spruce. Plants of this can be 50 M § +2 w 3 a HOW TO PLANT A SMALL PLOT bought for fifteen dollars a hundred, and should be set eighteen inches apart. The Privet is a favorite hedge in this country. It keeps green until December, and leafs out early in the spring. It is hardy and of rapid growth. Good plants ai*e six dollars a hundred, and should be planted a foot apart. Catalogues say that if planted in rich soU one foot apart, a hedge five feet high can be grown in three seasons. Common Privet is more hardy than CaUfor- nia Privet. Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora makes a beautiful low-growing hedge ; good plants can be bought for six doUars a hundred. Berheris Thunbergii, or Barberry, makes a fine hedge, on account of its beau- tiful foliage and scarlet fruit. It is, how- ever, slow -growing. The owner of a small place should avoid the temptation to scatter flower beds about the lawn. Keep all the planting along the edges of the property and around the house, and leave the lawn unbroken by flower beds. 51 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN The years when gardening consisted only of beds of Coleus, Geraniums, Verbenas and bed- ding plants have passed away, like the black walnut period of furniture. And even as the mahogany of our grandfathers is now brought forth from garrets and unused rooms, and antiquity shops and farm-houses are searched for the good old-time furniture, so we are learning to take the old gardens for our models, and the old-fashioned flowers to fiU our borders. The nurseryman of to-day has greatly im- proved the size and colour of the old varieties of perennials, so that they are far more beau- tiftd than formerly, and offer a much greater choice. By skilful hybridization a hundred or more kinds of Phlox have been devel- oped. In the same way, numerous varieties of Delphiniums, Iris, Peonies, Columbines, Canterbury BeUs and Foxgloves have been produced. The old-fashioned annuals also appear in many new forms. In addition to the pink and white "Painted Lady," the 62 HOW TO PLANT A SMALL PLOT pure white and the daxk purple Sweet Peas of our mothers' time, we may now cultivate some eighty varieties of this delicate flower. Thus the garden of hardy perennials, annuals and bulbs will give us a continual sequence of flowers in every form and colour from April until November, if pi'operly made and tended. 53 Ws^£,SKBUm^ ■»j»»^M^^»ai—.-^g 1 p^r~^- ■ Biiiiite niMii^M 1 it' > : if^^t^^^-w4^ ^i IMKiSBBSlK^^?^ "I- '-NX > 1-^ '*f^MHffli ^:*li^^:Ji 1 3 ^^^^^ ■ifr ^^ • •, ^;^ " ■ ' ' , ^^■'^''!-^}:''^'j '^^l f-^^M' a -P i> ^^ S 3 60 THE SEED-BED CHAPTER V THE SEED-BED nn HE possessor of a garden, large or small, should have a seed-bed, where seeds of perennials and some of the annuals can be sown and grown until large enough to be permanently placed. Not only will this bed give great pleasure in enabling one to watch the plants from the time the first tiny leaf appears, but also when laden with blossoms in fullest beauty. The knowledge that you have raised them gives a thrill of pride in the result which no bought plants, however beautiful, can impart. It is not necessary to prepare the seed-bed over a foot in depth, but the soil must be very hght and fine, as well as rich. It is best, if possible, to have a portion of the bed somewhat shaded from the sun for a part of the day. If this com- 57 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN bination cannot be had in one bed, there should be a second for plants that want less sun. Biennials must, of course, be sown every year, as they bloom but once, then die. Every year some perennials will disappear, killed by severe winters, by pests of one kind or another, or dying without apparent cause. To keep up the supply, therefore, some of each variety should be raised every year. Foxgloves and Sweet WiUiams, if allowed to go to seed, will sow themselves and in- crease rapidly. The same with Hollyhocks, but, except on the edges of shrubberies and in wild borders, it is better to cut the stalk just before the seed is ready to fall, and save it to sow in the seed-bed. In my garden, some seventy miles from New York, and where the spring opens ten days later, I sow my seeds, — the perennials about the tenth of April and the annuals from April twentieth to May first. Buy the seeds, if the garden is large, by the ounce or half-ounce; if small, in the seedsman's pack- 58 THE SEED-BED ets. I always have the seeds of perennials soaked for twenty -four hours before planting, and find that by so doing they are very sure to germinate. Care must be taken, when soak- ing a number of different kinds at the same time, to place the name of each variety of seed under the glass or bowl containing the same. When ready for planting, pour off the water and mix the wet seeds carefully with very dry earth, in a cigar- box, which is of the right size and easy to handle. Then sow, not too deeply, in rows about a foot apart in the bed, covering very hghtly, ac- cording to size. One -half inch is enough for the large seeds. The very fine varieties should simply have the earth sprinkled on them. If planted too deep they will never come up. Seeds of annuals do not require soaking. Pat the earth down firmly with the back of the trowel, sprinkle with a fine sprinkler late every afternoon, and it is not your fault if you do not have hundreds and thousands of young plants to make your own place beau- 59 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN tiful and to give to your friends. It is a keen delight, when a friend says that she has not raised such and such plants this year, to run and get your trowel and dig a bunch of this and that from the rows of sturdy little plants. It is a pleasvire to know that a bit of your garden has gone to help make another's beautiful. One of the greatest pleasures of a garden is in giving flowers and plants to your friends. Every October, when arranging the borders and separating plants, I send away great boxes of them, some to fortunate friends with lovely gardens, but without the same varieties ; some to humble cottage gar- dens, and others to friends who have never grown a flower, but would like to try. This year, having made a large new garden, I was able to give away to friends and neighbors only about seven hundred plants, not seed- lings but large plants and roots. Generally I can send away far more. Think what a delight this is 1 60 THE SEED-BED A request for some plants came to me last autumn from the baggage-master of a raili-oad station some twenty miles from us, who, by the boxes of shrubs and plants that came to me, inferred that I might have some to spare. I learned that all this man's spare time was spent in his little garden plot, so great was his love of flowers. I know, too, a village expressman (another whom nature intended for a gar- dener), whose httle plot of gi-ound is always a mass of beauty. He has a surprising variety of plants, and every one is a fine specimen of its kind. His Anemone Ja- ponica alba are the finest I have ever seen, each one sending up perhaps a dozen slen- der stalks of the beautiful flowers. I have had great difficulty with this plant and have lost dozens of them. I always drive very slowly by the expressman's garden, burning with envy and wondering how he does it. In fact, it Avas only last year that I had my first success with these obdurate plants. 61 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN They must grow under trees whose branches are sufficiently high to admit the sun half the day. As they bloom in September and October, the tree protects them from the frost, and in winter they shoidd be well cov- ered with stable htter. They are among the few plants to be set out in the spring, for if not weU established they are always winter-killed. It is weU not to empty the perennial seed- bed entirely in the autumn, but to leave a few plants of each variety to transplant in the spring, to take the place of those which have not survived the winter. When the bed is empty, in the spring, have a good coating of manure spaded in and proceed again with the sowing. Biennials, and also most perennials, must be raised every year to keep up the supply. 62 PLANTING 3 g I &0 s o 1-1 CHAPTER VI PLANTING T CAN NOT impress too strongly upon my readers the importance of ordering their plants and seeds of weU- known firms. The best ai'e always the cheapest in the end. Inquuy among friends will generally give the best information as to rehable seedsmen and growers. In ordering slxrubs and plants it is important to specify the precise date of dehvery, that you may know in advance the day of arrival. The beds or borders should be prepared in advance, so that everything may be set out without delay. Care must be taken that the roots ai-e not exposed to the air and allowed to become dry. It is a good plan, when unpacking a box of plants, to sort them, laying each variety in a pile by itself, covering the roots mth the moss 65 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN and excelsior in which they were packed, and then, if at all dry, to sprinkle thoroughly. Unpacking should, if possible, be done under cover — in the cellar if there be no other place. Great care must also be taken in setting out plants that ample room be given; as the roots should be well spread out and never doubled up. Do not be afraid of having the hole too big; see that the earth is finely pulverized and well packed about the roots ; that the plant is thoroughly soaked, and, if the weather is dry, kept watered for a couple of weeks. If the plants have arrived in good condition and are carefully set out, but few should die. I have never lost a decid- uous tree, and frequently, in setting out a hundred shrubs at one time, all have lived. Wherever there is a fence make a border, wide or narrow according to your space; if wide, — and it may be as much as twelve feet wide, — always make the edge irregular, never straight. Some prefer a hedge at the 66 PLANTING back of the border. The best effect and quickest screen is made by planting, against the fence at the back of the border, White Lilacs (not the Persian), Syringas, Deutzias and the beautiful new Altheas. Plant these shrubs three feet apart. In good soil they Avill send up great canes, and in four years time should be six feet high and shut you in from all prying gaze. In planting a border, always keep in mind the fact that it should be blooming from May to November. Put in the plants ac- cording to height, the tallest, of course, at the back and the lowest in front, fiUing the front also with spring-flowering bulbs, DaiFo- dils, Tuhps and Narcissi, which will blossom and be over before the plants come on. You will thus have the longest succession of bloom. If the border is quite wide — from fom* to six feet — and perhaps one hundred and fifty feet long, it wiU hold a surprising number of plants. Certain plants, in a long border with a 67 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN background of shrubs, look best in rows, in spite of all that has been written against it: For instance. Hollyhocks, a long row of plants three deep, broken every ten feet or so by a clump of a dozen, and in front of these a single row of Rudbeckias, broken with clumps of six or so, and the rest of the border planted in masses, more or less according to space, of Phloxes, Larkspur, LUies, Columbines, Sweet Williams, with every now and then a good clump of Chrysanthemums to blossom when aU other flowers are gone. In filling a border along a rather short path, the plants should always be set ia clumps of from six to twelve of a kiad. If the border is narrow and has no shrubs or hedge back of it, the effect will be better if the plants do not exceed three feet in height. Omit from such a border Hollyhocks, Rud- beckias, Sunflowers and Cosmos. Sweet Wil- hams, Coliunbines, Sweet Alyssum, Candy- tuft, Nasturtiums and Phlox Dnimmondii can all be grown as edging for borders. 