FENCES MAY BE MADE ATTRACTIVE WITH VINES OR PLANTS
Next in convenience to a pair of rubber gloves for the garden are the duck mittens sold for household purposes. All sorts of garden work may be done in these, even the transplanting of quite small plants. They have also the advantage of being very cheap, or they may be manufactured at home. Always have an extra pair on hand. Gardening without gloves is ruinous to the hands and a needless discomfort.
For watering the window-garden, a small pot with a long spout that will go between the plants will be a great convenience, as by its use the farthest plants may be watered without disturbing the others. This means a saving of time on busy mornings, and insures against neglect.
The life of the gardener who raises chickens is full of perplexities. Certainly nothing is more vexing and discouraging than to have one’s plants repeatedly scratched out of the ground by chickens. With netting so cheap there is no good reason why chickens, or other farm stock, should have the range of the yard.
Nothing is more filthy or conducive to disease than the presence of fowls in the door-yard. There are few house-yards that cannot be isolated from the rest of the premises by a judicious use of wire-netting, and where the conditions call for it this should be the first thing done. It will not be at all satisfactory to surround the beds with netting, which is inconvenient and unsightly. The whole yard, or at least the entire garden, should be inclosed, using netting high enough to turn any fowl, say at least five feet; even Plymouth Rocks will take a four-foot fence. For Brown Leghorns six feet is a safer height than five feet. There should be no place on the top of the fence on which the birds can alight. At the bottom a board will make all secure, and prevent the chickens digging under; and it will be better if set a little below the surface of the ground, which should be made hard and firm around it.
Fences may be made attractive with vines or plants. Sweet-peas, Nasturtiums, Morning-glories, Cobæa scandens, Wild Cucumbers, the Scarlet-fruited Gourd, Roses, Clematis or Honeysuckles make a good background for the lawn and beds of bright flowers.
Chapter TWENTY-FOUR
A Chapter of Don’ts
Don’t forget to air the hotbeds on warm, sunny days, and to protect them on cold ones.
Don’t forget that plants need room to develop, and set them far enough apart to make this possible.
Don’t forget to water the window-boxes every day, and to keep the sand in the sand-box wet all the time.