Part 9

Let it be about a foot and a half in depth at the back, and eight or ten inches deep in front, with sides that slope from the wider boards to the narrower ones. Cover it with glass set in sash. If possible have the sash hinged to the back-board, so that it can be lifted for ventilation without removing it.

The best location for a hotbed is one facing the south, that all possible advantage can be taken of sunshine, and against a building or fence that will protect it on the north from cold winds. Some persons prefer to make an excavation a foot or more in depth for the reception of the heating material, but this is not a matter of much importance. As a general thing it will not be possible to do this in a satisfactory manner while there is frost in the ground, as there will be at the North until after the first of March.

When the first stages of fermentation are over, set the hotbed frame in place, and fill in with five or six inches of very fine, rich soil. This is what your seed is to be planted in.

The young gardener will be surprised at the amount of heat contained in an inclosure like the one described. It will be very similar to the weather conditions of early or middle May out of doors. In it plants will grow healthily and vigorously, provided they are given plenty of fresh air. This is a matter of the greatest importance. Unless your seedlings are aired daily, if the weather is pleasant, they will make a rapid but weak growth, and when the time comes to put them in the cold-frame or the open ground--provided they are alive then--they will be so lacking in vitality that the change will be pretty sure to put an end to them. On every sunny or warm day the sash should be lifted an inch or two, about ten o'clock, and left in that condition until about two. Care must be taken, however, to see that the wind does not blow from a quarter that will drive the cold air in upon the plants. The admission of a cold blast will often be fatal to the tender plants.

Great caution must be exercised in regard to ventilation. The aim should be, at all times, to admit pure, fresh air without allowing cold to enter with it. This may seem a somewhat paradoxical statement, for at first thought it will seem impossible for air from without to come in without taking along with it the cold air which is in circulation outside, but when one takes into consideration the fact that the warm air inside the hotbed meets the air from out of doors at the point of entrance it will be understood that it repels or counteracts it to an extent that makes it safe to open the sash slightly when the outside temperature is nearly down to freezing-point. The hotbed-owner must study existing conditions and be governed accordingly. It is impossible to lay down any hard-and-fast rules to apply in this case.

On cold nights the hotbed sash should be covered with blankets or old carpeting to prevent the formation of frost on the glass. If you find, in the morning, that the glass is covered with moisture on its under side, raise the sash a trifle and leave it so until the moisture clears away.

If at any time you have reason to think that the warmth inside the frame is decreasing too rapidly, bank up about it with fresh fermenting material.

After constructing the hotbed and putting the frame and sash in place, test the heat inside by an accurate thermometer before venturing to sow any seed. When it registers 85° or 90° the bed is ready for seeding.

In making the frame for a hotbed care should be taken to see that all joints fit snugly. A great deal of cold can be admitted through a very small crevice. A few cracks will let out the heat faster than it is generated, therefore see to it that in constructing the frame a good piece of work is done.

Some persons tell me that they always bank up a hotbed with earth. This enables it to retain the heat better than it is possible for it to do without banking.

A hotbed will be of no particular benefit unless supplemented by a cold-frame. This is simply a snug inclosure of boards covered with glass, into which plants from the hotbed are to be set for the purpose of hardening them off before they are put into the open ground. In other words, it is a hotbed without heat. The temperature in it ought to register from 60° to 65°. Raise the sash an inch or two on sunny days before the rays of the sun striking on the glass raise the temperature inside to a degree too intense for the good of your plants.

It will be readily understood from what I have said above that in order to attain success in the management of a hotbed great care will have to be exercised at all times and frequent attention given. It is not a self-regulating thing by any means. You will have to consider the weather, the time of day when ventilation should be given, frequency of watering, and other matters which cannot be touched on here because of a more or less local character.

Plants in the hotbed should be watered cautiously. An over-supply will often cause the seedlings to "damp off," and a lack of sufficient moisture at the roots will speedily result in injury, if not death. Whenever water is applied, use a sprinkler that throws a fine spray. If thrown on the soil in a stream the water will often wash the smaller plants out of place. It may puzzle one to tell when just enough has been given. This is best determined by an examination of the soil. If moderately moist there is plenty of moisture below.

SMALL GARDENS

Many persons who would like to grow flowers and vegetables do not attempt to grow any because they do not consider that they have a place large enough to justify them in doing so.

Here is where they make a mistake. A garden need not be a large one to be enjoyable. A few plants are better than none. It is possible to make a bit of garden more satisfactory than a large one because it will be more likely to get more attention than would be given to the larger one, and attention is one of the important features of any successful garden.

