Part 24

Copper Sulphate (blue vitriol) 6 pounds Quicklime (good stone lime) 4 pounds Water 50 gallons

Dissolve the copper sulphate by putting it in a bag of coarse cloth, and hanging it in a wooden or earthen vessel containing five or six gallons of water. After the copper sulphate has dissolved, dilute with water to twenty-five gallons; slake the lime, and add twenty-five gallons of water; mix the two, and keep thoroughly stirred while using. If the mixture is to be used on Carnations, or the like, it will adhere better if a pound of hard soap be dissolved in hot water and added.

Kerosene Emulsion

Hard Soap ½ pound Boiling Water 1 gallon Kerosene 2 gallons

Dissolve the soap in the water; add the kerosene, and churn with a spray or force-pump until they unite and have the appearance and consistency of buttermilk. Dilute with water to twenty-five or thirty gallons before applying.

Paris-green Solution

Paris green 1 pound Water 50 gallons

Keep constantly stirred when using.

Hot-water Bath

The hot-water bath will, in nearly every case, take the place of insecticides and give better results, as it thoroughly cleanses the foliage and leaves no bad effects, if not too hot. Heat to 140° if for spraying, and use before it cools; 136° if the plants are to be dipped.

Next in convenience to a pair of rubber gloves for the garden are the duck mittens sold for household purposes. All sorts of garden work may be done in these, even the transplanting of quite small plants. They have also the advantage of being very cheap, or they may be manufactured at home. Always have an extra pair on hand. Gardening without gloves is ruinous to the hands and a needless discomfort.

For watering the window-garden, a small pot with a long spout that will go between the plants will be a great convenience, as by its use the farthest plants may be watered without disturbing the others. This means a saving of time on busy mornings, and insures against neglect.

The life of the gardener who raises chickens is full of perplexities. Certainly nothing is more vexing and discouraging than to have one’s plants repeatedly scratched out of the ground by chickens. With netting so cheap there is no good reason why chickens, or other farm stock, should have the range of the yard.

Nothing is more filthy or conducive to disease than the presence of fowls in the door-yard. There are few house-yards that cannot be isolated from the rest of the premises by a judicious use of wire-netting, and where the conditions call for it this should be the first thing done. It will not be at all satisfactory to surround the beds with netting, which is inconvenient and unsightly. The whole yard, or at least the entire garden, should be inclosed, using netting high enough to turn any fowl, say at least five feet; even Plymouth Rocks will take a four-foot fence. For Brown Leghorns six feet is a safer height than five feet. There should be no place on the top of the fence on which the birds can alight. At the bottom a board will make all secure, and prevent the chickens digging under; and it will be better if set a little below the surface of the ground, which should be made hard and firm around it.

Fences may be made attractive with vines or plants. Sweet-peas, Nasturtiums, Morning-glories, Cobæa scandens, Wild Cucumbers, the Scarlet-fruited Gourd, Roses, Clematis or Honeysuckles make a good background for the lawn and beds of bright flowers.

Chapter TWENTY-FOUR A Chapter of Don’ts

Don’t forget to air the hotbeds on warm, sunny days, and to protect them on cold ones.

Don’t forget that plants need room to develop, and set them far enough apart to make this possible.

Don’t forget to water the window-boxes every day, and to keep the sand in the sand-box wet all the time.

Don’t forget to go over the Pansies and Sweet-peas every day, and remove all withered flowers. Don’t let them suffer for want of water at any period of their bloom.

Don’t try to raise more plants than you have room for, or strength and time to cultivate. A few plants well cared for are better than a neglected garden—a most discouraging sight. The gardener will find enough real difficulty without inviting disaster.

Don’t try to follow all the advice that is offered you; make up your mind what you want to do and go steadily ahead. If you fail you will know how, and why, which is in itself a distinct gain. It is a good rule never to take the advice of an unsuccessful person, no matter how reasonable it sounds. Distrust garrulous advice; the gardener with real knowledge is not inclined to force advice upon others.

Don’t be cast down by adverse criticism unless your judgment tells you it is deserved. The person who “knows it all” is never so much at home as in some one else’s flower-garden, where the principal labour may be done with the tongue.

Don’t be wheedled into spoiling your plants by saving seed for one who is perfectly able to buy; instead, give the address of the dealer from whom you purchased, and suggest that he will be glad to fill orders. Don’t rob your plant of cuttings that are necessary to its symmetry; this, too, is a case for the florist. There are people who seem to feel it an injustice for any one to possess a plant with more than one branch so long as they are not supplied with that particular variety.

Don’t, when you have purchased a dozen Violets or Primulas, meaning to divide them after awhile to make the border you did not feel like purchasing outright, be imposed upon to the extent of giving half of them away to some one who has been waiting for this very opportunity. The experienced gardener learns to steer such people away from plants she does not wish to part with, or have mutilated, but the amateur is looked upon as legitimate prey. I have frequently known people to break a branch from plants they were handling, with the expectation of being told to keep it. The remedy for this sort of thing is to immediately place it in the ground with some remark about having a place for it.

Don’t supply with cut flowers, plants, and the like, people who spend more money for unnecessary luxuries than you do for your whole garden, and then tell you how foolish you are to spend so much time and money, and work so hard for your flowers. Don’t be too deeply impressed with the sudden friendship at gardening time of the woman who has managed to get along without your society all winter. Don’t be imposed upon by the chronic plant-beggar, but suggest to her that you will be glad to lend your catalogues; that in them she will find, at reasonable prices, all the things you have in your garden; and that the florist will doubtless be glad of her patronage.

Don’t, on the other hand, be lacking in generosity of the right sort. Flowers may be given to rich and poor alike, and carry no hint of obligation, or unfitness. To the tired worker who has neither time nor space to cultivate them, a handful of flowers, or a potted plant, which can be spared from your abundance, will make a bit of sunshine well worth the trouble. For many who cannot spare the trifling amount a single plant or packet of seed would cost, the surplus plants from flats or hotbeds will be a great pleasure, and one should not wait for requests. Those who really cannot afford these things are rarely guilty of the petty meanness of the professional plant-beggars. It is a good plan to jot down, from time to time as they occur, the names of those you would like to benefit in this way, and then, when you have surplus plants, send word of that fact, and of the time when it will be convenient to take them up. This will be better than sending the plants, which might arrive when it would be inconvenient or impossible to attend to them.

There are so many ways of giving pleasure with flowers that one need never be embarrassed with a surplus: the sick; the young girl who will enjoy them for her party; the young matron, for her pretty luncheon; the church service, the humble funeral, where the choicest and best should go. A beautiful tact may be shown by a choice in harmony with the taste of the recipient and the occasion for which they are intended. Do not send all white flowers, or flowers with a heavy perfume, to the sick-room. Bright flowers are better. Notice the cheer in a pot of golden Daffodils or a bunch of Hepaticas. A charming thing is a handful of Japanese Morning-glory buds picked and sent the night before, that the invalid may watch their unfolding in the morning. I have known these to give the greatest pleasure.