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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (May 10, 1908)
This is" the first of a series of articles on gardening, especially intended for city dwellers and suburban residents, who have enough ground around their homes to cultivate flowers, and raise vegetables. ' r . While the information conveyed is reliable in character and based on scientific facts; it "is presented in such popular form that a bright 12-year-old can comprehend. It is not intended for experienced gardeners, but for amateurs who, without these hints, w-ould be driven to asking their neighbors for guidance. f . " ' - ; This feature will run for several weeks in The Sunday Oregonian. ' TIVVNSriiANTIXG TO THE OPEN How to Moto Pot-Grown Plants Into the Outdoor Garden Beds. NEVER transplant when the soil ! wet. It Is better to transplant on a brlg-ht day, when the earth is dry than on damp or wet days, despite the general belief among amateurs to the contrary. Dry soli will pack much better around the roots, and the roots need more hospi tality than the upper bodies of the young; growths. Water the plants thoroughly the night before they are to be moved. When ready to transplant, make the holes In the garden with a trowel, each to be large enough to take all the roots without crowding, but no larger. Then bring the plants out. As soon s a plant is out of the pot, set it In a hole, prens the earth firmly, but very gently around it; pour water In, wait till . it has partly disappeared and press more earth around it. When all the plants are in, work the earth very fine and smooth around each one, taking care that the upper layer of the soli seems perfectly granulated and cry. if wet spots appear after all th plants are set cover them with a sprlnk- ; nng or nne earth. This Is the mulching , torn these tender things need to keen moisture about their roots instead of let ting It escape to the upper surface of the ground. Do not make the mistake of covering the plant itself in any way to "protect" it. If the roots keep cool and damp, as the mulching should keep them if It is done systematically for some days until the plants show that they are thriv ing, the roots will take care of the rest of the plant. If It rains before the plants are thor oughly established the earth must be worked over as soon as It begins to dry. If it does not rain the water applied at planting time should last for several days. Stir the soil and dig down a trifle to see its condition. If i,t Is too dry make a hole on one side of the tlan n i with water, carefully mulching the top -a mm . UI Jf soil. FOR MOISTURE-IX) YING PLAXTS How to Make Wild Spot That Shall Be Wet Glen In Miniature. W or. our most beautiful -wild fc3 plants, such as the greatest of the native ferns, blue flags, cardinal flowers. trilllums, forget-me-nots, etc, will thrive only where they can get practically con stant moisture. Every garden has some snaay spots where they would And a de sirable home If this problem of water supply could be solved. The average suburban gardener can not afford to give plants a running sup ply from his house. There la a simple way. however, to make a tiny corner, say three feet high by three or four feet square, by making a rockery In a corner of house or fence, and setting forest mold and muck from woodland bog on litUe terraces and in pockets and crevices among the rocks. On the top place a small flat rock, large enough to support a wooden bucket, an old butter firkin, a small keg or any other similar receptacle. See that It Is water-tight. Coat it with pitch, if neces sary. With a very fine gimlet bore three or four extremely small holes near the bottom. Burn them with a red hot wire or nail so that the edges of the holes shall remain hanl, instead of swelling and closing up when water is put in. Having placed this receptacle, pile flat slabs of rock upright against It till it is hidden completely. When it is filled with water, the liquid should trickle forth so slowly, though constantly, that the rockery will glisten all the time with moisture. If arranged properly, an or dinary bucket will not need refilling oftener than three or four times a week. UNCOMMON, BUT GOOD VIXES A Form of Plant Growth In Which Much Variety Is Wise. WHILE too much variety is generally productive of an unsatisfactory ef fect in the case of flowers, shrubs and trees, unless the design Is extra good, vsriety in vines is something much to' be recommended. Whether a place Is covered with one kind of vine or many, effect on the eye is the same. There' JT A TT Tni: J GENERAL DIRECTIONS WM EXPERIENCED MAN, APPLICABLE 1X FLOWERS AND VEGETABLES is a good, pleasing mass of foliage. But to the owner of the place too much of ene vine, such as honeysuckle, wood bine, clemaUs, etc, often becomes mo notonous. There Is no reason why many different kinds of vines should not grow over the same place. Most vines are "toler ant," that is, they