68 PLANTING I have a border, two and a half feet wide and three hundred and fifty feet long, that is a mass of bloom from the middle of May tmtil the last of September. It may give the reader a suggestion to know its contents. Ever}rthing is in rows, the only border in my garden where the planting is done in this way. Along the edge is Nardssus Poeticusj back of Narcis- sus Poeticus a row of Sweet Williams, pink, white and very dark red; back of the Sweet WiUiams, Foxgloves; back of the Foxgloves, Peonies and Hydrangea grandiflora planted alternately; and back of these, a row of Hollyhocks. About two feet behind this border, a row of Rudbeckia (Golden Glow) grows hke a tall hedge. When Narcissus Poeticus has finished blooming, the Peonies come on. Before the last Peony has lost its petals, the Sweet WiUiams (quite two feet high) are in blos- som, and the Foxgloves (from three to four feet high) begin to bloom, and last for a 69 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN month. While these flowers are still lovely, the tail HoUyhocks begin to flower, each plant sending up from three to five stalks. Then, by the time the Hollyhock stalks are cut down, the Hydrangeas, which are trimmed back very severely every autumn, are a mass of white. Meanwhile the Rudbeeliias, for quite six weeks, form a yellow background. The illustrations show this row of flowers while the Narcissi, Peonies, Foxgloves, and Hydrangeas are successively in blossom. Early in June, I transplant into peren- nial borders, wherever a spot can be foimd, clumps of Asters, Cosmos and other late annuals, which are beautiful in September and October when most flowers have ceased to bloom. From September twentieth to October fifteenth is a busy time in the garden. New beds and borders should be made then. The plants in all borders fovu* years old should be lifted, and the beds or borders spaded deeply with plenty of manure, the plants 70 PLANTING reset, and the young perennials transplanted from the seed-bed into their final places. All perennial plants whose roots are suffi- ciently large, should now be divided and reset. This fall planting and transplanting should be done at about the time mentioned, for the shrubs and plants must become well rooted before the ground freezes, or they will rarely survive the winter. No matter how rich a bed or border may be, I always have the hole to receive the plant made larger than is necessary, and put a spade- ful of manure in the bottom. In trans- planting, my man always has a wheelbarrow of this at his side to work from. If there ai-e bare places in lawns or grass paths, sow gi-ass seed about the twentieth of September, then roll, and the gi-ass will be well rooted before cold weather. It must be borne in mind that everything possible should be done in the fall. Peren- nials stai-t early in the spring, and it is a pity, when they are once stai-ted, to disturb 71 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN them. When the frost has finally killed everything, all the dead tops should be cut off at the ground, the dead annuals puUed up, the borders made clean and neat, and, about the last of November, covered vrith a good layer of stable htter, leaves or straw. I have always found the plants start earlier and do better for this shght protection. Whenever I tell my inquiring friends of the proper preparation of beds, and the spring top-dressing, and winter covering with ma- nure, there is generally an exclamation of alarm at the quantity used. But much is required to make the garden grow. I call upon the farm for manure when the stable supply is insufficient, and both my farmer- husband and his manager at times look askance. But how can I Hve unless my gar- den has what it needs ! The farmer -husband looks upon my gardening as a mild species of insanity, and cannot understand why a little garden with a few plants is not enough for any woman. By dint of much showing 72 PLANTING and explanation through many years, he has acquired a floricultural knowledge which en- ables him to tell a Rose, Lily, Sunflower and Phlox, and of this knowledge he is proud. All manure should be drawn out into the garden when the ground is still frozen, in March or earlier, and placed in convenient piles, so that the ground may not be cut up, when soft, by the wagon wheels ; and also to facihtate work when the first spring days come, and there are a hundred things to be done. If possible, have a spadeful of weU- rotted stable manure stirred into the ground around each shrub and vine in early spring. The result will amply repay you. Save all wood -ashes carefully, under cover, for the garden, and scatter them on the beds and on the grass. Get weU-ground fresh bone-meal, and let aU plants have only a handful in the spring, and the reward in bloom is great. To have good results from the hardy Chry- santhemums the soil cannot be too rich, and I generally "give them something to eat," 73 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN as a boy who helps in the garden calls it, about the fifteenth of June and the fifteenth of August. Care must be taken, in using bone-meal, not to put on too much, and to keep it away from contact with the rootlets. 74 ANNUALS CHAPTER VII ANNUALS •T^ HERE are so many annuals that I will write only about the few which are easiest to grow and are most desirable. For me a flower must have merits for decorating the house as well as for making the garden beautiful. The other day I found an EngUsh book on flowers, and at once sat down to read it, expecting enjoyment and profit from every page; but at the end of a few minutes I came upon the following paragraph: "Particularly to most women one of the chief uses or functions of a garden is to provide flowers to be cut for the decora- tion of rooms. But I hold that a flower cut from its plant and placed in a vase is as a scaJp on the walls of a wigwam." And I read no further in that book. 77 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN I grow flowers to gather them, both for the house and to give away. We keep about sixty vases foil in the house from late May until October, and never allow more than two colours in the same room. I have a yellow room, where only yellow and white flowers, or white and blue, are permitted; a pink room, for white and pink or pink and crimson flowers ; and a hall, whose dominant tone is a rich red, where the flowers are red and white. Some of the annuals, like Mignonette and Poppies, must be sown where they are to grow. Mignonette does best in cool, rather moist soil. Poppies, and oh! have plenty of them and aU kinds. Get the Shirley Poppies, the Giant Double, the fringed kind, and the Cahfomia with their sunny petals. Sow in great numbers wherever they are wanted, here and there in the borders wherever there is space. If there is no other place, sow them in rows in the vegetable garden. 78 Mj iPi*^jH w j^^ffijj :a^ 1 1 H te ^9 1 1 B m ^^m 1 1 M m I 1 '"^M s ^ ^^^M ■M 1 1 K BwKJ^'^^WBL .fl '^^^M s H O^rM m 1 1 ^ ANNUALS They ai-e splendid in the house, but, alas ! fall too quickly. The Shirley Poppies are almost like fairy flowers, they are so delicate and beautiful. They are the first of the annual Poppies to bloom. Then comes the variety which grows wild in France and Germany, — scarlet, with black blotches at the base of the petals. Last to bloom are the tall, fringed double and single Poppies, — white, pink and scarlet, growing on strong stems three feet high. Poppies must be sown thinly and the earth only sprinkled over the seeds. Sow as early in the spring as the ground can be worked, and thin out to six inches apart when the plants are well up. Nastiu1;iums, too, should be planted where they are to grow, also Sweet Alyssum and Candytuft. All of these make good edgings for borders. If not allowed to go to seed they will bloom all summer. Sunflowers, the Dwarf Double, and the tall Giant Sunflowers, are fine in back- grounds and against fences. 79 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN The Following Annuals Should be Sown in the Seed-bed About April Twentieth to May First Antirrhinum, or Snapdragon, growing eighteen inches high. If sown in early May they will bloom from August until late autumn. The same is true of the German Ten-weeks Stocks, which have a long period of bloom. The white ones are most lovely. Asters, all varieties ; sow a quantity. They are not only beautiful, but they give an abundance of blossoms in late Septem- ber and early October, when flowers are be- ginning to be scarce. I prefer the Giant, Comet, Ostrich Plume and the late-flowering branching kind. Of these last, "Purity" (snow-white) and "Daybreak" (shell-pink) are the best, often bearing thirty flowers on a plant and lasting, in water, five days. A small quantity of wood -ashes stirred into the soil of the Aster bed is a fine fertil- izer and destroys insects that attack the roots. Transplant in June to wherever they are to blossom. 80 A single plant of Asters September tenth ANNUALS I have lately learned, that the only way to destroy the black beetle which appears upon the Asters and eats the flowers, is to have them picked off morning and evening and thrown into a pan containing kerosene oil, which kills them. Cosmos. The early-summer flowering vari- ety of Cosmos wiU begin to bloom in July, and, if not allowed to go to seed, will be a mass of flowers until killed by frost. In favorable soil Cosmos grows luxuriantly, and resembles a small tree six or eight feet high. This plant should be staked, or it is hkely to be blown down. It is very effective when transplanted to the borders, blooming gayh' when there is not much else. The pink and crimson vai'ieties are beautiful, but do not compare with the white. Calendula, growing about a foot high in every shade of yeUow from deep orange to pale ivory, is one of the best and most con- stant blooming of the yeUow flowers. Centaurea, or Cornflower. These come 81 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN in many colours, but I grow only the tall, ragged, blue variety. If not permitted to go to seed, they will bloom plentifully for several months. On the dinner -table with blue and white china, and in June combined with Syringa, they make a beautiful and unusual decoration. Marigold, both the double African and the double French. These flowers always give me a pricking of the conscience, for dur- ing the summer, when there are plenty of others, I give them the "go by," but in October turn to them with shame and thank- fulness. Phlox Drumviondii grows about six or eight inches high, and comes in many colours. It makes beautiful borders, particularly the white, pink and dark red. Plumed Celosia, or Cockscomb. The new varieties are very effective. Zinnias. Lately I have grown only two varieties, a vivid scarlet and a salmon -pink. They are not only lovely when growing, but 82 ANNUALS make a beautiful house decoration, as the stems are long and stiff. Stvect Peas, which no garden can do with- out. Several books say, plant in autumn, very late. I have twice sown two pounds at this time, carefuUy following the direc- tions, and not one single Pea came up the following spring. Sweet Peas should be sown in the spring the moment the frost comes out of the ground, so that they may become deeply rooted before dry weather. JNlake a trench about a foot deep and a foot wide. Have a good layer of manure in the bottom of the trench, over which put a couple of inches of earth, and over this earth put a good layer of wood- ashes, again a sprinkling of earth. Then sow the Peas, and cover them with a couple of inches of earth. As they grow, fill in the trench, and keep on hiUing up the plants until the roots are very deep. It is well to mulch them with the chppings of lawn grass. In this way the plants are A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN kept from drying up, and will bloom until October. Sweet Peas flourish best on a trellis of galvanized wire netting. It should be a permanent trellis, made of cedar posts set three feet deep, so as to be below the frost line and four feet high. To this attach the wire netting. A trench should be made on either side of the netting, so that a double row of Peas may be sown. The quantity sown depends on the length of the treUis ; three pounds will sow a double row one hun- dred and twenty -five feet long. I always sow the diiFerent colours separately. It simplifies the task of arranging them, if they can be gathered separately. A bowl of white Sweet Peas and Maidenhair Fern is indeed a "thing of beauty." Pansies, every one loves them. They are annuals, but do best if treated as biennials. The most practical hint that I was able to get from "Elizabeth's German Garden" was where she spoke of carpeting her Rose beds 84 ANNUALS with Pansies. This instantly appealed to me, as I greatly dislike to see the earth in the beds and borders, and in Rose beds it always is to be seen. So I bought an ounce each of white and yellow Pansy seed, sowed it about the tenth of July in the partly shaded end of the seed-bed, and by October first had splendid great plants. I did not allow these to blossom, but picked off the buds, and, after the Rose beds had been given a plentiful top-dressing of manure carefully stirred in with a large trowel, I transplanted my Pansy plants. Of course, they had to be covered over with the Roses the last of November, and often during the winter I wondered whether the dears would be smoth- ered. On the twenty -eighth of March the beds were uncovered, and, imagine it! there were Pansies in bloom. From April tenth until late in August these beds were simply a carpet of white and yellow. I never saw anything hke it. It was probably due to the rich soU, perhaps also to the free water- 85 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN ing necessary for the Roses. Then, in order that no Pansies should go to seed, my own maid, who is very fond of flowers, undertook each morning to cut off all that were begin- ning to wither. This required from one to two horn's, but certainly prolonged the bloom, and I could never have spared a man so long for just the Pansies. Sow Pansy seed in the seed-bed about the tenth of July, and transplant late in October. These are some of the more important annuals which no garden should be without. All of them are easy to raise, and blossom abundantly. I do not speak of the many others, but advise trjdng new flowers every year. The first week in June is the time to transplant aU annuals. Do it, if possible, directly after a rain, always late in the afternoon, and, of course, water well after transplanting. I have a method of my own for the transplanting of seedhngs, and by 86 <» 3 ° S s ° §^ •■S3 ■% g a B ANNUALS following it the tiny plants never wither or are set back, and in fact do not seem to know that they have been moved. Take a tin box, such as biscuits come in, half fill it with water, then lift into it from the seed-bed about one hundred seedlings at a time. With a sharp -pointed stick make holes in the bed where the little plants are to go, and then put them in. Soak the ground thoroughly after each patch is finished. In this way the tiny rootlets never become dry. All the beds and borders can be kept free from weeds and in good condition if gone over with a trowel every five days, or once a week, the earth stirred thoroughly, and any weeds that may have grown taken out. It is particularly necessary, for a few weeks in the spring, to keep well ahead of the weeds. I always think of my sins when I weed. They grow apace in the same way and are harder still to get rid of It seems a pity sometimes not to nurture a pet one, 87 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN just as it does to destroy a beautiful plant of Wild