Planting by the steps
The land should be rich. The whole ground should be plowed or spaded and the plants set irregularly in the space; or the back row may be set in a line. If the border is composed of shrubs, and is large, a horse cultivator may be run in and out between the plants for the first two or three years, since the shrubs will be set from 2 to 4 ft. apart. Ordinarily, however, the cultivating is done by hand tools. After the plants are once established and the border is filled, it is best to dig up as little as possible, for the digging disturbs the roots and breaks off the crowns. It is usually best to pull out the weeds and give the border a top-dressing each fall of well rotted manure. If the ground is not very rich, a sprinkling of ashes or some commercial fertilizer may be given from time to time. The border should be planted so thick as to allow the plants to run together, thereby giving one continuous effect. Most shrubs should be set 3 feet apart. Things as large as lilacs may go 4 feet and sometimes even more. Common herbaceous perennials, like bleeding heart, delphiniums, hollyhocks, and the like, should go from 12 to 18 inches. On the front edge of the border is a very excellent place for annual and tender flowering plants. Here, for example, one may make a fringe of asters, geraniums, coleus, or anything else which he may choose ([see Flower Beds]).
The border is an excellent place in which to colonize native or other interesting plants. A person comes across an attractive plant on his tramp and wishes it were in his garden. Whatever the time of year, he may break off the top close to the ground, take up the roots and plant them in the border. If a little attention is given to the plant for the first two or three weeks, as watering or mulching or shading, it should become established and give satisfactory bloom the following year. Two-thirds of the herbs which one would take up in this way, even in midsummer, should grow. Into the heavy borders about the boundaries of the place the autumn leaves will drift and afford an excellent mulch. If these borders are planted with shrubs, the leaves may be left there to decay, and not be raked off in the spring. The general outline of the border facing the lawn should be more or less wavy or irregular, particularly if it is on the boundary of the place. Alongside a walk or drive, the margins may follow the general directions of the walk or drive.
There are three rules for the choosing of plants for a hardy border. Choose (1) those which you like best, (2) those which are adapted to the climate and soil, (3) those which are in place or in keeping with that part of the grounds. See [Herbs], [Shrubs], [Trees].
Borecole is [Kale].
Borers. There is no sovereign remedy for borers except to dig them out. Do not rely upon washes or other applications. If trees are examined two or three times a year, it is not a laborious undertaking to dig them out, as they will not be deep in the wood. If they do get deep in the wood, thrust a wire into the burrow. By the chips cast from the holes, or by the dead bark, the presence of borers may be detected. Apple and peach trees are particularly liable to attack. The flat-headed apple-tree borer works just underneath the bark on any part of the trunk or large branches. The round-headed apple-tree borer eats into the wood at the crown.
Boxes of many sizes can be utilized in which to grow plants. Excellent effects of bulbs and annuals may be had in old soap boxes. The boxes may be placed in the best situations for the growth of the plants, and they can receive better attention than the large flower bed. Vines planted about the edge will hide the sides,—such vines as Kenilworth ivy, moneywort, maurandya, trailing fuchsia, and the like.
Brachycome. [See Swan River Daisy.]
Broccoli. This is almost identical with the Cauliflower, except that it usually requires a longer season and matures in the fall. It is grown more generally in Europe than in this country. The special merit of Broccoli is its adaptability for late summer planting and its rapid growth in the late fall. It is said that a large proportion of Broccoli is used in the manufacture of pickles. The culture is the same as for Cauliflower,—deep, moist soil well enriched, cool weather, and the destruction of the cabbage worm.
The young plants may be grown in a coldframe or in a well protected border, sowing the seed about the 15th of May, transplanting into rows in July. In sections in which early fall frosts are not to be feared, the plants may be set two weeks later, say August 1, as all vegetables of the cabbage family make the best growth through the cool months of September and October. The plants should be set 18 in. apart in the rows, the rows being from 2½ ft. to 3 ft. apart.