get along pretty well together. Among the good, swiftly growing vines that are not generally known is the Jap anese Akebla qulnata. It is free from Insect foes, grows very fast and has beautiful leaves that unfold early and stay late. It has spicy brownish flowers in early Spring and gets along very well with other vines. ! For low verandas or trellises, there Is a good vine known as the Chinese , ( Matrimony vine (Lycium Chlnense), which has bright purple flowers that are ! succeeded later in the season by brilliant ' scarlet berries. The Bignonia Grandi- flora, or trumpet creeper, has rich orange-scarlet trumpet-shaped flowers. ; If It is pinched back when it has gone i as high as you wish It to grow. It forms a thick, shrub-like head. ! One x of the most prodigious growers 1 of all is the Kudzu vine, a Japanese lm- : portatlon, which has the peculiar name ; I of "Jack and the Beanstalk" on account ! of Its swiftness of growth. Its foliage Is large and Iobed, and late in the season it bears pea-shaped purple flowers in clusters. HOW TO RAISE RADISHES One of Our Easy Crops for the Home Garden. RADISHES come in early, medium and late varieties. The very early kind grows quickly, but becomes woody very soon. The medium and late-ripening varieties will hold their tender quality longer. Do not seed in freshly manured ground. The great pest of the radish Is the root maggot, which is most plen tiful In such soil. The ground may be fairly stiff, but It must not be as heavy as a clayey soil Is. It should be well tilled, al though It need not be very deep, as from four to six Inches of sou Is enough for most kinds of radlsn. Make the drills at least 13 Inches apart and when the first leaves come up, thin so that the plants stand about six inches apart. About three-fourths Inch deep is the right depth for plant ing the seed. The early ripening varieties can be sown down from now until the middle of June, making sowings every two wbbkb ior succession, xne medium or Summer varieties should ue sown from about the middle of this month through July. 11 you want winter radishes, sow that variety down Is June. Spring radishes must be picked . as soon after they are of proper sise as possible. The Summer varieties may stay in the ground a little longer after reaching table size than the Spring kind, as tney will not get woedy or pithy so soon. All radishes should, however, be picked soon after maturing. OUTSIDE WINDOW BOXES. Great Helps to Outdoor Gardens. Complete Gardens Themselves. OUTSIDE window and veranda boxes are not only beautiful little gardens In themselves when well kept, but many plants too tender to seed down with Im punity In the garden beds, where they would be washed out by rains, may be started in the boxes amid the other olijjts that are to remain there. . Such boxes should be at least a foot wide and deep. The length, of course, will be as may be convenient. The boards must be well braced so that they will not warp apart and allow the water to run away. Fuchsias, ferns, asparagus, sprenseri. ageratums, fancy leaved caladlums and most of the tuberous-rooted begonias are beautiful for the window box. Begonias however, will do best in a window box that faces the north. For windows facing the street, hrieht flowers should be selected. Geraniums. heliotropes, coleus, cotens and similar flowers will answer best, particularly if there is plenty of bright sunlight to bring out their rich colors. Vines should not be lacking. A. window box four feet long will Drovlde suste nance and room for half a dozen plants THE SUNDAY OREGONIAX, PORTLAND, MAT 10, 1908. w 11 llf U III II II 2 1 xx cW i' UTILIZING UNSIGHTLY PLACES This picture shows a simple and cheap way to beautify an unsightly back end of a garden that has the further disadvantage of looking out on a flat, unattractive view. A small space Is cleared away In front of the low, wild shrubbery, and In this are planted stakes on which woodbine and honeysuckle, both collected In the woods, are being trained, to form a green wall that will be especially hap py In the Autumn when the wild shrubbery gets so very ragged and dis tressingly weedy. The round bed, roughly dug In the sod, Is seeded down with nasturtiums. The amount of seed needed Is less than 20 cents' worth. ana tnree arooping vines, if they are cared for well during the season. It is a good plan, however, to. leave the gera niums and similar flowers in their pots, so that deteriorating plants can be re placed by others. Maurandya is one of the finest vines for the purpose. It droops most gracefully, but it grows poor before the season is ended and will need to be pulled out. An extra vine can be grown in a Pot so that It will mature in time to replace it. wild cucumber makes .a beautiful vine, especially when used as a background for brilliant vermilion geraniums, such as the 8. A. Nutt or a scarlet like the Bruant. nasturtiums and morning-glories are other excellent plants for these boxes. sweet