Mustard, or of Queen Anne's Lace. List of Annuals, with Height, Colour and Period of Blooming Asters, all colours; one to two feet; Au- gust to October. Alyssum, white, dwarf for borders ; six inches ; blooms aU summer if not allowed to go to seed. Sakam, Camellia -flowered, pale pink, dark red, white; two to three feet; July and August. Calendula (Pot Marigold), aU shades of yellow; mid -July untU Idlled by frost. CalUopsis (Coreopsis), yeUow with red or brown center; two feet; mid -July, until killed by frost. Candytuft, red, white, purple. Empress variety white the best, fine for edging; six inches; blooms continually if not allowed to go to seed. Centaur ea (Cornflower), all shades of blue; three feet; blooms three months if kept cut. 88 ANNUALS Cockscomb, crimson and scarlet; two to three feet; August and September. Cosmos, white, pink, crimson; three to five feet; from the fifteenth of July until killed by frost. Eschscholtzia, yellow Poppies; one foot; blooms all summer. Godetia, pink, crimson, white; one foot; blooms aU summer. Marigold, all shades of yellow; one to two and one-half feet; mid- July until killed by frost. Mignonette, average height one foot; blooms all summer if kept fi-om seeding. Nasturtiuvis, all shades of yellow and red; dwarf, nine inches; chmbing, five feet; bloom aU summer until killed by frost. Pansy, many colours; six inches; from early spring until November, if kept well cut. Petunia, double giant - flowered the only kind to raise; white, crimson and pink; one and one-half feet ; bloom aU summer. Phlox Drummondii, many colours; one 89 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN foot; blooms July, August and September if not allowed to seed. Poppy, all shades of pink and red, also white ; one to three feet. If several varie- ties are planted can be had in bloom from three to four weeks ; end of June and July. Snapdragon, scarlet and white, white and yellow, pure white; one and one -half feet; July and August. Stocks (German Ten- Weeks), white, pink, red, purple; one and one -half feet; middle of July until middle of September. Sunflower, yellow, dwarf and tall varie- ties, single and double; three to six feet; all summer. Sweet Peas, aR colours; three feet; grown on bush or treUis; end of June until October if kept well cut and moist. Sweet Sultan, purple, white, yellow; one and one-half feet; June, July and August. Zinnia, many colours; one and one-half to two feet; July, August and September. 90 PERENNIALS CHAPTER YIII PERENNIALS ^OME of the perennials to be sown yearly in the seed-bed from about April first to tenth, are the following: Columbines of aU varieties, yeUow, white, shading from pink to red and from pale blue to dai'kest purple. Of Columbines eveiy garden should have plenty. Blooming about IMay twentieth for three weeks, they are a perfect delight. They are very hardy, germinate readily in the seed-bed, are easy to transplant and need but httle care. I have never been able to get them much over three feet in height, but then I have often a dozen stalks of bloom on a single plant, which is very satis- factory. The first dozen plants were sent to me by a fi-iend from his garden on Long 93 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN Island; now I have hundreds of them,— sin- gle and double, white, yeUow, all shades of red and pink, pale blue, and a blue one with a white center almost Hke an Orchid; many shades of purple, also purple and white. Hollyhocks, single and double, of all colours. In order to get the desired colour eflfect with these, keep each variety separate. No one can have too many HoUyhocks. Plant them at the back of the borders among the shrubbery, along fences, and in great clumps in any odd corner, or around build- ings; they are never amiss, and always beau- tiful. I find that a Hollyhock cannot be counted upon to bloom more than three years. First -year stalks are about four feet high; afterwards, if in good soil, they will be from six to eight feet. There were him- dreds of this size in my garden last summer, each plant with from three to five towering stalks of bloom. As soon as they have gone to seed, I save what seed I want and the stalks are then cut down and burned. By 94 PERENNIALS sowing the seeds as soon as thoroughly ripe and dry, plants can be raised which will be large enough to transplant in October, and wiU bloom the next year. These young plants should be given a slight covering the first winter, that they may not be winter -killed. When in a border, the Hollyhock, which will flom'ish in any soil, grows to such an extent that Lilies or Phloxes, or anything else near by, are likely to be crowded out, unless care is taken to cut off the lower leaves, which become enormous. I have this done usually three times before they bloom, beginning early in May, and great wheelbarrow -loads of leaves are taken away at each cutting. Sweet TVillianis, red, white and pink. These will grow from eighteen inches to two feet. The stems are straight and stiff, and the trusses of bloom about five inches across, with individual flowers as large as a nickel ; they keep well in water and make a beau- tiful edging for a border, or give great effect when planted in masses. They bloom for 95 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN three weeks or more, and make fine deco- rations for church or house. Platycodon Mariesi, beautiful blue; they resemble Canterbury BeUs, and, as they blossom after the Canterbury BeUs, are val- uable in continuing the period of blue flow- ers, with the advantage of being perennials. Delphiniums, perennial Larkspurs, all vari- eties. These seeds I have found more diffi- cult to make germinate than any others, so I do not rely upon what I raise, but purchase many plants. My best results have come from saving the seeds from the first crop of blossoms, drying thoroughly, and then sow- ing at once. I have found these seeds more sure to germinate than those bought in early spring. Perhaps nature intends them to be sown in this way, instead of nine months later. One can never say enough in praise of Delphiniums. Three - year - old plants will send up eight to ten beautiful great spikes of the richest blue, four feet high. The moment a blossom withers, cut the stalk 96 A single plant of Delphinium Perennial Larkspur) June twenty -first PERENNIALS down to the ground; another will immedi- ately spring up. I had four crops of blos- soms from some of my Delphiniums last summer, so that, from the end of June until the middle of October, there were always some of them in blossom. Some varieties of tall English Delphiniums are very beautiful. Among them is one, Cceles- tinum, of the lovehest shade of light blue, with very large, double individual flowers. As I have said before, the Delphinium blos- soms at the same time as Lilium candidum, and should be planted near by. Great bunches of these two flowers, in tall vases, are lovely as well as unusual. There is a horrid small white worm -w^hich attacks the roots of the Delphinium, and gives no sign until you see the plant dying. I have found that keeping the soil around the plant well covered with coal ashes is a preventive. Delphiniums are hardy and long-lived (vmless the worm gets them), and, once planted, they live a dozen years. 97 If A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN Coreopsis (Grandiflora). Every one knows the Coreopsis, which, by continual cutting, will give abundant bloom for three months. The variety with velvety maroon centers is particularly fine. Hibiscus is very easy to raise, and should be planted among and along the edge of shrubbery. The plants are quite hardy, grow four feet high, and masses of them in pink or white are fine. They bloom in August and September. Rockets, white and purple. These increase tremendously from seK- sowing, so be care- ful or they wiU suffocate all that grows near them. I have many plants, aU of which have come from a single one that a colored woman gave me a few years ago. She is a nice comfortable old "mammy," black as the ace of spades, with a great love for flowers and a nice patch of them. We have ex- changed plants several times. Some of the nicest things I have in my garden came to me in this way, and it is great fun. 98 PERENNIALS Whenever, in driving about, I see a par- ticularly fine plant in a dooryard, I make friends with its owner, and later suggest that if she (it is usually "she") will give me a small root of this or that, I wiU bring her some plants or bulbs from my garden, of a kind which she has not. So we are both equally benefited. In this way I was once given a plant of Kalerian, which has a tall, beautiful white flower with a most delicious odour like vanilla. It blooms for three weeks in late May and early June. From this one plant there are now in the garden a number of large clumps several feet in diameter, and I have given away certainly fifty roots. A'^alerian is a smaU white flower in good-sized clusters on long stems, seen now- a- days only in old-fashioned gardens. I am told it cannot be bought of horticulturists. One must have Chrysanthemums, but where the thermometer faUs below zero there are not many to be bought, other than the pom- pon varieties, that wiU blossom in the garden 99 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN before being killed by frost, or that will survive the winter. Year after year I have bought dozens of the so-called "September- flowering Chrysanthemums," and have only succeeded in making them blossom by the middle of October, by planting them on the south side of a building, in richest soil, giv- ing abundance of water, and covering on all cold nights. But I have beautiful plants of perfectly hardy, good -sized blossoms of yel- low, white, pink and red, the roots of which have come from the gardens of my farmer friends. I have never been able to buy this old-fashioned hardy kind. In the spring, as soon as the plants begin to sprout, divide them, setting out three or four sprouts to- gether. In this way the stock wiU increase wonderfully. Chrysanthemums require very rich soU, must have sun, and do best against a build- ing or a wall. About the first of July and the first of September have a couple of trowelfuls of manure carefully dug in about 100 PERENNIALS the roots of each plant. Buds should not be allowed to form until September, and the new shoots should be pinched back until then, to make the plants strong and bushy. 1 do not envy any one who has only the great, solemn, stiff flowers of the prize -show variety. An armful of the hardy garden ones, with their delicious odour, is worth a green -house full of the unnatural things which are the professional gardener's pride. When you can keep twenty or more vases filled from your o\\ti garden with these last blossoms of the year, in all their lovely colours, and not miss one of them from the plants, you will agree with me that they are the only kind to raise. Perennials, sown in rows in the seed-bed in April, wiU be nice httle plants by July, when they should be hfted and transplanted some six inches apart. The portion of the seed-bed where the annuals were raised can be used now for the purpose. This is par- ticularly necessary for Larkspur, Columbines, 101 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN Monkshood, Platycodon, Coreopsis, Hibiscus and Pinks. If, when transplanting, each plant is set with a trowelful of manure, the result v/ill be plants twice as large by the first of October, when they can be again transplanted to their permanent places. Oriental Poppies and Pinks should also be so"\vn in the perennial seed-bed. Oriental Poppies, with great blossoms as large as a tea plate borne on strong stems, make a grand show about the end of May and beginning of June. Pinks, too, should be in every garden, if only for their delicious, spicy odor. The Chinensis, or China Pinks, are the best. Sweet Williams and Oriental Poppies need not be moved from the time they are sown until finally transplanted in the autumn. Yucca jilamentosa, the hardy native of Mexico, sends up, about the tenth of July, great stalks six to eight feet high, bearing masses of white flowers. The individual blossoms are of creamy waxy texture and as 102 o S « 3 PERENNIALS beautiful as an orchid. A single stalk of Yucca, in a tall vase, will last nearly a week, and is as unusual as it is beautiful for house decoration. Yuccas are perfectly hardy, need no protection in winter, no fer- tiUzer, no water in dry weather. In my garden, at least, they have not been attacked by insects and have grown placidly on, needing absolutely no care but to have the stalks cut down when they have finished blossoming. They are most eiFective when grown in clumps, but look very well along a fence with Hollyhocks at the back. The plants are so inexpensive that I have bought mine, but see no reason why they cannot be raised from seed. Small plants form near the parent stem, and these can be separated and transplanted. A late spring frost will sometimes nip the flower stalk that has just started, and there wUl be no bloom that year. To avoid such a disaster, whenever, in late spring, a frosty night is suspected, cover the plants with a piece of bvu*lap. 103 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN Tritomas (Red-hot Poker Plant) bloom in September and October, and should always be planted in masses, and in fuU sun. They must be well covered with leaves or stable htter late in November, or they will be winter- killed. They increase rapidly. Qaillardias bloom all summer, and keep fresh in water for days. The plants are covered with long - stemmed, yellow flowers with dark crimson centers, and should also be protected in winter. Veronica longifolia, a most beautiful dark blue flower, which grows in long spikes. Veronica remains in bloom during the month of August, and is one of the most showy flowers in the