Amateur Gardencraft: A Book for the Home-Maker and Garden Lover

by Eben E. Rexford

Right here let me say that it is a most excellent plan to do all that can be done to advantage as early in the season as possible, for the reason that when the weather becomes warm, work will come with a rush, and in the hurry of it quite likely some of it will be slighted. Always aim to keep ahead of your work.

I believe, as I have several times said, in planning things. Your garden may be small—so small that you do not think it worth while to give much consideration to it in the way of making plans for it—but it will pay you to think over the arrangement of it in advance. "Making garden" doesn't consist simply in spading up a bed, and putting seed into the ground. Thought should be given to the location and arrangement of each kind of flower you make use of. The haphazard location of any plant is likely to do it injustice, and the whole garden suffers in consequence.

Make a mental picture of your garden as you would like to have it, and then take an inventory of the material you have to work with, and see how near you can come to the garden you have in mind. Try to find the proper place for every flower. Study up on habit, and color, and season of bloom, and you will not be likely to get things into the wrong place as you will be almost sure to do if you do not give considerable thought to this matter. There should be orderliness and system in the garden as well as in the house, and this can only come by knowing your plants, and so locating them that each one of them will have the opportunity of making the most of itself.

Beds can be spaded as soon as the frost is out of the ground, as advised in the chapter on The Garden of Annuals, but, as was said in that chapter, it is not advisable to do more with them at that time. If the ground is worked over when wet, the only result is that you get a good many small clods to take the place of large ones. Nothing is gained by being in a hurry with this part of the work. Pulverization of the soil can only be accomplished successfully after it has parted with the excessive moisture consequent on melting snows and spring rains. Therefore let it lie as thrown up by the spade until it is in a condition to crumble readily under the application of hoe or rake.

Shrubs can be reset as soon as frost is out of the ground. Remove all defective roots when this is done. Make the soil in which you plant them quite rich, and follow the instruction given in the chapter on Shrubs as carefully as possible, in the work of resetting.

If any changes are to be made in the border, plan for them now. Decide just what you want to do. Don't allow any guesswork about it. If you "think out" these things the home grounds will improve year by year, and you will have a place to be proud of. But the planless system which so many follow never gives satisfactory results. It gives one the impression of something that started for somewhere but never arrived at its destination.

Old border plants which have received little or no attention for years will be greatly benefited by transplanting at this season. Cut away all the older roots, and make use of none that are not strong and healthy. Give them a rich soil. Most of them will have renewed themselves by midsummer.

If you do not care to take up the old plants, cut about them with a sharp knife, and remove as many of the old roots as possible. This is often almost as effective as transplanting, and it does not involve as much labor.

The lawn should be given attention at this season. Rake off all unsightly refuse that may have collected on it during winter. Give it an application of some good fertilizer. It is quite important that this should be done early in the season, as grass begins to grow almost as soon as frost is out of the ground, and the sward should have something to feed on as soon as it is ready for work.

Go over all the shrubs and see if any need attention in the way of pruning. But don't touch them with the pruning knife unless they really need it. Cut out old wood and weak branches, if there are any, and thin, if too thick, but leave the bush to train itself. It knows more about this than you do!