alyssum, phlox, drummondil and verbenas are easily raised and will prove highly satisfactory Cut the flowers freely. Do not allpw any oi them to go to seed if you wish to keep them In constant bloom. Water gently from a sprinkling pot and give a little liquid manure every week, if possible. The earth along the sides of the boxes will soon shrink away and the water will run away instead of benefitting the plants, unless the soil Is kept loose and porus by frequent stirring and scratch ing with a pointed stick. Much of the shrinkage can be avoided if the soil is made a trifle higher in the middle of the box than at the sides. ARE XOT MOLLYCODDLES Some Excellent Shrubs as Good in Foliage as in Bloom. ' SNOWBALL is one of the fine old timers known to all, and it is worthy of a place fa any garden. In a small plot it will almost make a whole garden by itself with its great spheres of snow white flowers. It thrives even "under partial neglect. The Japanese variety Is more compact than the common snow ball, has foliage of a much deeper and more attractive green, and its dense flowers come in a regular formation that makes it rather striking. Lilacs come in enormous variety now adays. There are Japanese, Persian, Chinese and French, ranging, in color from white through blues and violets to deep purple. The lilac Is a very hardy plant, almost entirely insect proof, but is sometimes attacked by mil dew or rust, especially late In the season. This disease does little harm at the time except to Injure the appearance of the foliage, but if not extirpated by applica tion of Boredeaux mixture, it will spread and gradually spoil an otherwise per petually beautiful thicket. The common lilacs, though it Is some what forced to the background these days by the showier new lilacs, remains one of our sweetest friends, and no one need feel that It is a waste of room to give this shrub lots of space, even if the purse cannot afford the finer kinds. Almost anybody can get a few cuttings of this old-fashioned lilac for nothing, as it spreads so that gardeners are glad each year to get rid of some. Its individual flowers are larger than the Persian, but the panicles are not so great. Its foliage, however, is even better and its scent and color are sure to satisfy. The Japanese lilac grows very tall. Its flowers are extremely full and fragrant and it blooms pretty late. The common white lilac is said by many amateurs to. be the most satis factory of this color-variety. Another sweet-scented shrub of grand ma's day is calycanthus. Its bloom Is a mall, queer bud of brownish-purple; which has a spicy odor especially when crushed. It retains the smell long after It is dry. It Is better known as Btraw ;X s . -J lit AN Ma lTr 1 i" iX berry shrub and makes a pleasant plant for any garden, as its habit of growth is as attraotlve as its foliage. Rose of Sharon or althea is most ac commodating as to soil, and most garden ers succeed with it eveg if they fail with everything else. It grows tall and sturdy and can be had in many color varieties. Jeanne d'Arc has double white f lowers. Albus Oculatus has very large double white bloom with a red eye. Variegatus has green and white foliage. Paeoniflora, as its name Implies, bears large double pink flowers. Snowberry is a quiet unassuming bush which Is exceedingly useful to plant in the -midst of other shrubbery because it has great masses of snowwhtte berries that remain on It throughout the Winter. MAY WORK IN THE GARDEN Transplanting, Insect-Hunting and Blossoms to Expect Now. TC wauai an hardy plants are now "A above ground and it Is time to do the clean lng-up work around the beds and to trim them and lift out such young weeds as are already trying for a foot hold. The Winter's covering of manure has probably been dug under in old gardens. This, however, should be done only if It was clean and did not show any signs or being infested with worms or maggots. It Is Important not to waste manure, for It is immensely valu.-.ble under-ground during the Summer and a dead loss to tne garden if it is thrown away; but If it is under suspicion of having been a Win ter tavern for garden pests. It should be cartea into a heap and burned at once. Thus at least some of its fertilizing prop erties will be saved in the safe and sterile form of ashes. Among other' things, the surplus ma nure of Winter, which should be quite my oy tnis time, will make a splendid mulch for lilies and similar nlants. If there are still some hardy plants to transplant, it can be doite successfully providing great care is used. Dig the hole fsrst that is to receive them and make the earth extra fine. Then lift the plant "u ine eartn around its roots that v iuaiuiy oe Kept, put burlap or similar material around it to hold it to gether while moving It, and transplant It. The moment the plant is settled in ine ground, pour water on until the earth will hold no more. Then make a little uu-cuiar emoankment of soil around