garden at that time. Iris, Japanese and German, do well when naturalized in the grass. These plants in- crease so, that every four years they can be separated. Beginning with the German Iris, flowering the end of May, they can be had in bloom until the Japanese Iris finishes blossoming the middle of July. No Orchids 104 PERENNIALS are more beautiful than the Japanese Iris. A couple of weeks before and during the period of bloom they must be kept very moist. Both the German and the Japanese Iris are perfectly hardy and increase rapidly. The English Iris, of which the white variety, known as Mont Blanc, is the most beautiful, and the Spanish Iris, in all its varieties, are not hardy. But with careftd winter cover- ing, about equal to that given to the ever- blooming Roses, they wiU generally survive, and are well worth the trouble. The roots of all varieties of Iris are very long, and care must be taken to give them plenty of room and to plant deep. Peonies. For beauty and usefulness Peo- nies rank with Phloxes. Large plants will frequently bear twenty great blossoms. By raising both early and late varieties, their period of bloom can be continued for a month. The old, dark crimson variety is the first to bloom; the old-fashioned double pink 105 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN and double white are beautiful enough to satisfy any one, but the new varieties give immense choice as to colour and form. The Japanese Tree Peonies do not die to the ground every year, hke the herbaceous kinds, but form woody branches and grow hke a smaU shrub. The blossoms of these Tree Peonies are truly wonderful; the only care needed is a httle fertilizer in the autumn and a shght winter covering. They are best grown in front of the shrubbery. They blossom before the herbaceous varieties. The herbaceous Peonies can be grown in large beds by themselves, in borders with other plants, or as single specimens in the grass or among the shrubs. Peonies start so early in the spring that they should be manured in the fall, or there is danger of breaking the tender shoots. Phlox. There is no flower in the garden more beautiful, more easily cultivated, or giv- ing so much bloom as the Phlox. I could certainly never have a garden without it. 106 PERENNIALS In mine there must be a couple of thousand. I have a great mass, of probably two hun- dred herbaceous Phloxes, growing together in one corner of my garden, the very tall vai'ieties over four feet high. About the fifteenth of July, every year, this corner is a superb sight. Most of these plants are over fifteen years old. They have been kept fine by heaviest top-dressing every year, and by lifting all the plants every three years and digging in quantities of manure, and also by separating each plant into three, by cutting the roots with a spade, or pulUng apart with the fingers. The newer varieties of Phlox come in the most beautiful coloiu's, — dark crimson, fiery scarlet, many shades of pink, pink striped with white, and pink with a white eye; aU shades of lilac, lUac with white and purple, the beautiful pru'e white, and the white with the scarlet eye. Of all the varieties, my favorites are the snowy white, and the salmon -pink with the dark red eye. Buy 107 A WOMAN S HARDY GARDEN fifty large field -grown plants; at the end of three years separate them, and you have a hundred and fifty. They present a picture of progression much surer than the tale of the eggs that were to do so much. Many of the individual blossoms of my Phloxes are larger than a fifty -cent piece; a number of them larger by measm-ement than a sUver doUar, and the heads also are very large. Always erect, neat and snuling, never needing to be staked (such a task in a large garden), when once grown they must always be dear to a gardener's heart. By breaking off" the heads of Phlox immediately after blooming, a second crop of flowers wUl appear in about three weeks. The heads will not be so large as the first, but they will amply repay the sUght trouble. Every owner of a garden has certain favor- ites; it really caimot be helped, although the knowledge that it is so makes it seem almost as unfair as for a mother to have a favorite child. 108 PERENNIALS A real lover of flowers finds it difficult to cast away a plant that has bloomed its best, even though the blossom is unsatis- factory. In my garden there are, at present, some plants that I am longing to dig up and bui'n. There ai-e two chmbing Roses that came by mistake in a large order and were set out. They have thriven as no others, cover a very large space on a treUis, and in June bear thousands of a most hide- ous, small, purphsh crimson Rose. The other plant is Scahiosia Caucasica. Bewai-e of the same. The description of it in a catalogue caused me to feel that without it the garden was nothing. A dozen were ordered and set out in a border, in two clumps. They grew and waxed strong, and fairly clambered over everything within several feet of them, seeming to be Uke gigantic thistles. Finally in August, on stems two feet long, the eagerly looked -for blossoms appeared. These were described in the catalogue as "a large head of pale blue 109 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN flowers." But, to my despair, it developed a round green ball about three inches in cir- cumference, with white thistle-Uke petals. And yet the plants had surpassed them- selves. It seems a poor reward to turn them out to die. Lychnis (London Pride). I cannot now recall any perennial except the Cardinal Flower, which has blossoms of so brilliant a scarlet as Lychnis, or London Pride, growing tall and erect, with its bright colour. It is most effective when grown in large clumps. Monkshood {Aconitum Napelhis) grows four feet high, and has a beautiful blossom of rich blue growing in quite large clusters. The name must come from the resemblance each individual blossom bears to the capuchin of a monk. These plants should be grown under tail trees, for they cannot stand too strong sun, and will blossom very late in the autumn if protected by the trees from frost. I gathered them last year in November. 110 PERENNIALS Phloxes, Rudbeckias, Monkshood, Valerian, Lychnis, Tritomas, Iris, Peonies and Veron- ica are best raised, not from seed, but by buying the plants, and then after a time, as I have said before, dividing them. For instance, take a fine large plant of Phlox of some choice variety, divide all the roots and set out each one separately. From one plant you may, in two years' time, get twenty splendid ones, and the same with the other varieties I have mentioned. Rtidheckias, of the Golden Glow variety, grow from six to eight feet high, and must be staked, or when hea\y with blossoms they wiU blow down or be beaten down by the rain. Each plant will bear quantities of long- stemmed double yeUow blossoms, which resemble a double Dahha. These wiU keep nearly a week in water. When the plant has finished blossoming, cut down the tops, and in October there will be a second crop of blossoms just above the ground. The Golden Glow should be divided every 111 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN other year, and in this way it is even more remunerative than the Phlox. I started with fifty plants, and think it will soon be possible to have a farm of them. List of Hakdy Perennials, with Height, Coloub and Time AND Period of Bloojung, Arranged AiPHABEncALLT. Aquilegia, or Columbine, all colours; one to two and one -half feet; tenth of May to first week in June. Chrysanthemums, all colours but blue; three feet; end of September until very cold weather. Delphiniums, aU shades of blue; three to four feet; July; later crops after cutting down. IHaiithus harhatus (Sweet William), red, pink, white; one to two feet; June. Dicentra spectahilis (Bleeding Heart), red and white; one to two feet; May. Gaillardia, yellow, red center; two feet; July, August and September irntU killed by frost. 112 A single plant of Phlox August twenty- fifth PERENNIALS Helianthics multiftorus plenus, hardy double Sunflower; yellow; four to five feet; aU summer. Hibiscus, pink, white; four to five feet; August and September. Hollyhocks, all colours but blue; single, double, four to eight feet; tenth of July to middle of August; two to five stalks on a plant. Hyacinthus candicans, white; four feet; last three weeks of August. Iris Germanica, aU colours ; two to three feet; end of INIay to first of Jime. Lychnis (London Pride), scarlet ; two and one -half feet; July. Onental Poppy, scarlet, also pink ; three feet ; end of May and first of June. Peonies, all colours but blue ; two to two and one -half feet; end of May, for three weeks. Pentstevion, many colours; three feet; August and September. Phlox, all colours; two to four feet; early 113 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN July until killed by frost, if the heads are cut as soon as finished flowering. Platycodon Mariesi, blue; one and one- half feet ; August. Bocket {Hesperis Matronalis), white and purple; two feet; May. RudbecJda (Golden Glow), yellow; five to eight feet; middle of July to September first; second crop in October. Tritovia (Red-hot Poker Plant), orange- scarlet; three to four feet; September and October untU killed by frost. Valerian, white ; three feet ; May and June. Veronica longifoUa, blue; two feet; August. Yucca filamentosa, white; three to five feet; second and third weeks in July. 114 Vase of Canterbur)' Bells June twenty- first BIENNIALS AND A FEW BEDDING- OUT PLANTS CHAPTER IX BIENNIALS AND A FEW BEDDING-OUT PLANTS 'T^HERE are but few hardy biennials. The important ones, which no garden should be without, are : Digitalis (Foxgloves) and Campanula medium, (Canterbury Bells.) Foxgloves and Canterbury Bells bloom in June and July for more than a month, and give a touch of glory to any garden. Catalogues and many gardening books say that the seeds should be sown in early autumn, and the plants will bloom the fol- lowing year. It is true that they wiU bloom when sown in the autumn, but unless kept over the winter in a cold-frame the plants will send up stalks, only about a foot in height. Sow the seeds of Foxgloves and Canter- bury Bells in the shady part of the seed- 117 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN bed in early April. Keep the yoiing plants moist. About the fifteenth of July, if there are a large number of plants and there be no other place, they should be transplanted to the vegetable garden, where they can fol- low early crops of peas or lettuce. Have the ground spaded finely, and make shallow trenches, perhaps six inches deep, in which put a good layer of manure and cover this with earth, then set the plants about six inches apart. Keep them well watered when the weather is dry, and the earth thoroughly stirred. By the twentieth of September or the first of October they should be trans- planted to the places where they are to bloom the following year. The plants should then be a foot across, and next June will send up several stalks about three feet high. The Canterbury Bells should be six inches across in the fall, and the next year about two feet high. Foxgloves seed themselves with great abundance, unless the stalk is cut before the 118 A single plant of Foxgloves . White Sweet A\'illiaiii in front June thirteenth BIENNIALS seed ripens. In the spring I have the Uttle plants, seeded in this way from the year be- fore, taken from the borders and transplanted in rows, and find they are larger and stronger than any others. Foxgloves, white, spotted and pale hlac, are the pride of the garden. Plant them back of the Sweet WiUiams, in clumps of six or eight, or else with Peonies. They blossom at the same time, and the pinks or reds of Sweet WiUiams or Peonies, with here and there a mass of white, and the tail, graceful spikes of the Foxgloves rising above them, produce so beautiful an eflfect that you win simply have to go and look at them many times a day. Canterbury Bells. Let any one who has been at Oxford in June and July recall the Canterbury BeUs in those lovehest of aU gardens. New College and St. Johns, and she wiU not rest until they haye a place in her garden. I did not know these flowers be- fore going to Oxford, and after seeing them 119 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN could not wait to raise them from seed, but bought three dozen plants to look at the first year. The roots that came to me were miserable httle things, and, in spite of every care, half of them died. Those which lived and bloomed were very lovely. They begin to blossom with us about the sixth of June, and last four or five weeks. In colour they are white, pink, pm-ple and blue. Canterbury Bells and Foxgloves are bien- nials. They are sown one year and grow for a year, then bloom and die. This seems a great deal of trouble for one season's flowers, but their beauty repays the gardener a hundred fold. They require a sUght win- ter protection of leaves or stable litter, but care must be taken that the tops of the plants are not covered. THE BEDDING-OUT PLANTS And now a httle about the only three bedding -out plants that I grow — Dahhas, Cannas and Gladioh. I should have said 120 THE BEDDING -OUT PLANTS four, for there is always a large bed of about four dozen Scarlet Salvia (the Bonfire variety is the best), whose brilliant colour and sturdy growth cannot be spared. They begin to blossom in July. By driving a taU stake in the center, and other stakes around the edge of the bed of Salvia, it can be covered with burlaps or carriage covers when the nights are frosty and preserved in all its beauty untU November. Dahlias can be grown in rows in the veg- etable garden, if there be no other place for them. They are decorative and desirable for cutting. Plant two or three tubers in a hill about the third week in AprU. They should be planted eight inches deep and three feet apart, and kept weU staked. The soil should not be too rich, or they will aU grow to stalk and leaf, and blossom but ht- tle. All the varieties are lovely, the Cactus kind more so, perhaps, than the others. In the autumn, when the tops have been killed by the frost, the tubers must be taken up, 121 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN dried off carefully, and stored in a cellar that does not freeze. Gladioli can be planted from April fif- teenth to June fifteenth, in beds by them- selves or in clumps in the , borders, so that the blossoms may be had in succession. Gladioli come in many colours. Cannas, the beautiful French varieties. These, of course, are most effectively grown in masses, and require full sun. The roots, hke those of the Dahlias, increase so that there is almost double the quantity to plant the next spring. It is weU to have the Cannas started in boxes in sunny windows, in tool-room or carriage-house, by mid- April. They can be kept through the winter with the Dahlias and Gladioli. 