Eagle River Democrat. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1893-1896, 1896-04-06
The Flower Garden.

OF course you intend to have a flower
garden. Why not have a good one while
you are about it? By midwinter the
flower catalogues come drifting down
upon us. No better way can be found of
spending a dull winters day than in
their companionship, studying, choosing,
weighing, sitting, until you know just
what you want. Don't Ego it blind in
making your selections, without thought
of your soil, climate, or premises extent
Don't pick moon-fioWers for Manitoba,
or ten weeks stock for Louisiana. Don't
settle on tea roses for a deeply-shaded
bed, nor mimuluS in sunny one. Choose
special flowers for each bed, and bulbs
and general mixed stock enough to fill
up any gaps in the general border> with
vines for porticoeS, and shrubs If you
need them. Then there will be nothing
overlooked or left bare.
Now copy this list neatly and send it
away in good time. True, only seed or
ders are filed in the dead of winter, but
orders are filed as received and filled in
have the advantage of getting exactly
what they want. and that out of the
choicest of the stock. Late orders al
ways find the florist short on some things
and non-flling or substitution is alike
disappointing. Besides, in the seasons
rush, mistakes are much more liable to
occur.
Good seed or plant material is a third.
beds we'll prepared another third, and
good culture the final share of complete
floral success. Better one bed well made,
we'll planted and we'll tended. than a
dozen half-managed ones. When one of
those spring days comes seductive
enough, almost, to WOO marble statue
from it's pedestal, or an American woman
out of her kitchen; when the earth is just
wet enough and dry enough, that hand
full of it can be compressed by the fin
al 1c, -
of the hoe, then is the proper time to
prepare the beds. Don't peck at the
surface of the ground with hoe. The
earth does not need scratching; it needs
digging up and turning over.
Spade your beds. If you are a stout
woman, do it yourself if no better way
offers. If your back is weak. coax the
men folks to do it, even il YOU have TO
feast them to the verge of dyspepsia to
do So If neither of these plans Will
work. hire n stout boy for half a day,
and stay with him until he gets it done.
All plants grow luXuriously in a spaded
bed. Their roots find deer anchorage
there, take up more plant food and suffer
less from extremes of rain or drouth.
Besides. the ground is much easier kept
in good condition, keeping looser and
more mellow the season through than
Shallow-stirred beds.
But spading is not all. Plants must be
fed The farmer gives manure by the
shoveiful to his corn and potatoes to
insure a good crop. Highly-bred plants.
as are nearly all ornamental plants, have
more need of extra feeding and stimula-
tion. Stable, barnyard. hen or chip ma
nure are any of them good fertilizers.
See that the manure is so thoroughly
rotted that it will crumble at the slight
est touch Put a layer inches deer
or more all over the DeG, then mix ii
through and through the soil. until not q
lump of it can be found anywhere. Now
rake the surface smooth. and you have
beds worth something, beds 1nat will
grow plants strong and stocky, with rank
foliage, and quantities of big, handsome
flowers. Choice plants in frst-class