It and fill wltn water up to Its level. When that has soaked away, which should i, a matter of some. time, cover with grass or omer loose litter for a mulch and water again plentifully every day thereafter till the plant shows unmistak ably that it ihas a good .hold. This Is the time to ioo'k 'out for cut worms. They operate Just under the son at the base of a stalk. If a plant shows a withering, drooping stalk and there is no apparent surface enemy, dig down about half an inch and you will probably find the pest. Surround the plants with powdered stove coal ashes. f THEY WHEN WILIi COME? How Ixng It Takes Common Vege tables to Grow. RADISH plants will begin to show above the surface In from three to six days after planting. One- month after that the early varieties are ready to. eat. Later sorts mature as late as 45 days after sowing. Lettuce plants will show in six to eight days. Their time of maturity, as explained in a previous article, depends so much on the variety that it ranges from one month to three. Endive sends up its first leaves five to ten days after sow ing and is ready to eat In 45 davn Pen. show in six to ten days and are ready iur uis i.a. oie in o days in very early, 50 days in medium and as lat so days In the very late sorts. Beans ap pear in five to. ten days after seeding and are ready to eat in about 50 days. Cabbage seed germinates in a week or ten days and matures in 100 days. Caul iflower shows first leaves in about a week and Is ripe for use in about 125 days. Corn appears in a week or eight days and is ready to eat In from 55 to 99 days. Onions require a week or ten days to germinate and it takes 100 days for the early and as much as 160 days for the late varietica to mature. EVIff IP n ram a u feel ffi v n fr ?v3 fi.t mi in. k 'v.i'w' - x, x. ft x" ? . ,, V- Parsnips come up in 10 to 20 days and are ready for the table in about 140 days. Turnips chow first sprouts in 4 to 8 days and can be used In from 60 to 70 days. Cel ery is slow in appearing, rarely show ing Jts head above ground before the seed has been in 13 days, and often failing to appear for 20 days. It re quires 170 days to get ready for use. ENDIVE TO FOLLOW LETTUCE A Delicious Salad Plant, Only Be ginning to Be Really Known. ANB of the most delicious salad plants in the world Is the en dive. It Is the French chicory and some day when it is thoroughly known in America it will largely sup plant our more common lettuces. There are two varieties the curled and the broad-leaved. The former is the more tender. It matures slowly, requiring about seven weeks and can be sown so that it will come in dur ing the heated months, when lettuce Is at its poorest. Endive sown now and every two weeua for succession till June will give crops at just the right time. Plant the seed fairly close, and as soon as a few leaves are up begin to thin, using the thinnings for the table. Continue this thinning dally till the plants that are to remain and grow to maturity are at least one foot apart. As soon as the leaves are four Inches tall, you may begin to pick. Or the leaves can be cut' oft and the plant will grow others. Picked this way, endive is at its tenderest. It it is allowed to grow into heads, the stalks should be blanched. This is done by excluding the light from them either by heaping straw or hay around the - base of the plants, by covering with boards or most easily and best by tying the heads. Be care ful, however, never to perform any of these operations at a time when there is a dew or rain on the plants. They must be perfectly dry when handled. If the heads are tied up, the blanch ing process should be complete in about 15 days, sometimes earlier. As soon as they are blanched, the endive should be used. BEGIN TO DO MULCHING NOW From This Time On Plants WW Need Moisture. W HEXEIVER the soil around any VV plant, whether it be flower, shrub or vegetable, is hard and. caked. It Is a sure symptom that your treatment of the garden is wrong. The average ama teur will try to correct the matter at once by watering; indeed, that is all that most gardeners used to do when If FROG FARMING PAYING PROPOSITION California Girl Who Makes $1800 a Year Out of Her Ranch. 0 NEJ OF the most successful frog ranches in California la owned and managed by Miss Katherine Walsh. Uke a . good many other people now living In the West, Miss Walsh was forced to leave her native state in the East be cause of 111 health. Being told to live out of doors and foroed by necessity to earn her own living, she decided to raise frogs for the market, and now not only owns one of the most picturesque ranches In Contra Costa County but sup ports lu comfort her mother and the two children of a dead sister. "The net profit of my froggeries for last year was something over JW00," Miss Walsh, told the. reporter. "I sold 300U dozen 'frog legs in San Francisco and that was the amount cleared. They were all shipped alive to hotels ana restaurants and the price