122 Vase of Foxgloves June fourteenth ROSES CHAPTER X ROSES ^T^HE Rose asserts her right to the title of the " queen of flowers " through her very exclusiveness. She insists upon being grown apart from other plants; otherwise she sulks and is coy, refusing to yield more than an occasional bloom. I speak from expe- rience, having tried several times to gi-ow Roses in the front of wide borders, where soil and sun and everything except the proximity of other plants was propitious. But they scarcely bloomed at all. Now, the same bushes, planted in rows so that a cul- tivator may be run between them, flourish satisfactorily. Grow Roses, then, in beds by themselves or in rows. If one has but half a dozen Roses, let them be grown apart from other plants. 125 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN Pansies,. however, can be grown in the Rose beds, as I have elsewhere described; GladioU can also be planted among them without detriment to either. The reason for this is that the roots of these two flow- ers are not deep and do not interfere with the nourishment of the Roses. Roses on their own roots should hve for years, if given proper treatment. Witness the Rose bushes in gardens, where with but little care they have flourished more than a generation. Budded stock must be planted very deep. The joint should be at least three inches under ground. Roses grown on their own roots are more expensive than the budded stock, but a far better investment. The budded stock is apt to send up from the parent root suckers or shoots of Sweetbrier, Buckthorn, Flowering Almond, or whatever it may be. These shoots must be carefully cut ofi". A friend told me that, when new to Rose growing, his bed of budded Roses 126 K M ' :f%^- .U T ' ■. -fev* , .- 1 .*■ ■' ■' :^ '& m :1 9 5:v. i^ • - ^wa ^:; ^ ^ 1^.'^ *%,. wr r r '^ g « i ,• •^- ,- ** ■ ■^' - w-t ■*"- ■ m ^ i '"^ jik n, wM"-^ *S •-« , -. . . ■i «*'^'\- '. ^ • ^?s2s h fe :."« J ^^B i ~ sa s^ :■ 1 .. ;.,?gM s 1 .•-A-.WvJ*--Vii?. ■ ■■».'• i 1 MMB^^^ .^ LI /^A^ k "-^ M ^^HS^ -p^^-'- ' ■■.»*■ B ;1 ^^^V" ' .^ A ,«V£i,-i- ^^ __: ^'^' •"V ^-v. ;;_ .'I^^^B BhHHH w^ qOHSa^H ■■■bu M -j.*:s^m awi ROSES sent up so many strange shoots that, not knowing what to do, he dug them all up but one. This he kept as a curiosity, and now it is a bush of Flowering Almond six feet in circumference. Everblooming Roses should be set out in the spring, about the middle of April. Hybrid Perpetual and Hardy Roses are best set out in autumn, about October tenth. When planting, always cut the plants back to about a foot in height. AU Roses should be Kfted every three years, late in October, and plenty of manure, with fresh earth and leaf- mould, mixed with sand if the soil is heavy, dug in. After five or six years I dig up my Roses about October tenth, cut the tops down to about twelve inches, cut out some of the old wood, cut off the roots considerably, trench the ground anew, and replant. The foUow- rng year the Roses may not bloom very pro- fusely, but afterwards for four or five years the yield will be great. My physician in the 127 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN country is a fine gardener, and particularly successful with Roses. We have many de- lightful talks about gardening. When I told him of my surgical operations upon the Roses he was horrified at such barbarity, and seemed to hsten with more or less increduhty. So I asked him if, as a surgeon as weU as physician, he approved, on occa- sion, of lopping off a patient's limbs to prolong his life, why he should not also sanction the same operation in the vegetable kingdom. He was silent. I shall not say much about Roses, because there is so much to say. They need a book by themselves, and many have already been written. In my garden there are not more than five hundred Roses, including the chmbing varieties. They have done very well, and have not been given more care than other- plants. For years I did not grow Roses, fearing they would not be a stuccess. I had read about the beetles and spiders and other 128 ROSES creatures that attack them, and dreaded the spraying and insect - picking that all the books said must be done. But, of course, I finally yielded to the temptation of hav- ing the very flower of all flowers, in my garden, and have found the trouble slight and the reward great. I have them in beds in a little formal garden, and in rows in a picking garden. The beds and the trenches for the rows are both made in the usual way, and every fall, in late October, before the Pansies are set out as already described, manure is dug in, and in the early spring, about the tenth of AprU, a handful of finely ground fresh bone-meal is stirred in around each plant with a trowel. They are sprayed with slug- shot three times between April tenth and May fifteenth, when they get a thorough spraying with kerosene emulsion, and, as a result, my Roses are not troubled with the usual pests. In November the hardy perpetuals are all 129 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN cut back to about two feet in height, and the old wood is thinned out. The ever- blooming Roses are cut back to a foot in height. And Roses! well, reaUy, no one could ask better from a garden. I have not many varieties, but when I left the country last faU, the tenth of November, although ice nearly an inch in thickness had formed, there were Roses stiU in bloom in the garden. The very hardy Roses, which, with a few exceptions, bloom only in Jime and early July, with an occasional flower in the au- tumn, should be planted together, as they need but sUght covering. In late November the hardy ones get about a foot of stable litter over the beds. The everblooming kinds have six inches of manure, then a foot of leaves, and then a good covering of cedar branches over aU. But cover late and uncover early (the very minute the frost is out of the ground), or yovir Roses will die. If asked to name, from my own experi- ence, the best dozen Roses, I should say the 130 ROSES following were the most satisfactory: Gen- eral Jacqueminot, Jubilee, Ubich Brunner, Madame Plantier, Clothilde Soupert, Kaiserin Augusta Victoria, La France, Mrs. Robert Garrett, Princess Alice de Monaco, Soleil d'Or, Perle des Jardins, and Mrs. John Laing or Baroness Rothschild. Paul Neyron and Prince CamiUe de Rohan might also be added to the list. Between Mrs. John Laing and Baroness Rothschild, it is a toss-up. ]Mrs. John Laing is a healthy, strong Rose, and a most con- stant bloomer. But none that grows is more beautiful than the Baroness Rothschild. Rather a shy bloomer ; stUl each Rose, on its long, strong stem, surrounded by the very fine foliage that distinguishes this variety, makes a bouquet in itself. Baroness Roths- child is also vigorous, and I have never seen it attacked by the enemies of most Roses. Climbing Roses have so much use, as well as beauty, in a garden, that my ad\ice is, wherever there is an excuse for having one, 131 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN plant it there. They do finely on the south side of a house, on arches, summer-houses and trellises. I have a trellis along one side of a grass walk three hundred and fifty feet long. At each post are planted two Roses, a Crimson Rambler and a Wichu- raiana. The Wichuraiana blossoms when the Rambler is done. Imagine the beauty of this trellis when the Roses are in bloom! On the other side of this walk there is a border four feet wide, with shrubs at the back, filled, all of the three hundred and fifty feet, with many varieties of perennials, also with Lihes and annuals planted in wherever a foot of space can be found. AU of the Ramblers are good, but none blooms so luxuriantly as the crimson. The Climbing Clothilde Soupert, Baltimore BeUe and Climbing Wootton are also fine. Of the Wichuraiana Hybrids, Jersey Beauty and Evergreen Gem are the best. The fohage is lovely, and the perfume of the flowers delicious. 132 ROSES The Climbing Roses should be yearly en- riched in the spring with manure and bone- meal, and, after two years, some old wood should be cut out every autumn. Many of the Crimson Ramblers and Wichuraiana in my garden made growth last summer of splendid great canes, larger around than one's thumb and from ten to fourteen feet long. Monday was the day for tying and training the Roses, and often it seemed impossible for them to grow so much in a week. It would have been incredible, had we not the actual proof before our eyes. List of Hybrid Perpetual and Hardy Roses Blooming in June, WITH AN Occasional Bloom in September Red General Jacqueminot. Prince Camille de Rohan, (darkest Rose of all). Jubilee. Baron Bonstetten. General Washington. John Hopper. Ulrich Brunner. Victor Verdier. 133 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN Pink Mrs. John Laing (constant bloomer). Anne de Diesbach. La France (blooms all summer). Ma^a Charta. Mme. Gabriel Luizet. Baroness Rothschild. Paul Neyron. White Margaret Dickson. Coquette des Alpes. White Maman Cochet (blooms continually), Madame Plantier (blooms continually). Coquette des Blanches. Mme. Alfred Carriere. Marchioness of Londonderry. Yellow I know but two hardy yellow Roses : The Persian Yellow. Soleil d'Or. The monthly or everblooming Roses, which need very heavy covering in winter, should be planted together. The following are a few of the best and most constant bloomers: Kaiserin Augusta Victoria, white. Bride, white. 134 ROSES Clothilde Soupert, white with faint blush center. Madame Hoste, creamy white. Perle des Jardins, yellow. Sunset, yellow. Mile. Germaine Trochon, yellow. American Beauty, rich crimson. Marion Dingee, deep crimson. Souvenir de Wootton, crimson. Bridesmaid, pink. Hermosa, pink. Madame de Watteville, pink. Burbank, pink. Mrs. Robert Garrett, pink. Princess Alice de Monaco, petals white, edged with blush-pink. 135 LILIES CHAPTER XI LILIES TILIES, too, should have a book for them- selves. My knowledge of them is slight. Lilium auratum (Auratum Lily), the grand- est of all Lihes, disappears after a few years. If large-sized bulbs are bought there wlU be the first year from twenty to thirty LUies on a stalk four feet high, the second year seven to ten, the third year perhaps two or three, but oftener nop*^ at all. If you then dig for the bulb, lo! it is gone. The expense, therefore, of these Lilies is great, from their having to be often renewed. Still, do not fail to have them, if possible, for nothing can take their place. They bloom from the middle of July for about a month. I wrote to an authority on Lilies to ask the cause of this disappearance. He told 139 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN me that, as soon as planted in this country, a microbe disease attacked them and they gradually disappeared under its ravages. Bot- anists surely should find a specific, or anti- dote for this; but perhaps, like some of the most terrible diseases of the human being, it evades aU research. Miss Jekyll, in her book on LUies for EngUsh Gardens, in speak- ing of Lilium auratuvi says: "This grand Lily, well planted, and left alone for three years, wiU probably then be at its best. After this the bulbs will be likely to have increased so much that it will be well to divide them." This would seem to imply that the Aura- tums thrive in England. Well, they have cUmate in England, even if we have weather, and EngUsh gardens wiU always fill Ameri- can gardeners with despair. Lilium candidum, which blooms before the other Lilies, is hardy and fragrant and in- creases rapidly. These Lilies must have full sun and Ught soU. About every three or four 140 man^-m ^.:. ^^ ;•ULBS can be planted at any time in the autumn before the ground freezes; the first week in November is as good a time as any. The cost of Tuhps, Narcissi and Daflfbdils is not great. They multiply and need not be disturbed for three or four years. Snowdrops. The earliest of all flowers to bloom is the Snowdrop. After the long, cold winter, with the melting of the snow and the first suspicion of milder air, these frail beauties send up their graceful bells of white. With what triumph the first one is found and brought to the house, and what a thriU of joy it gives to know that spring will soon be here ! Snowdrops can be planted thickly in the borders and also, like Crocuses, in 149 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN the grass. The foliage of both will die before it is time to mow the lawn. Crocuses, which should be planted in the grass, will begin to '■ bloom as soon as the Snowdrops pass. The gay little things make the lawn, while still brown, a carpet of bright colors. I heard of a gentleman who planted ten thousand of them in this way, and was rewarded by a most beautiful display at a time when there were no other flowers. Tulips I plant everywhere in the borders about four inches apart, all kinds, such