The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1892-04-14
PREPARISG AGARDER.

PREPARISG A GARDER.
Make the earth in your boxes fine
and moist, and make trenches across
IL by pressing n slender stick down
into IL Pour your seed out on a
smooth bit Of pastebOard, and push
Off with your pencil one at a time.
an inch apart, at least for pansies,
and more than an inch for nastur-
tiums. Sift the dirt over, covering
to depth given on your seed paper.
Press the dirt down firmly and mark
the rows with stick on which the
name has been written. The prac-
tice of taking up expensive flower
seed IN pinch" and strewing il
thickIy and thinly along the trench
should cease. IL you have more
flower seed than you need, / beg you
not to waste them. There are many
people in the world, probably some
i'm your own neighborhOOd, who
look nj the gardens aud long for a
few flowers, and who would raise
them II they could only spare the
money for a little seed, and IL you
plant all you have and care for them
properly, picking out the young
plants into boxes, they will be so
thrifty and large by the time the
garden IL warm enough to receive
plants that you may sell enough, at
least, to pay for your seed, IL you do
not care tn give away BDy.
l haven't a word to say against
novelties" except that they come
high, and are usually placed attrac-
lively at the first OF the book, so that
they catch one up. and get all the
money before we begin TO look for !
the dear, oId-fashioned pinks and |
pOsies.
I'd just like to tell you how spray |
of common yellow butter-cup, and
rodeside daisy wrought great
change in my life, but this is not the
place. / wish to plead for a bed Of |
mixed, old fashioned flowers for the
children; back 100 the fence, perhaps
but full of petunias, iris, forget-me-
nots, phlox, and pinks, where the
children can pick them themselves
and be happy with them.
You have not children? Then
plant them for your neighbours chill
dren, and for the poor and the sick.
IL your hotbed has been forgotten,
il is not so much work as you think
TO scIspe away the snow from that
sunny place beside the close, board
fence, aud have a small place of
frozen earth picked out. Make an
excavation i'm width about the length
of the sash you desire to use, say ,
or feet wide and "a inches deep. Ii
can be IA long a. you may have sash
nd
board from bottom up, to keep our
mice, etc. Board the north side !
feet above the surface and the south
side about four inches, and slope the
ends to meet the two sides. Fit
cross pieces into the back and front,
two at least, To hold the sash; stay
these by uprights under them. il ,
Nail cleat along the
outside of the lower side, , inches
higher than the boarding, against
which tn rest the sash.
You are ready, now. for the filling ,
Fill with straw horse dressing, ifyou
have it; If straw, but il will take
longer To warm up. Fill the bed
two thirds full, aud put on tn"
sashes. taking pains to bank the bed ;
thoroughly all around the sides.
Cover the whole up with pieces of
old carpet, anything tn keep the
frost out. Stir up about the fifth /
day, tread firmly. and fill in q or : ,
inches of good soil, Half leaf mold,
with sand and garden earth, to make
a nice light soil, will lie what you !
want. Replace the sash aud covers ,
and let the whole warm up. After q ,
time the weed seeds will begin to
grow, and may be raked over and
killed. Now smooth nicely aud {
press down firmly and il is ready for !
the seed. 4
The chief danger with a hotbed is
that you are likely 10 burn up your :
plants, but IL you ventilate the !
young plants carefully, and white d
wash your sash, or cover them, "a :,
the sun gets stOng, you will be sur 1
prised to see how you will be able tn =
raise flowers early that would never
grow for you before. You can read .
Ily tell when your hotbed begins to
heat, by the steam on the sash, and,
II you have got il so that it refuses a
10 heaI up, put in the scraping of !
your poultry house, aud soak IL
fown with the soapsuds from the !,
wash. For winter, in q Minnesota
the depth OF the manure i'm n
The hotbed should be at least - inch 4
Is, In a milder climate, or for 7
spring, il need not be so deep. n
The cold frame should always 4,
'tand near the hotbed, and, as plants r
ret large enough to be removed to IL, (
hey should be picked out, aid re- a
yet, and the space planted again, or h
lsed for starting slips. AS soon as n
he sash can be removed in the mid y
lie of the day without the possibil- 4,
ty Of a chill, il will be well to do n
70; but IL must not be forgotten, and n
eft OFF nights, until all danger of
rost is over. One forgot" will :,
poll the work Of months, some Y
imes.-The HOusokeeper. n