received was from 1 to & i dozen. Of course the price of frog legs, like that of every other variety of game, depends on the size and the season. . "The native green frog of California is very small, and while the legs are delicious in taste they bring much less money than when- the native frog Is crossed with the large Eastern frog. Ac cording to epicures the very best frog for the table Is the cross between the California and the Florida species. With carefully selected stock this cross pro duces exceptionally handsome frogs and so dellclously flavored as to put to blush the finest Parisian product. "My froggeries cover ten acres of land and are four in number, besides the small pools where the tadpoles are kept until they are large enough to be put with their older relatives. Yes, it Is abso-i lutely necessary to keep them divided according to size, as frogs are about the most cheerful cannibals one could Imagine. "Anything of his own kind from a tad pole up is fair game for a large frog that wm - U''.,w."iL,m.'"HH.)u u nmnj f tx xt f- 1 . ,vv, - v V POTTED FOLIAGE AND FLOWERS FOR LAWNS. A garden that has failed, or ene that has been neglected too long to make It possible to get the requisite amount of bloom and foMage from planted things, can be made artificially, so to speak, by the lavish use of large plants In pots and tubs, as shown here. The assortment Is miscellane ous, and not artistic from a garden er's point of view, but as an expedi ent In necessity It serves Its purpose excellently well. Potted plants, such as hydrangeas, cactus, palms, yucca, little cedars and other beautiful ever greens, and scores of varieties of flowers, can be obtained so cheaply that It should not be difficult to brighten up the surroundings of a house at any time of the Summer. the ground was dry. Now-a-days we know that watering hard, baked earth Is always useless and sometimes worse than that. When the earth cakes. It Is a sign that y. has sucked up all the moisture from below and has allowed it to evaporate. What It needs imme diately is to be dug, hoed or raked and made as fine as dust. Very often. If it is Impossible to give a garden sufficient water, as when the patch is far from the house, or too large to soak as It should be soaked, you pan refresh the plants without water by loosening all the soil around them and making it per fectly granulated and soft. The writer had one experimental veg etable patch last Bummer In a meadow so far from the house that it was quite impossible to water it. There was a drouth of three weeks and by merely raking the entire place every day the moisture already In the ground was con served so perfectly that not a single plant so much as wilted. As soon as the earth has been loosened, water it freely, but not with a sprinkling pot. The sprinkling pot is sbsolutely out of place In a garden. It is useful for potted plants, but for nothing else. Soak the ground with a hose, or pour water on it in pallfuls. Immediately following the watering, cover with a mulch. Wrhat is a mulch? Anything that will cover the ground loosely and yet tho roughly. The most desirable for -gardens is lawn-mower cuttings from the lawn, because it is not displeasing to the eye; but chopped straw, very dry manure, dry leaves, and similar vegetable mat ter will answer perfectly. If no vegetable refuse of any kind is available, street dust or house sweepings will do very well. Indeed, many growers prefer dust to anything else. Whatever is used it must be kept loose and light. Its object is to prevent the heat of the sun or atmosphere from reaching the ground underneath, and Just enough must be used to gain this purpose and no more. The writer has seen coal ashes and even gravel used as mulch; they can catch and swallow it. They are not at all particular about being able to swallow it at one gulp either. Indeed they are perfectly content, if they can get a portion of their victim within reach of the digestive fluids, to sit placidly with a part hanging out of their mouth until room has been made for it Inside. "In spite of every precaution tho large frogs will sometimes get out. When thy do it seems that instinct leads them di rectly to the tadpole pools. In the morn ing the runaway frog is found wearing a plaOId smile of contentment, unmistakable evidence that a sufficiency of tadpoles have been stored away by him. "I now have all my ponds and pools sur rounded by close board fences three feet in height. No, the frogs cannot jump so high, but if by chance a broom, a garden utensil or even a broken branch Is left leaning against the fence the frogs seem to discover it In some miraculous manner, and at once, using It as a gangplank, set out to see the world. ."They are great travelers by nature, and soon after moving my stock to this place I had an amusing experience. As it was not possible to have banks about my first froggeries, I had fences built, but when I bought this ranch, as all the ponds had high