as single, double, Gesnerianas and Parrot TuHps; but always a quantity of only one kind to- gether. The bed where later the Salvias are put, has three hundred Golden YeUow Tulips. When these have faded, the Salvia plants are set out in the same bed, without disturbing the bulbs. This can be done if the men are careful, and when the Tulip leaves are quite yeUow they are cut oiF (for unless allowed to ripen the bulb does not grow and mul- 150 Garden arch, c-overed with Japanese gourds Auffust twenty- seventh SPRING-FLOWERING BULBS tiply.) Every three years all Tulips are dug up in the autumn, after the Salvias have died; the bed is then made very rich, and the TuUps reset. There are generally more than enough to refill the bed. The same treat- ment is piursued in the Canna bed, only here the Tulips are double white. Tuhps wiU bloom from April twentieth until the last of May, if both the very early as well as the late kinds are planted. The late varieties are the Parrot and Gesneriana, which latter grow two feet high and are very showy. I have been constantly surprised to find that many good gardeners take up all bulbs when through flowering in the spring, store through the summer and replant in the autumn. This is not only unnecessary, but it is better for the bulbs to remain in the ground as nature intended. Mine have always been so treated and have been successful. In planting bulbs in newly prepared soil, great care must be taken that they -do not 151 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN come in contact with manure. To prevent this, the man should have a box of sand, in a handful of which each bulb should be set. Spring flowering bulbs should be planted about four inches deep. Poeticus Narcissus and Daffodils, both single and double, do well when natural- ized in grass that need not be cut imtil the fohage of the bulb has died in June. They also make a very good edging for a border along a walk. The single Van Sion and Emperor Nar- cissus are excellent varieties. The old- fashioned sweet-scented Jonquil and double Van Sion, or Double Yellow Daffodil, are as satisfactory as any of the numerous kinds named in the catalogues. One early spring, the Double Yellow Daffodils were all in bloom on the tenth of April. Narcissi and Daffodils live for generations. I know some double yellow Daffodils grow- ing in my great-grandfather's garden, that were planted over seventy years ago. The place was 152 SPRING-FLOWERING BULBS sold and the house burned about thirty years since, and all this time has been entirely neglected. Some one told me that Daffodils and Narcissi still bloomed there bravely in the grass. With a cousin, one lovely day last spring, I took the train out to this old place and there found quantities of the dainty yellow flowers. We had come unprovided with any gardening implements, having noth- ing of the kind in town, and brought only a basket for the spoils, and a steel table-knife. We quickly found the knife of no avail, so borrowed a sadly broken coal-shovel from a tumble-down sort of a man who stood gaz- ing at us from the door of a tumble-down house. The roots of the Daffodils were very deep, and neither of us could use a spade, so the driver of the ramshackle wagon taken at the station was pressed into service. Handling of shovel or spade was evidently an unknown art to him. The Daffodil roots were nearly a foot deep , but we finally got them, several hundreds of them, all we could 153 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN cany. The driver seemed to think us some- what mad and said "Them's only some kind of weed," but when I told him the original bulbs from which aU these had come were planted by my great -grandmother and her daughter, and that I wanted to carry some away, to plant in my own garden, he be- came interested and dug with all his heart. The bulbs were in solid clumps a foot across and had to be pulled apart and separated. They were the old Double Yellow Daffodil and a very large double white variety, the edges of the petals faintly tinged with yellow and dehghtfuUy fragrant. My share of the spoils is now thriving in my garden. By the process of division every three years, these Daffodils can be made to yield indefi- nitely, and perhaps some great-grandchild of my own may gather their blossoms. Hyacinths, too, should have a place in the spring garden. They are more expen- sive, as a rule, than Tuhps, Narcissi and Daffodils, but, in large or small quantities, 154 Vase of Phlox; single blossoms actual size Auo^ust second SPRING-FLOWERING BULBS are well worth the money. The single va- rieties are generally preferred, while, of aU kinds, the white and pale blue are the loveliest. Nothing in the garden gives so much pleasure as the early spring flowers. Per- haps this is because they are the first to bloom. Every one knows how beautiful the first lovely Dandelion seems, gold -starring the new grass. Many bulbs can be had for little money, and I would say to aU, plant as many as you can squeeze in. From April fifteenth to JNIay fifteenth I receive in town, twice a week, great boxes of spring flowers from my garden, enough each time to fill sixteen to twenty vases; yet my orders to the men are to cut always so that the flow- ers cannot be missed from the garden. 155 SHRUBS CHAPTER XIII SHRUBS /^F the hundreds of shrubs, comparatively few survive the severe winter chmate of interior New York, or grow very luxuriantly. Lilacs of aU varieties, white and purple, single and double; Deutzias, white and pink; and Syringa, the improved large - flowered variety, are most beautiful. Spircea Van Houttei, sometimes called Bridal Wreath, with its long trails of white blossoms; and Viburnum plicatum, or Japanese Snowball, which in late May bears a ball of bloom on every tAvig and is both healthy and hardy, are also desirable shrubs. The old variety of Snowball is attacked by a bhght, the leaves curl up and grow black and the blooms are imperfect. A few years ago I dug up all of mine and burned them. 159 SHRUBS Quince, deep rose -pink, flowering early in the spring. These all yield beautiful flowers, beside being hardy and of rapid growth. AU shrubs should be trimmed as soon as they have finished flowering, but only enough to prevent their becoming spindling, with the exception of Hydrangea grandiflora, which should be trimmed back, at least three- quarters of the new growth, every year. It is important, also, to thin out the old wood of most shrubs after five or six years. Shrubs can be grown from cuttings if one has patience to wait for the result. But as it takes from three to four years' time and considerable care to grow a shrub that would cost but twenty cents, for which price many varieties of shrubs can be bought, few people care to raise them. On a large place it might be worth while to raise shrubs from cuttings. And where there is plenty of space, a small nursery of them might be kept. 161 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN At the end of June take clippings about a foot long, make a shallow trench in good ground and plant them a couple of inches deep. They should be weU rooted, in about six weeks. If the weather be dry, after planting them, they must be watered daily. The following spring they should be reset, a foot apart, where they can grow until transplanted to their final resting place. I know a beautiful hedge of Cydonia Japonica, or Japanese Quince, that has been grown from cuttings. Privet can easily be grown from cuttings, and I have raised Box from cUppings. Fortunately, the season was a wet one, for if allowed to become dry before being well rooted, they would prob- ably have died. List of Most Satisfactohy Shrubs Altheas, pink or white; blooms in August. Jeanne d'Arc, pvire double white, the best. Grows six to eight feet in five years; must be trimmed in October. 162 SHRUBS Berheris Thunhergii, or Barberry, of slow growth; about three feet high; desirable for its beautiful foliage and scarlet fruit in winter. Calycanthus floridits, or Sweet-scented Shrub. It yields its brown blossoms the end of May; slow -growing; requires but little trimming; height, five to six feet. Cydonia Japonica, Japanese Quince, has brilliant red blossoms in early IMay; grows six to seven feet high. Deutzia crenata, variety of pale pink, and Candidissima, white ; of rapid growth, and very high; six to eight feet in five years. Forsythia blooms in April with masses of yellow flowers; moderate, quick growth; seldom over six feet high. Hydrangea paniculata grandijiora, the finest of all hardy shrubs. The flowers are great panicles of white. They bloom about the first of August and remain beau- tiful for six weeks, slowly changing to a soft, dull pink. This shrub is most effec- 163 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN tive when grown in masses of a dozen or more, although single specimens are very fine. They must be vigorously cut back late every fall, leaving only about six inches of new growth. Lilac, common purple and common white; also Marie Legray, a fine white Lilac, and Madame Lemoine, a new double variety bear- ing very large trusses of flowers. All of these varieties of Lilac grow high and rapidly — frequently eight feet in six years. They require little or no pruning. It is sufficient to cut the blossoms either before or after they go to seed. Lonicera rosea and Lonicera aUnda, up- right Honeysuckles, in shrub form, " vigorous, quick -growing, requiring but slight pruning in late autumn. They flower in May, and in midsummer are covered with beautiful berries. Magnolia conspicua, with large white blos- soms, blooms the middle of April; Soulan- geana has large pink flowers and blossoms 164 t 8 S > SHRUBS the end of April. Magnolias should be pruned when set out, and should be moved only in spring. Philadelphus syringa, or Mock Orange ; grandiflorus is the finest. The flowers are pure white, very fragrant and bloom about the middle of June. The shrub grows high, is perfectly hardy and in every way satisfac- tory. It should be trimmed as soon as it has finished blossoming. Cut back about three-quarters of the new growth; it will then send out side shoots and become continually thicker. Privet. The common Privet is of very rapid growth and excellent for a screen. It should be trimmed the end of Jime, but only enough to prevent its becoming scraggly. The California Privet is not so hai-dy. Rhus Cotinits, popularly known as Smoke Tree or Purple Fringe, grows as high as a small tree and requires almost no pruning. In midsummer it is covered with fine, mist-like, purple flowers. 165 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN Spircea Van Houttei. This is one of the most satisfactory shrubs; is rather dwarf in habit, growing about five feet high. The end of May it is covered with clusters of white flowers on long, pendulous branches. Trim as soon as it has finished blooming, cutting off about half of the new growth. Spirosa Anthony Waterer, another Spirea, very dwarf, only about a foot in height, and covered with bright crimson flowers from June to October. Viburnum plicatum, Japan Snowball, one of the finest shrubs. It grows about six feet high, and is completely covered with its balls of snow in early June. It requires comparatively httle trimming. Weigela. — The two most satisfactory vari- eties of this shrub are Candida, whose blossoms are white, and Rosea, with pink flowers. They bloom most freely about the tenth of June, when each shrub becomes a mass of flowers. Care must be taken to cut out the old wood from time to time, 166 SHRUBS and to trim after the shrub has finished blooming. - A Few Evergreen Shrubs Of evergreen shrubs, Kalmia latifolia, or Mountain Laurel, is most satisfactory, growing three to four feet high. It is cov- ered in early June with large clusters of pale pink and white flowers. Rhododendron maximum, the large-leaved hardy American variety. Under cultivation this shrub seldom grows more than six feet high ; in the woods it is found much larger. Japanese Holly, a dense -growing shrub about four feet high, with deep glossy green foliage. Tree Box, generally trimmed in standard or pyramidal form and very slow-growing. Perenniai. Vines and Creepers Avipelopsis quinquefolia, Virginia Creeper. Ampelopsis Vdtchi, Boston Ivy. Aristolochia Sipho, Dutchman's Pipe. Bignonia radicans. Trumpet Creeper. 167 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN Clematis paniculata, clusters of fine white flowers. Clematis Henryi, large white flowers. Clematis Jackmani, large purple flowers. English Ivy. Honeysuckle, HaU's Japan, Golden Japan. Hops. Fitis Coignetice, Japanese ornamental grape- vine ; rapid grower. Wistaria, both purple and white. A Few of the Best Annual Vines Cobcea scandens, purple and white. Moon/lower, white. Japanese Morning-glory, aU colors. Passion Flower, blue and white; must be started very early, and if well protected wlU sometimes survive the winter. Japanese Gourd. This must be descended from Jonah's Gourd of bibhcal fame, as it often grows from forty to fifty feet in a summer. It has yeUow flowers and gourds, and is very decorative. 168 WATER, WALKS, LAWNS, BOX-EDGINGS, SUN-DIAL AND PERGOLA CHAPTER XIV WATER, WALKS, LAWNS, BOX -EDGING, SUN-DIAL AND PERGOLA TT is not advisable to arrange for a garden of any size without considering the ques- tion of water. Within the Umits of a town supply there is only the comparatively simple matter of laying the pipes. But when the place is dependent upon its own water sys- tem, the amount to be counted upon and the situation of the garden with reference to the som'ce of supply must be seriously considered. If possible the garden hydrants should not be more than fifty feet apart. This greatly facUitates watering. When fmlher apart, plants are in danger of being injured by the unwieldy hose. A nozzle that wiU regulate the flow of water from a fine spray to a strong stream will be found convenient. 