After a heavy rain there will often be a pool in some corner of the barn-yard where sufficient liquid manure may be dipped up to fill a barrel or hogshead. Where the barn-yard is paved with cobble-stones—as all barnyards should be, for health and cleanliness—a catch-basin may be easily arranged which the natural slope of the land will fill when it rains. This will more than pay for the trifling outlay for its construction, as it need only be a depression in the soil, covered with cement. Even stiff clay will answer. It is surprising how carelessly farmers let such valuable property go to waste while they buy load after load of manure at the stables in town and haul it long distances. The yield of the strawberry-and asparagus-beds alone would be sufficiently increased to pay for such a catch-basin many times over.
Soapsuds furnish another excellent fertiliser, and every drop of water from the wash-room, bed-room and kitchen should be saved and applied around the roots of plants—especially Roses, Dahlias, and vines, which never seem to get enough of either moisture or nourishment. Slop-water should not be put on the foliage of plants, as it leaves a scum that is difficult to get rid of.
A very good substitute for commercial bone-meal may be manufactured at home by saving all the bones from the kitchen, throwing them into a stone jar, covering them with strong lye, and allowing them to remain until soft enough to be pulverised and dug into the soil. The lye that remains may also be applied to the soil after being diluted with water. Blood obtained at the slaughter-house is an excellent fertiliser, containing much easily assimilated plant food in a soluble form. Feathers contain much valuable material in the way of phosphates, but are not suitable for the annual beds. They may be applied to shrubs and hardy perennials by digging them into the ground at a little distance from the plants, where the roots will reach out and find them. Hoof-parings from the blacksmith shop are also valuable for the perennial bed. Indeed, with all the forms of plant food available there is no excuse for starving plants. There are, of course, many commercial plant foods and fertilisers on the market, bone-meal and guano being the most reliable among them, but many of them are expensive and uncertain in their action. Being highly concentrated they are likely to do harm in the hands of the inexperienced. The natural manures are the safest.
In using liquid manures either on the open ground or on potted plants, they should only be applied when the soil has been well watered the day before, never when it is dry. The plant, being supplied with all it needs to drink, absorbs only what it requires for nourishment and is less likely to be injured by an overdose. The moisture in the soil serves also to reduce the strength of the manure.
In applying old cow or horse manure to new beds a wheel-barrow load to every nine square feet is not too much for strong growing plants such as Ricinus, Cannas, and Salvias. Half that quantity of hen manure will be sufficient.
Chapter FOUR
The Hotbed, Cold-Frame and Sand-box
The hotbed is an enclosure, affording bottom heat and protection from cold, for the propagation of tender plants unsuited to sowing in the open ground, and for starting plants too early in the season for open-air operations. The hotbed is usually started in February or March in the latitude of Philadelphia, while April is early enough in the latitude of Detroit and Chicago. Plants are transferred to the open ground when all danger of frost is past. With the exception of a few plants like Poppies, which do not bear disturbance, all seeds yield better results if planted where they have protection in their early stages from drying wind, burning sun and nipping cold. This protection the cold-frame gives, while the hotbed affords the additional advantage of artificial heat. Plants thus started will be ready to transplant about the time seeds could be started in the open ground—an important gain in northern latitudes, where, between the early and late frosts there is hardly time for the maturing of annuals.
The hotbed should be situated on the south side of a building, wall or fence, where it will have the full benefit of the sun and be protected from cold winds. It is also desirable that the land should slope toward the south, that all surface water may drain away, and that the bed may receive the greatest amount of sunshine during the day. In constructing a hotbed dig a pit two feet deep. This may be lined with planks or bricks, or left with its earthen walls. Over this build a frame of rough lumber around four posts of three-or four-inch stuff, three feet two inches high in the back, and two feet eight inches high in the front. If the pit is not lined, this will bring the frame below the surface and allow a sufficient slant for the free shedding of water and the concentration of the greatest amount of sunshine on the bed. Regular hotbed sash are three feet by six, and cost about two dollars and seventy-five cents each, glazed and painted. These are usually arranged to rest on the frame, simply sliding up and down, the size of the bed determining the number of sash. A bed three by six, however, is more easily handled than a larger one; and two or more beds, set end to end, or one long, narrow one divided by partitions into three-by-six beds, will be more satisfactory in every way than a wider one. The partitions are necessary, not alone to strengthen the frame and support the sash, but to insure to each section the special treatment it requires. Not all seeds germinate in the same temperature, or require the same degree of moisture. There is, also, a great difference in the period of germination; some seeds sprout in from three to five days; others require as many weeks. With separate sections seeds of similar habits and requirements may be planted together.
Florists’ sash makes an expensive hotbed, and quite as satisfactory results may be obtained by using such old window-sash as may be picked up for about twenty-five cents apiece where buildings are being torn down or from junk or hardware dealers. Old sash will probably need some glazing and painting, and these are among the things the amateur gardener should learn to do for herself, as sash must be water-tight and in order at all times. A sudden hail-storm, a mischievous cat or careless handling may leave one with broken glass that must be replaced at once. When old sash is used the back of the frame should be higher than the sides by the thickness of the sash, so that the sash may be fastened to it with hinges if desired. A cross-piece from the back to the front for the sash to rest on will give greater stability and prevent draughts of cold air on a sudden fall of temperature.