banks I thought there would be no necessity for the fences. "A few days after we moved in I was awakened early one morning by the gar dener and Invited to come out and look at the frogs. It seemed as If the whole place was covered with them. They had climbed the banks and were oft on their travels. We were kept busy the entire morning sweeping them up with brooms and dust pans and dumping them back into the ponds where they belonged. "The pools for my tadpoles are never more than a foot dee; and have cement covered bottoms. The frog ponds are deeper and the bottoms are covered with mud. In which the frogs bury themselves during the Winter. "All my pools and ponds are so perfect . W"';. V5 " N.WW?.rii.V .. -4 " vK Aft served the purpose, bat of course only as desperate- expedients. PLANTING OP FLOWER SEEDS Simple Directions to Amateurs tot the Preparation of the Soil. IN making the garden bed for outdoor1 sowing of seed, the amateur can save much time and trouble by under standing clearly just what the princi ple is. In the first place, remember that al most all the seeds of our common gar den flowers are extremely tiny. To put these minute things into rough earth, full of little clods and stones, is ' like dropping them into a lot of minia ture subterranean caves, where they are neither covered properly nor will they get nourishment. The earth into which they go should be so fine that no amount of crumbling between the Angers will make it any Oner. If It can be sieved, that la the best thing to do. But while the seeds need perfectly powdered earth to do their best, they do not need much of it. A few Inches In depth Is all that Indoor seed boxes ever have. Consequently It is by no means necessary to work over tho whole garden bed to make it a good seed bed. On the other hand, however, as the flowers that come up are to stay where they grow, It is extremely necessary that the entire bed be prepared as it should be to provide the proper nour ishment and foothold for the plants after their roots begin to go deeper than the upper seedbed. Therefore the right way to go about' making a bed for seeding down flowert is to remove about half a foot or even a little less of the top soil If it is very rich and black earth. If not, get an equal quantity of earth that is good, pass It through a fine sieve if possible, or else rake it and pick it over till it is per fectly fine. Pile it alongside of the bed. Then go at the latter. Dig it deep, mixing the upper soil well with the lower. Unless the earth Is very rich Indeed, put some fine well-rotted manure In and turn It under. Rake It all thoroughly, remov ing all large stones and hard material, and everything that will prevent the earth from forming a good root bed. After the bed has been thoroughly raked and smoothed, trample it down well un til it Is packed solid. Then rake again thoroughly, because while you want the earth to be well packed, as rain and weather would pack it In time, you still do not want It hard and solid. After this second raking, cover evenly with the very fine earth for the reception of the seeds. Most of the flower seeds will not need to be dug under. It will be best to scatter them lightly on the ground and then press them in firmly with a flat board. Scatter fine earth, crumbled be tween the fingers, over them and tho work is done. ly drained that an overflow is quite im possible, and in case it becomes necessary all the water can be let off within a few minutes. They are all. ponds and pools, covered with a green lacework of alga so thick as to resemble one unbroken mass, but the water under this growth Is fresh. A 8ong of Beauty. ' Denis A. McCarthy in the New York Sun. Oh, sin me a song of beauty J I'm tired of the strenful song, I'm weary of all the preaching, the arguing right and wrong, I'm fain to forget the adder that under the laf lies curled. And dream of the light and beauty that gladdens the gray old world! Oh, sing of the emerald meadows mile all dar In the sun! mat The ripple and gleam of the rivers that oa through the meadows run! Oh, sing or the sighing branches of trees In the leafy woods. And the balm for the heart that's hidden afar in the solitudes! The birds let them sing In your singing and flash through the lines you writ The lark with his lilt In the morning the nightingale charming the night. The butterfly over the flowers that hovers on painted wing All these, let them brighten and lighten the beautiful song you sing! And let there be faces of lovers, there be eves that and let And let there be tears of gladness instead of the tears of woe. And let there be clinging kisses of lips for a time that part. But never a tristful shadow to darken a trustful heart! Ay, sing me a song of beauty away with songs of strife! Away with the specter of sorrow that sad dens the most of life? Though under the leaf the adder of death and of doom lies curled. Oh, sing, for a sparce. of the beauty that gladdens the gray old world!