171 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN Opinions differ upon the best way to lay water-pipes through a place, some preferring to put them but a foot under ground, and turn off the water in winter; others lay them in trenches three and a half to four feet deep, so that they are beyond all danger from frost. This latter plan was followed in my garden and I recommend it as being most satisfactory. The watering of a garden requires nearly as much judgment as the seasoning of a soup. Keep the soU well stirred and loose on the surface, going through the garden, where possible, with a rake; and if there is no room for a rake, stir gently with a trowel every five days or once a week. In this way moisture wiU be retained in the soil, since the loose earth acts as a midch. When watering, be generous. Soak the plants to the roots ; wet all the earth around them, and do it late in the afternoon, when the sun is low. How often have I been obhged to chide the men for watering too early in the afternoon, and not doing it thor- 172 Vase of double hardy Sunflowers (Helianthus multifiorus plenus) September fifteenth WATER— WALKS oughly, for, upon stirring the ground, I would find that the water had penetrated but a couple of inches. During long periods of dry weather, the garden, without water, will simply wither and burn. Rhododendrons, Ferns and Lihes suffer in dry time, even though well mulched, and must be kept moist. Japanese Iris blooms but indifferently unless quite wet. When dry weather continues for a long period I divide the garden into three parts ; one part is thoroughly watered every evening, and the following day the soU is stirred. In this way the plants suffer comparatively little. For years we had no water supply through the gardens, and really, in dry weather, life had no pleasiu-e for me because of my unliappiness at the sight of the withered garden. I would drag watering cans about, and beg and bribe all the family to do likewise. Every afternoon, about five o'clock, one of the men would fill eight ten- 173 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN gallon milk- cans with water, put them in a wagon, and drive about the place water- ing the flower beds and borders. Frequently he would fill these cans three times in one afternoon. This, as may be imagined, was slow and unsatisfactory work, and, except in the case of a small garden, is too great a task. Often in a dry time, after dinner, I bethink me of the Rhododendrons or Ferns or Iris, or some other plants to which drought means death, and I feel sure "that boy has not watered them enough." Then, in ten min- utes the garden skirt, shoes and gloves are on, and those thirsty plants get a drenching to their very roots such as they would never receive from any perfunctory "boy" or gar- dener. I go to bed warm and weary, yet sleep is sweet from satisfaction at the thought of the garden's happiness. WALKS Unquestionably, walks near the house should be graveled ; they naturally have too 174 WATER— WALKS hard usage to keep turf in good condition. Graveled walks should be dug out a foot or more in depth, fiUed in with broken stone, this covered well with coarse gravel, and finished with a coating of a couple of inches of whatever fine gravel is chosen. A walk thus made will be dry and well drained and weeds have httle chance to grow. The most beautiful walks of all are those of grass. Strange to say, they are seldom seen in this country. Through any garden, some httle distance from the house, where they will be walked on only by those going to the garden, the turf-walks, with ordinary care, will last weU, require only the usual cutting with the lawn-mower, and, especially if edged with Box, should be the very pride and joy of the possessor's heart. The ground for such walks should be spaded deeply with plenty of manure, raked care- fully and made very smooth. Prepare in September, and by the fifteenth or twen- tieth sow, very thickly, a mixture of one- 175 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN third each to the bushel of Kentucky Blue Grass, Long Island Bent Grass and Red Top. Roll thoroughly, and if the weather be dry have the newly sown paths sprinkled daily and kept moist. The tender grass should appear in two weeks, and wiU continue to grow during October. About Thanksgiving time of the first year, cover with a layer of straw, and uncover about the twenty-fifth of March. At this time it is well to sow thinly some more grass seed of the same kinds, and again roll, the reason for the additional spring sowing being to replace any of the grass that may have been winter -killed. About the twen- tieth of April spread cotton-seed meal, the best of all fertihzers for grass, all over the paths. For years we have had the lawns covered with stable manure in February and raked off the first of April, and for years I have waged war with the weeds and wild grasses. But sow cotton-seed meal early in April, and if possible give the paths 176 *ii: T.^.' ^^- .""^''^V ,f Vase of Monkshood September thirtieth LAWNS— BOX-EDGING a little wood -ashes in June; the result wiU be a hundred per cent better than from the use of manure. Cotton -seed meal should not be sown too thickly, and wood -ashes must be spread thinly, so as not to burn the grass. The men teU me that a sharp -pointed mason's trowel is more satisfactory than any other tool for removing weeds from the lawns and grass paths. If this is carefully attended to the end of May, and again the latter part of June, and only artificial fer- tUizer used, there wiU be but httle trouble with weeds in the grass. BOX-EDGING Box edging should be set out in the spring, that it may be thoroughly rooted before winter. Great care must be taken in setting out the Box, that the row be absolutely straight and even. The garden cord is carefully stretched ; a shallow, narrow trench is dug 177 A WOMAN'S HARDY- GARDEN with the spade, and then the little plants are placed about three inches apart, each plant against the string. The trench is half fiUed in with earth, then a layer of ma- nure, and finally more earth packed down. Box planted in this way should grow and thrive, especially if given, along in May, a Uttle bone-meal. I write feehngly of Box edging to-day. Last week. Holy Week, I spent in the country, and most of my time was passed on my knees. For, when not at church or driving the intervening five miles, I was set- ting out plants in the garden, and that, like one's prayers, requires kneeling. Four men were working, setting out plants and trees, but the earth was so sweet and warm and brown that it was impossible to keep away from it. With trowel in hand and joy in my heart, I set out hundreds of httle Box plants, transplanted Columbines, Foxgloves and Canterbmy Bells. Big robins were hop- ping tamely about, calling to one another ; 178 LAWNS— BOX-EDGING blackbirds and meadow -larks were singing their refrains; the brave plants were pushing their way through the earth to new Ufe, and I thought how good it was to be alive, to have a garden to dig in, and, above all, to be well and able to dig. With work in the garden care and worry vanish. The cook (as some cooks of mine have done) may announce that " 'tis a woild waste of a place. I be lavin' the mornin'." The hamper of meat does not arrive on the one train from town, or somebody smashes something very dear to your heart, — just go to the garden, tie up some Roses or vines, or poke about with a trowel, and though murder may have been in your thoughts, in half an hour serenity will return. And what does it all matter, anyway ? Another maid can cook for a few days, and there are always bacon and eggs. Philosophy is inevitably learned in a gar- den. Speaking of eggs, I think of hens. Living on a farm, of course there have al- 179 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN ways been hens and chickens. These crea- tures were provided with houses and yards and fences, and given every inducement to remain where they belonged ; yet with diabol- ical ingenuity they would escape from their quarters, dig under the fence, fly over it, or some one would leave a door or a gate open, and then, with one accord, all the flock would make for the gardens and scratch and roU in the borders. This sort of thing happened repeatedly, until I felt there must be a league between the farmer's wife and the hens. But the limit of endurance was reached when, one afternoon, coming out to look at a bed of several dozen Chrysanthe- mums set out in the morning, I found the poor plants all scratched out of the ground, broken and wilted. Then in wrath the fiat went forth, "No more hens on this farm, those on hand to be eaten at once." For days a patient family had hen soup, hen croquettes, hen salad and hen fricassee, until the last culprit came to her end. 180 SUN-DIAL— PERGOLA SUN-DIAL There is no more charming and interest- ing addition to a garden than a sun-dial. For hundreds of years sun-dials have been used as timekeepers, and though some of the very old ones were occasionally set into the facade of a buUding, they are generally found in the plaisaunce or garden, mounted upon quaint pedestals. Sun-dials are sup- posed, by their owners, to keep accurate time, but it must be remembered that there is always a difference between clock -time and sun -time. WhUe, to-day, om- lives are frequently portioned into minutes, and it would seem as if one might loiter and be lazy in a garden, if anywhere, still even among the flowers we find a "tempus fiigit." For a time after my sun-dial was set, it was amusing to notice how often, about half after eleven o'clock, and again at five, this late addition to the garden would claim the attention of the workmen. 181 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN My sun-dial stands in the center of a formal garden where four paths meet, form- ing a circle twenty feet across. The pedestal is a simple column of marble, four and one- half feet high, shghtly tapering toward the top, with beveled corners. This is placed on a stone foundation three and one-half feet deep, laid in cement. The pedestal I found at the yard of a second-hand buUding-material man, on Avenue B, in New York city. After it had been set in place, I wanted it rubbed up and a chipped place smoothed. The only available man for this work, was the gravestone-cutter from the nearest town. When he was recognized at work in the garden by passing countrymen, they sup- posed, of course, that some one was buried there, and many have been the inquiries as to "whose be that moimy-ment." Crimson Rambler Roses tAvine about the pedestal. At the comers of the four paths are standard Box trees, which stand Uke sentinels, and between them there are Bay 182 SUN-DIAL— PERGOLA trees in terra- cotta vases of simple shape — copies of antique ones. The dial made for the latitude bears this inscription, " Utere praesenti, memor ultiviae" (Use the present hour, mindful of the last), which I found in an old book on sun- dials in the Avery Library, at Columbia University. PERGOLA Across the end of this garden is a rustic pergola seventy feet long, made of cedar posts cut from the woods on the farm, ten posts on a side, each post being set four feet deep. A string -piece of heavy chestnut rests on the tops of each row of posts. Cedar poles ten inches apart extend across the top and project two feet over each side. The pergola is eight feet wide and ten feet high, is easy to buUd and very effective. Care must be taken to set the posts at least fom- feet. At each post are planted a two- year - old root of Wistaria and one of Virginia Creeper, and I Uve in the hope of some 183 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN day seeing the vines cover the pergola. The ground slopes gently where this is built, and the first autumn after it was made, it looked, from a httle distance, so much Uke a section of an elevated raihoad as to be very depressing. But one must possess imag- ination to be a gardener, and have the ability to see the garden as it will look "next year." So I refused to see the pergola except as clothed with vines, and in May, with the beautiful racemes of Purple Wistaria hang- ing from every rafter. Patience and perseverance are traits neces- sary to the gardener. One must not be discouraged, but determined to succeed. If a set of plants die, or do not flourish this year, try them again next season, under diiFerent conditions, imtil the difficulties are overcome. I have known people who began gardening as a mere pastime when over forty years old, and who have told me what an absorbing interest it had become and how greatly it changed the whole aspect 184 SUN-DIAL— PERGOLA of life for them in the country. What a dehghtful tie, fondness for gardening makes between people 1 I know several men with beautiful places and lovely gardens in which they take the warmest personal interest. Whenever I meet one of them at din- ner, if by chance I am not seated next to him, I am unhappy and cannot listen sympathetically, either to the enthusiasm of the man on one side whose heart is, per- haps, bound up in golf, or to the laments of my neighbor on the other, who may be suf- fering from rheumatism or gout, and unable to eat or drink what he wants. 