After planting the ground should be kept cultivated by hoeing or by the use of the scuffle-hoe—anything which will maintain a dust-mulch, prevent the earth drying out and caking and retain the moisture. The success of the planting depends upon this one feature more than upon any other one thing. A plant insufficiently supplied with moisture during the growing season is quite certain to succumb to the rigors of the succeeding winter—not, indeed, on account of the cold itself, but the condition in which it entered the winter.
The best season for the planting of all hardy shrubs is early spring, before growth starts, the next best, late fall after the foliage has dropped. Altheas and white birch trees, however, do better with spring planting.
CHAPTER XXIII
GARDENING FOR SHUT-INS
There are possibilities in the indoor culture of flowers, though it may seem to the casual observer, that only open air culture would justify one in undertaking the growing of a flower garden on any extended scale; but open air gardening, while it certainly makes for unlimited area of flower beds and a great variety of sorts has still its drawbacks of inclement weather, insufficient or too much moisture, much humbling of one's physical self on bended knees and a summer-long fight with the myriad insect pests, from the tiny aphis that colonizes itself on the tip of every green shoot in early spring, to the predatory mole that furrows up paths and beds, making efficient drains to deflect all water intended for the refreshment of the plants.
Such indoor plants as one may elect to grow are assured an adequate and continuous supply of moisture, a soft and friable soil, a reasonable freedom from insect pests and a certain amount of protection from burning sun and drying winds. Moreover they are not restricted in their season of bloom to a few months of the year; the indoor garden may be in bloom the year around—a bewitching succession of most of the seasons repertoire of bloom.
The indoor garden may have its beginning in the late days of September, when the hardy spring blooming bulbs come into the market. Nearly all of this class of plants force readily and pots and window boxes may be filled with soil, planted to tulips, hyacinths, narcissi, valley lilies, and the like and set aside in a cool dark cellar for midwinter blooming, requiring no further care for weeks to come. In the meantime their places need not be kept empty waiting their time of bloom but boxes and pots of bright geraniums, cinnerarias, primroses, cyclamen and the like will keep bright every nook and corner one can spare. Nothing is more dainty and delightful than a window full of primroses, and no plant will give a more generous and constant succession of bloom from fall until spring.
As far as practicable, the growing of plants in window-boxes instead of pots will be found more satisfactory. Inside boxes which are narrow enough to rest on the window-sill are preferable and the plants may be planted directly in the boxes or, if preferred, in pots and the pots plunged into the boxes with moss packed between the pots to retain the moisture. This gives a better moisture condition than when the pots are stood on a shelf, exposed on all sides to the drying air of the living-room. It has the added advantage of allowing the pots to be lifted from the box for spraying the foliage, a great help to successful growth, and to apply such insecticides as may occasionally be needed. Plants grown in the dry air of the living-room are apt to be affected by red spider; this is especially noticeable with such plants as cinnerarias, calceolarias and a few others. Those who are so fortunate as to possess that modern essential of a well equipped house—a sun room—will find limitless opportunities for floriculture, boxes beneath the windows, trellises against the walls and hanging baskets, all affording opportunity for much delightful work with flowers.
One of the most fascinating features of indoor gardening is found in the growing of greenhouse and other flowers from seed, and this is a feature especially suited to the invalid or shut in. The little flats in which seed is started are so light and easily handled and the plants grown from seed so sure to do well that one may depend almost entirely on plants from this source. Almost any light, shallow box may be used, as flat, half size cigar boxes, codfish boxes, or boxes specially constructed to fit the window-sills and divided by strips of wood into several compartments may be used. All require the same treatment—a few holes to insure drainage, a fine mellow soil of fibrous loam, leaf mold and a little sharp sand, filled to within a half inch of the top of the box and well shaken down, and the best seed procurable.