Evening star., 1932-08-15
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES f. TRACEHELL.

/ Here is a fertilizer selling for So per
| 100 pounds. A gardener who is, before
being a gardener, a booklover, enters
a store and asks the price.
Three dollars" he is told.
He would not hesitate a second at
paying SO for a new book. but some
how the same amount OF money for fer
| tilizer strikes him as slightly extrava-
CANT.
He asks how much so pounds
would be.
Two dollars" he is told
He hesitates then decides to take the
lesser quantity.
| Seeing a pound package Of the same.
! however for 35 cents. he buys that, too,
! to take home with him.
After he leaves the store he begins to
realize that he has spent $235 for 81
/ pounds Of fertilizer. when he could have
received 40 more pounds for IS cents
additional.
Spraying materials, when purchased
| in small quantities, will cost so much
| that many a gardener who would not
blink an eye at paying 81 for theater
seat will shrink from buying them in
sufficient quantities.
II fertilizers and spraying materials
are bought in large quantities, there
will be sufficient lying around the place
to give the gardener a sense of having
enough. so that he will not hesitate to
| apply them with a liberal hand and to
use them when necessary.
small amount. on the other hand
will have a deterring effect, actually
such; at the same time 1t necessitates
that only tiny portion be given each
plant
rr,l,ara oa,, ~ iittIa o,,ort;ox 1ba. 49,
might as we'll not use fertilizers at all
II the necessary amounts are not given
when needed.
Just what is the necessary amount
varies with plant and fertilizer. so that
| only personal study will enable the
home gardener to know for himself
what is the proper amount" No one
else can tell him, as realizes full we'll
after reading the directions" on the
packages.
Another lesson which the average
gardener may take to heart at this sea-
son is the plain necessity for spraying
in advance OF a disease, rather than
after 1t Is formed
While we have advised enthusiasts
not to seek trouble by reading books on
plant diseases, it is an entirely differ
ent thing to secure enough general in
formation on gardening, as a process,
to know that lilacs often suffer from
scale, that hollyhocks and phlox acquire
rusts and kindred diseases and that
black spot is the bane of the roses.
Knowing this, he will realize today,
better than at any other time of the
year that the best time to spray for
these ailments is before they appear,
not afterward.
"A stitch in time saves nine" went
the old saying. and its homely wisdom
may be applied as we'll with the sprayer
as with the needle.
The question of pruning is ever a
vital one in the garden. Shrubs out
grow their bounds, and to some eyes
appear unkempt. To others, the same
large growths will seem slightly and
therefore undeserving of change.
Perhaps the majority of home owners
will feel that the danger lies In the too
free use of the shears. rather than fall
ure to use them. 1t Is certain that
pruning Is not the easy thing 1t looks;
one must know plant construction
habits of growth, all about buds, and so
on. before becoming reckless with the
pruning shears.
If one doubts his own wisdom along
these lines, the safest procedure is to
let we'll enough alone. and keen a re-
strained hand on the shippers. The de-
sire to shear back plants is almost
irresistible on the part of some people
and for them it may be the best policy
Others should proceed circumSpectly.
The necessity for sticking to time
tried plants is never so well attested as
at this period of the year, when they are
doing their charming best. Have new
things. Of course, but never sneer at
the old
Every yard. no matter how small. still
offers some not utilized space in which
small plants may be placed. The Tril-
Num or Wake-Robin, for instance
would grow in many a shady bare spot