185 INSECTICIDES— TOOL-ROOM CHAPTER XV INSECTICIDES— TOOL-ROOM •T^HE enemies of growing things have certainly increased alarmingly of late years. I cannot recall that formerly any insect was to be found in either vegetable or flower garden, other than the potato bug, currant -worm, cabbage -worm, and the green worm and smaU black beetle on the Rose ; but now there are so many horrid creatures lying in wait until a plant is in perfection, to cut the stalk, or eat the root, or eat the pith from the stalk so that it falls, or to devour the leaves and eat the blossoms, that insecticides and a spraying machine are as necessary to a garden as a spade. For a small garden a spraying machine holding from a couple of quarts to a gallon, can be bought for a trifling sum, that will answer 189 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN the purpose very well. For a larger garden, a good air -pump, costing from five dol- lars upwards, will be fovmd an excellent investment. One of the best insecticides is Bordeaux mixture, which can either be bought or made. I have twenty-five gallons made at a time and keep it always on hand. The follow- ing is the receipe: Three pounds of blue vitriol in coarse crystals; three pounds of unslaked lime. Slake the lime in two and one-half gallons of water; pour two and one-half gallons of water over the blue vitriol in another receptacle, and let both stand over night. In the morning stir the blue vitriol until all is dis- solved; then let two persons pour simultaneously the lime water and the blue vitriol into the same re- ceptacle, and add twenty gallons of water; stir well before filling the spraying machine. Bordeaux mixture is to be used for rust, mildew, and all kinds of bhght, whenever the leaves of plants have a tendency to turn black. Hollyhocks seem to be univer- sally attacked by rust. Spraying the plants at the end of April, and again in the middle of May, should entirely prevent this. 190 INSECTICIDES— TOOL-ROOM I have found that Bordeaux mixture prevents the leaves of Monkshood from turning black and falling off, if the plants are well sprayed with it about the middle of June and the first of July. Phloxes grown in rather shady places will, in damp weather, fall victims to mUdew on the leaves. Spraying with Bordeaux mix- ture the end of June and middle of July should prevent this. Roses also have a ten- dency in warm, damp weather to mildew, which can be prevented by spraying the plants with Bordeaux mixture. Kerosene emulsion may also be prepared, and is excellent for kiUing, both the small green aphids that often cover the leaves of Roses, and other hard, scaly insects. Fol- lowing is the receipe: Put one cake of laundry soap shaved fine into one gallon of water. When dissolved, add two gallons of kerosene oil. This makes the emulsion. For spraying, use one quart of the emul- sion in fourteen quarts of water. Be sure 191 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN that this is very thoroughly mixed before filling the sprayer. Powdered hellebore, if dissolved in the proportion of one pound of powder to one gallon of water, will destroy both the green worm on the Rose leaf and the small dark beetle that eats the Roses. It will also dispose of green worms on other plants. Slug -shot dissolved, one-haJf pound of powder to one gallon of water, will, if used the latter part of April and several times in May, keep the Roses comparatively free from insects. Slug- shot and hellebore may also be used dry and blown on to the plants with a bellows. I have used Hellebore in my garden for many years without harm to anything ex- cept the worms and beetles. But recently I heard of a lady who was severely poisoned in using dry Hellebore. The wind blew it into her face; perhaps some was inhaled, and serious Ulness resulted. I mention the fact here, to caution all who use-.it not to 192 INSECTICIDES— TOOL-ROOM let either the spray or the powder come in contact with the skin. Some persons may- be susceptible to the poison whUe others are not, — presenting a case of what the doctors call an "idiosyncrasy." Paris green, mixed in the proportion of two tablespoonfuls to three quarts of water and used as a spray, will destroy a beetle that sometimes appears upon the Gourd A'ines. Tobacco water wUl kill the black aphids which appear on the stems and leaves of hardy Chrysanthemums. It wiU also kiU green aphids. This spray is made by fill- ing an ordinary pail Ughtly, not pressed down, with tobacco stems. Pour as much cold water into the pail as it wUl hold; let it stand for three hours, when it is ready to use in the sprajdng machine. This mixture will be good for only twenty-fom* hours. Tobacco spray will also destroy the large red aphid (I call it this for want of, per- 193 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN haps, the proper name) that has recently ap- peared in some localities upon the stems of the Rudbeckia (Golden Glow) and of the single hardy Sunflower, just below the blossom. The enemy of the Box is the white spider. The insect spins its web on the Box and works from the inside. If the branches are puUed aside, the inside of the plant wiU be found fuU of dead leaves in the vicinity of the web. Recently I read in a well- known gardening monthly, that this spider could be destroyed by spraying with kero- sene emulsion. I have some fine Box trees, and there were several white spider-webs on each. Watering with a very strong force of water had been tried without effect. Upon reading the article in the monthly and find- ing that the spider was certainly causing disaster which might be fatal, I proceeded to have the trees sprayed with kerosene emulsion, using it of the same strength as for Roses. In fact, the sprayer was not 194 INSECTICIDES— TOOL-ROOM re-filled, as there was enough left in it since last using it on the Roses. About three days after the Box had been sprayed, large, unsightly brown patches appeared on the trees, showing that the emulsion had killed the leaves wherever it touched them. The spider was not harmed. I mention this experience as an example of the danger of taking aU the directions found in horticultural publications as gospel truth. Nor should an amateur gardener ever be tempted to trifle with plant medicines. I have a certain friend whose affection for her Roses is more profound than her knowl- edge of how to treat their natural diseases. Observing last summer that one of her most cherished Crimson Ramblers was covered with aphids, she concluded to spray it with "something." A bottle of carbolic acid being most available, she tested its merits at once. The efficacy of carbolic acid as a poison was proved beyond a doubt, for the insects became singularly dead in a day or two, and 195 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN so did the leaves ; they fell off together. There was nothing left but the forlorn stems and branches, looking like some freak of the vegetable kingdom. TOOL-ROOM It is of the greatest importance to have a tool -room or closet according to the size of the place, and to require aU implements to be kept there when not in actual use. There should be shelves across one end or side, where shears, trowels, garden cord, chp- pers, watering-cans, mallet, various mixtures for spraying, oU-cans, keys for turning on the water, twine and all the smaller things one uses, may be found at a moment's notice. Garden sticks painted green, in three sizes, three and a half and four feet long, and five -eighths of an inch in diameter, and thicker ones an inch in diameter for Dah- lias, should be kept on hand in barrels. They can be bought of lumber - dealers in New York, where they are known as 196 INSECTICIDES— TOOL-ROOM "dowels." They come in bundles of one hundred, costing from sixty cents to a dollar and twenty -five cents a bundle, ac- cording to size, unpainted, and the men can paint them on rainy days. The lawn mowers and the roller (which should be a heavy one) can also be kept in the tool -room. Rakes, both iron and wooden, hoes, spades and shovels, the latter both long -handled and short - handled, are best kept hung up along one side of the closet, where the men can see at a glance what they want. There should also be a pickaxe and a crow- bar for taking out refractory stones, and, most necessary of all things in a garden, the wheelbarrow should be kept here, too. A sickle and a scythe must not be forgotten. If the garden is large, a two-wheel tip- cart will prove a great saver of labor in carting manure and soil and in the removal of debris. On a particular shelf in my tool-room I 197 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN keep my private trowel and flower scissors, to which are attached long red ribbons as a warning of "Hands off 1" to others. There is also a clipper which I often use in walk- ing about to trim a bit here and there from a shrub or a chmbing Rose. If a scrap-book be kept, in which every- thing of interest pertaining to the garden can be pasted or written, it wiU be found a great help. In this way items about fer^ lizers, insecticides, special treatment of plants, with copies of lists ordered, can be pre- served, and also, most interesting of aU, notes of when the different plants bloom each year. I find the following vmder date of October 18, 1901: "To-day, though ice has formed three times, I have filled nineteen vases with flowers. They are Phlox, Larkspur, Monkshood, Salvia, Nasturtium, Roses, Mignonette and Chrysanthemums." After trying many kinds of gloves for gardening, including the rubber ones, I now 198 INSECTICIDES— TOOL-ROOM use only old Suede gloves; they give suffi- cient covering and permit more freedom of movement to the hands and fingers than those of heavier material. It would be quite -impossible to transplant tiny seedlings whUe wearing gloves with clumsy finger-tips. Unless a woman possesses a skin impervi- ous to wind and sun, she is apt to come through the summer looking as red and ferown as an Indian ; and if one is often out in the glare, about the only headgear that can be worn to prevent this, is the old- fashioned sunbonnet. With its poke before and cape behind, protecting the neck, one really cannot become sunburned, and pink ones are not so bad. Retired behind its friendly shelter, you are somewhat deaf to the world ; and at the distant house, people may shout to you and bells be rung at you, and, if your occupation be engrossing, the excuse "no one can hear through a sun-bonnet," must be accepted. 199 CONCLUSION CHAPTER XVI CONCLUSION nnHE character of professional gardeners seems to be changing. They have be- come more perfunctory, more stubborn, more opinionated, until now it is a really serious question with them of "the danger of a little knowledge." To find a man who com- bines sobriety and a good disposition with a fair knowledge of his business and a real liking for it, is a difficult matter. Where but one man is kept to care for vegetables, flowers and lawn, he is more than likely to have little interest beyond potatoes or com, or to be good at raising small fruits, and to consider everything else he has to do as so much waste of time. When first married, one of our gardeners was a German who took no interest in flowers, and planted half 203 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN the vegetable garden with "kohh-abi" and "kom salad." We had never heard of these delicacies before, and did not care for them. I remember also his telling me that one kind of flower was enough to raise anyway. If a yomig man with an elementary knowl- edge of gardening can be fomid, who wants to leam, is strong, wiUing and intelligent, it is better to supply most of the brains your- self You will find your own wishes more apt to be carried out than by the gardener who "knows it aU.," and seems to resent what he calls "interference" on the part of his employer. I remember, when a child, seeing my father's gardener walking about in the early evening after his supper, smoking a medita- tive pipe, tying up Roses or spraying plants, and often setting out seedlings after sun- down. He was never idle; he loved his work and attended to it. But now it is rare indeed to see a gardener, after hours, going about his work ; mitre temps autres moeurs. 204 CONCLUSION Remember always that it is the overcom- ing of the difficulties in the gardener's way, the determination to succeed, that gives zest to the occupation. Did everything planted grow and floiirish, gardening would be too tame. Rust and blight, cutworms, rose- beetles and weeds, afford the element of sport so attractive to us aU. A lesson must be learned from every failure ; with renewed patience persevere until success is reached. I would malce the strongest plea in favor of a garden to aU those who are so fortu- nate as to possess any land at all. The relaxation from care and toil and the benefit to health are great, beyond belief, to those who may have to work with head or hands. If you can snatch a few minutes in early morning or late afternoon, to spend among the plants, hfe takes on a new aspect, health is improved, care is dissipated, and you get nearer to Nature, as God intended. If the rich and fashionable women of this country took more interest and spent more 205 A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN time in their gardens, and less in frivolity, fewer would suffer from nervous prostration, and the necessity for the multitude of sani- tariums would be avoided. Flower gardening is preeminently a wo- man's occupation and diversion. Nearly every great lady in England takes a personal inter- est in her gardens and conservatories, and knows aU about the plants and flowers. Here, the majority of women having large places leave the direction of the flowers, as weU as the vegetables and fi-uit, to the taste and discretion of the gardener, and thus miss a great and healthful pleasure. As a rule, yoimg people do not care for gardening. They lack the necessary patience and perseverance. But in the years of mid- dle Ufe, when one's sun is slowly setting and interest in the world and society relaxes, the garden, with its changing bloom, grows ever dearer. 206 fT* ^^ ■■* /-^ J-> d Q ^5 O (^ \ ^ Y ^^^- ^ f ^ ^ "5 C Pergola ^ Ot 5: is < S -. J;. -* - •l ^ ^-i V r-i (S c * ? D o — 22 ft. "^ Box Edging 11 o m 22 ft. "5 ^6 ft.-> 5 o IS X il O O CD 1 3 C C <^ 8 ft. _>. L. o < -a: C -e- 8 ft. -> U 0) ■a Si . Ll " j:; m o ^ ^ lid .t: S ^ S 5 ^ O "c o