Slugs
In the spring, slugs, which eat the tender new leaves of many plants, can be kept away by sprinkling coal-ash around them.
Watering
In hot weather, water perennials regularly and well, breaking up earth around them so that the water sinks in easily.
Supports
All tall-growing perennials will need stakes to support them. Care must be taken not to injure the roots when putting these in. The stalks can be tied with twine.
Dividing
Perennials can be divided if they grow too large. With summer-flowering plants this should be done in October or November, and with spring-flowering plants in June. In dividing you simply dig up the plant and break off as much of it as you want, being careful not to injure the roots. As, however, there are many plants which, to be divided, must be cut, and as this is an operation which requires some skill and knowledge, it would perhaps be better to take advice.
Perennials From Seed
Snapdragon, wallflower, pansies, and hollyhocks are very easily grown from seed. They can be sown in June (wallflowers are best sown in April) in boxes, and thinned out and transplanted to permanent places as soon as they are large enough. They will blossom the following year.
Seedlings
Seedlings of most perennials can be bought for a few cents a dozen.
They should be planted as quickly as possible and watered well, and they will flower the following year.
Consult a good nurseryman"s catalogue for a list of hardy perennials, as for the annuals.
Bulbs--General Remarks
A garden that is planted only with bulbs, or with bulbs and a few ferns, can be kept beautiful all the year round. Many of our loveliest flowers come from bulbs, and they are easy to grow and interesting to watch from the moment that the first leaf-tips push through the earth until they die down. The position of all bulbs should be very carefully marked on the beds and in your garden-plan, so that you will not cut or injure them when digging your garden over.
The first bulbs to come--through the snow sometimes--are the snowdrops, single and double, crocuses--yellow, purple, lilac, and striped--and then the tiny bright blue squills; and a little later the yellow daffodil and white narcissus, hyacinths, and tulips of every kind. Then white, red, and purple anemones, ranunculi, and wax-like Stars of Bethlehem. In June there are wonderful irises and tall spikes of summer-flowering gladiolus--red and white--and later still the tall garden lilies. There are many of these lilies, and all of them are exceedingly beautiful. Two kinds should be in all gardens--the white Madonna lily, and the orange tiger lily. All the bulbs that have been mentioned cost very little and can be grown very simply. And all bulbs that have been mentioned can remain untouched for many years unless they exhaust the soil around them (when, instead of increasing as they should each year, the plants become poorer and smaller).
Never move a bulb when it is in active growth: after the leaves have died down is the right time.
Leaf-mould mixed with your garden soil will help to give you fine flowers.
If the leaves of the bulbs are attacked by slugs, as they often are, sprinkle a little wood-ash all around them.
Planting Bulbs
For planting bulbs choose a day when the earth is dry, and make your holes with a trowel. If you want to make a clump of bulb-plants, take away the earth to the right depth from the whole area you wish to fill, place your bulbs in position, points upward, and cover over, pressing the earth firmly down.
In planting a bulb in a hole made for it by a trowel, be very careful to see that it is resting on earth, and is not "hung," that is to say, kept from touching the earth underneath because of the narrowness of the hole.
All bulbs may be protected during the winter by laying hay or straw over them. This must be neatly pegged down, and removed in March.
Cutting Leaves
Never cut all the leaves of plants growing from bulbs, but allow those that are unpicked to die down naturally. If they look very untidy, as the leaves of the Star of Bethlehem always do, tie them up tightly.
Seeds of annuals can always be sown among bulbs, and they will hide dying leaves and fill up the places that are left vacant.
Shades
"Shades" are subterranean gardens: holes in the ground, some eighteen inches deep and about a foot square (or larger), the sides of which are covered with moss and little ferns. At the bottom you can sink a pot or a tin, which must always be kept filled with water. It is more interesting if a toad or a frog lives there. Over the hole stands a shade made of gla.s.s and wood, which, together with the water, keeps it cool and moist.
Kitchen Gardens
If you want to grow other things besides flowers, lettuces, radishes, and mustard and cress are interesting to raise. Strawberries, too, are easy to cultivate, but they need some patience, as the first year"s growth brings very few berries. In sowing the seeds of lettuce, radish, and mustard and cress, follow directions given for sowing flower seeds on page 320. If you want to grow even the few things mentioned, which need only very simple culture, the soil of the garden must be good.
Lettuce
Sow a few seeds of lettuce very thinly in a line once every three weeks. When the seedlings, which should be protected from birds by netting, are three inches high, thin them out, leaving one foot between each plant. The seedlings that are pulled up can be transplanted or eaten. Transplanted lettuces should be shaded during hot weather and given plenty of water. During dry and hot weather you may water lettuces every day.
Radishes
Sow a few radish seeds thinly once every three weeks, and cover very lightly with earth. These seedlings also must be protected by netting from birds, and must have plenty of water, or the radishes will become stringy and poor. In summer sow in a shady place.
Mustard and Cress
Mustard and cress seed can be sown at any time and is almost sure to be successful. In very hot weather sow in the shade, or protect from the sun in the middle of the day. The cress should always be sown three days before the mustard. It is a favorite device to sow one"s name in mustard and cress. For other ways of treating it, see page 332.
Strawberries
Plant strawberries carefully in August or September. Dig a hole for each plant and spread the roots well out. Hold the plant while filling in the earth, so that that part of it where root and stem join comes just below the soil. Each plant should be eighteen inches from its neighbor. Cut off all runners--that is, the long weedy stems which the plants throw out in spring, and water well if the weather is dry.
Protect the strawberries from birds, and watch very carefully for slugs, which are greedy strawberry-eaters. When the fruit begins to form, lay some straw on the earth under and between the plants. This will keep the berries clean.
Town Gardens
So far, we have been speaking of gardens in the country, or, at any rate, not among houses. There are many more difficulties to contend with in town gardening; there is more uncertainty, and often less reward for the greatest care, than in country gardening; but the flowers that do grow seem so sweet between dull walls and under smoky chimneys, that one can forget how much more luxuriant they could be in other circ.u.mstances.
Flowers for Towns