Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1880-06-11
Ferns and Moses.

oO DttlulIul 81 easily
grown that all can afford to have them
in their garden or houses. They will
grow where flowers will not; and the
shadier and damper the ground is, the
better home for the ferns. A very pref
ty place for ferns to grow is in the old
fashioned wide fireplace; and they cover
up an unsightly place-in summer-and
also give great pleasure in watching
their fronds expand.
A fern basket made in this way is
both unique and pretty: Take splints
made of kindling wood; fasten them an
inch and half apart around an old tin
cover, and keep them in place by an iron
hoop fitting snugly against the splints or
Stats on the inside, the cover rim being
slightly indented to prevent the splints
from moving laterally. The top is a
wooden rim to which the splints are
tackled. Line this with moss turf with
the green placed outward, and fill the
basket with earth and leaf mold. The
moss should also be extended over the
top of the basket, after setting out young
ferns, which may be found in any of the
damp, messy parts of the woods. The
basket when prepared should be kept
somewhat shaded, and the moss should
be daily dampened. The bottom and
splints of the basket should be painted a
bright red, contrasting with the green
vegetation, though such violent contrasts
in flowers are not preferable. When
moss is not available, grass sod may be
substituted for basket-lining and other
plants be substituted for the ferns. A
peach basket, or two, fastened together,
serves the same purpose without the
trouble of making the spirit basket.
Very beautiful baskets for flowers and
ferns can be made of the longer and
more feathery kinds of moses. These
look very beautiful, especially the wild
flowers, when clustered in this delicate
and soft green nest, which can be made
to preserve its freshness and brilliancy
for many months. A light frame of any
shape liked should be made of wire and
covered with common pasteboard or
calico; and the moss, which should be
well picked over and cleansed from any
bits of dirt OF dead leaves which may be
hanging about it, gathered into little
tufts and sewed with a coarse needle and
thread to the covering, so as to cover it
thickly with a close and compact coating,
taking care that the points of the moss
are all outward. A long handle made in
the same manner should be attached to
the basket, and a tin or other vessel,
filled with either wet sand or water,
placed within to hold the flowers. By
dipping the whole structure into water
once in three or four days, its verdure
and elasticity will be fully preserved. A
block of wood about an inch thick alIu
stained black or green, if placed under
the basket, will prevent all risk Of DAM
age to the table from moisture.
Another satisfactory arrangement is to
obtain common shallow box, ornament
it with sticks or bark, and fill it with
sandy earth, mixed with moss finely
broken up. After planting the ferns the
whole can be covered with moss, such as
may be found on logs in damp woods.
The ferns will find their way through
the moss. Lobelia is pretty in a fern box
OF case, and so is Kenilworth ivy.
In shaded places ferns may be planted
along with other shade-loving things and
mostly those from the woods near home.
These need little care; and, as they are
mostly perennial, they shift for them
selves each season. To make a suitable
bed for such plants as ferns needs little
preparation. Old rotten bits of wood,
or small branches, along with clinkers
and decayed bits of wood and leaf mold,
or any old manure that has laid spread a
considerable length of time so as to take
all the rancid matter out of it; these. all
mixed up together, make an excellent
compost to plant outdoor ferns in, and
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than cutting away the dead stems at
times and keeping down the weeds.
A pretty fern box that l have seen was
about six inches deep and two feet
square, papered with a buff paper and
scarlet border. Fill this with sandy
loan within two inches of the top.
Take the maiden-hair ferns and larger
kinds, and leave the rich, loamy soil on
the roots.
In the early spring days I used to
90 to the woods on the lake shore, and
fill the carriage-box full of all kinds
of ferns, srawberry vines, in fact, any
thing and everything that would grow
in moss. Every available dish around
the house was filled with moss, dirt, and
then the ferns. Large, deep platters,
soup tureens, wooden chopping-bowls-
this last makes very fine and quaint
looking fern holder, especially if rough
twigs are nailed all over the outside of it
in rustic fashion.
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