Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1915-04-08

ter the sun has gone down, unles!
they are some you have planted tina
are sheltered from the sun. If yol
can find time give all the flowers en-
ough water every evening to refresh
the leaves, and every two or thret
evenings all through the hot sum
mer wet the ground up thoroughly
Just as soon as your flowers have
come up, thin them out. Don't be
afraid to thin them till each one has
plenty of space for itself 1t seems
hardly right to pull up so many as
you must some times, but by doing
/ it, you leave few which will grow
much faster and get to be much more
healthy, where If you left them thick
they would be spindling unhealthy
plants, which could not stand dry
weather or the hot sun, no matter
how much you cared for them. Tall
large growing plants sould be thin
ned to from to IL inches apart,
while the smaller plants, such as
pansies do best about 4 to 5 or 6
inches apart.
A great many times it is hard to
keep chickens or other things from
digging up the seeds, or the plants
when they are small. There are diff
ferent ways to hinder this somewhat
Small sticks may be stuck in the
earth quite close together all over
the bed, or brushy branches of trees
may be put on the bed till the plants
have become large enough not to be
hurt much. Another way to protect
them is by making a frame about a
;ob nd hsn MT nf
laths and coved it with mosquito net
ting. This is not expensive, and the
frame may be used for several years
recovering ii every spring. You can
put this over your most tender plants
and when they have grown large
enough you can use the frame for
other plants, perhaps some you have
transplanted which are not yet very
strong. This kind of covering has
several good points. The mosquito
netting shades the plants or ground
Just enough to keep the hottest rays
of the sun from 1t, but not enough to
hinder its growth at all. 1t allows
the surface of the earth to stay
moist, IL protects the young plants
from the sun, and when you are wat
ering them it breaks up the drops of
water into spray, which OF course is
very good for the plant. kept one
bed of pansies under one of these
frames till they came in bloom last
year and they were much nicer than
those which were unprotected.
If you have enough spare time ID
have quite few flowers, select kinds
that will blossom in turn from early
in the spring till late fall out of
doors, then on through the winter In
the house Different kinds of bulbs
such as crocus, tulip and hyacinth
are the first, then violets and other
woods flowers, then pansies If you
have a bed started which has kept
over winter, then plant sweetpeas,
nastertums. peoples. touchmenots
verbenas, and others for blooming in
summer, then asters. zennia, marri-
gold and cosmos for fall. 1t is best
to have as many perannial plants as
you can, as they do not need to be
each spring, and they require less
care during the summer.
Always keep the weeds out, o
course. Don't let them get a star
at all. After all weeds have beer
killed, keep mellowing the grounC
frequently or it will harden and DIR,
out. In general, | like the singl,
flowers better than the double ones
You can get great variety of thes,
growing wild in the timber. In thu
spring go TO the nearest wild timbe
and dig up hundred or two viole
plants. enough TO make big bed o
them, and lot of other wood flow
ers, such as Dutchmans-B Brooches
dogtooth violets, columbine and tril
lium. Ii is best to plant them thicl
! enough so they will be near enough
together after some have died, as o
J course some will. Always cover then
up and water them directly after the
} have been planted. Cover with som
: boards or boxes, always something
, that will be held away from the plan
allowing what breeze there is to cir
culate under it. II the covering I
, very close to the plant, the sun will
heat through it and simply cook tn
J plant and the ground around II. I'm
, cover them every evening and cove
them up again in the morning, keep
, ing them covered for about a wee
! or till they are strong enough to
J without.
Hazel Steere.