There will, in the majority of cases, be little nooks and corners here and there about the home grounds in which some plants can be grown by those disposed to make the most of existing conditions. These, if not improved, will be pretty sure to be given over to weeds, or to the accumulation of rubbish of one kind or another, and they will detract from the tidy and clean appearance which should characterize the home everywhere. If the owners of these bits of ground--these possibilities for adding to the attractiveness of home--could be made to realize the amount of pleasure they could be made to afford with very little exertion on their part, the general work of civic improvement societies would be most beneficial, and this would be done at the very place where civic improvement ought to start--the home. There can be no real and lasting improvement in civic undertaking unless the individual home takes up the matter. The civic improvement society that starts out with the idea of improving things generally, but does not begin the good work at the home is working on the idea of making clean the outside of the cup and ignoring the condition inside it. Just as the home is the foundation of society, so must it be made the pivotal point at which any substantial and lasting improvement finds its beginning.

Because the scattered places about the small home in which few plants could be grown will not admit of bed-making, or the "designs" which many persons seem to think indispensable in gardening, is no good reason why we should not take advantage of and make the most of them. If one lives in a community where there are German families he will be surprised at the amount of vegetables they grow in each home-lot. Not an inch of soil is allowed to go to waste. A large amount of the food of the family is grown in places which most Americans would overlook, simply because of the prevailing idea that unless one can do things on a large scale it is not worth while to attempt doing anything. The German has been brought up to not "despise the day of small things," and he profits by the advice. As we might, if we would, and, I am glad to say, as more and more are profiting by year by year as they become aware of the fact that much can be done where conditions are limited.

I would not advise much mixing of varieties. On the contrary, I would prefer to give over each little piece of ground to one plant. Those of low habit I would have near the path, giving the places back of them to taller-growing kinds. Of course, in the majority of small homes, there is not much chance for exercising a choice in the location of one's flowering or vegetable plants; still, it is well to study the possibilities for general effect, and do all that can be done to secure pleasing results. Where plants that grow to a height of three feet are grown, the best place for them is at the rear, or along the boundary of the lot, where they will serve as a background for plants of lower habit.

Children should be encouraged to take an interest in the cultivation of small gardens. They will do this if the parents are willing to help them a little at the start. Show them how to spade up the soil in spring, and how to work it over and over until it is fine and mellow. They will make play of this part of garden work, as it is as natural for a child to dig in the dirt as it is for a pig to wallow in a mud-puddle. Add some kind of fertilizer to the soil, and explain to the boys and girls that it is food for the plants that are to be. Show them how to sow seed, and tell them all you can about the processes of germination, and encourage them to watch for the appearance of the seedlings. In a short time you will have aroused in them such interest in the work they have undertaken that it will be as fascinating to them as a story, and nature will take delight in writing it out for them in daily instalments that constantly increase in interest. The ability to know plants and how to grow them ought to be a part of every child's education.

Don't let a bit of ground go to waste. Have flowers and vegetables, even if there isn't room for more than half a dozen plants--or only one plant for that matter, for that one solitary plant will be a great deal better than none at all.

LEFT-OVERS

There are more ways than one to secure fertilizers and fine soil for the small garden. If sward is cut from the roadside, chopped into small pieces, and stored away in some corner of the yard that is convenient to get at, and the soapsuds from wash-day are poured over it each week, it will, in a short time, if stirred frequently, become a most excellent substitute for leaf-mold. The grassroots, when decayed, will become a vegetable fertilizer which will be found extremely valuable in the culture of such plants as require a light, rich soil, especially when small.

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Some quite artistic effects can be secured in the vegetable-garden by the exercise of a little thought. The large-leaved beet has foliage of a dark, rich crimson quite as ornamental as that of many plants used by gardeners to produce the "tropical effects" which many persons admire. When planted in the background, with fine-foliaged plants like carrot or parsley in front of it, the effect will be extremely pleasing because of the contrast of color, and also of habit. The red pepper, planted where it can show its brilliantly colored fruit against the green of some plant, will give a bit of brightness that will not fail to be appreciated by those who have a keen eye for color-harmony. It is well to plan for these touches of the artistic, even in the vegetable garden.

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Tomatoes are often grown on racks and trellises. Where this is done there will be no danger of the fruit's decaying, as is often the case when the plants are given no support and their branches come in contact with the ground.

It is a good idea to scatter clean, dry straw under the plants after they begin to set fruit.