File:American homes and gardens (1912) (17535137173).jpg

Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesgar91912newy (find matches)
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic; Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Munn and Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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UNE and her Roses, yesterday's glory, may have passed, but Mother Nature has not been forgetful of July's place in her affec- tion, and there are lovely things in the gar- den that belong to this month of mid-Sum- mer. Sweet Peas, Marigolds and hundreds of other annuals will be bursting forth in prolific blossom and the garden-beginner should remember that they must be kept carefully picked, for if the garden flowers are al- lowed to bloom without cutting they will soon go to seed and by the middle of August such a garden will become a sorry sight. The late-blooming flowers, such as Dahlias, Cosmos, and Chrysanthemums, should be encouraged to take on a bushy form by the process of "pinching," as thus they will attain the ever to be desired compact growth. ROSES—the hybrid perpetuals—will need cutting back five or six inches after their June blooming period
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One should try to keep garden paths as neat in appearance as this one is over. If they are carefully and patiently attended to, without lapse of vigilance one may hope to coax forth a second crop of blossoms before frost. AMONG those flowers which reach their height of beauty in July, the garden-beginner should expect to see Achillea, Campanula, Candytuft, Coreopsis, Digitalis, Evening Primrose, Japanese Iris, Silium Auratum, Phlox, Vinca and Yucca. The garden-maker should not allow the soil of his garden beds to become hard and flat and baked. Flowers, as well as vegetables, need to have the soil from which they spring constantly cultivated and stirred up. The provident gardener will look around for those plants which produce the loveliest flowers and lose no time in marking them so he may be enabled to secure their seed later when the pods ripen and thus assure himself of planting stock for the next season of his own growing. Of course, one probably will not raise all his own seeds, but there is great pleasure and satisfaction in being able to say "This lovely flower has sprung from the seed of another which I myself planted in my garden." AS for the vegetable garden, July will find one busy there. The garden-maker will be sowing seed of tur- nips, bush beans, beets (early varieties), during the early part of the month and later he will be sowing spinach seed. If there is a bit of idle ground which the harvesting of an early crop has left vacant, peppers, tomatoes, cabbage, and celery can be transplanted and set out there. The wise vegetable gardener never lets a square foot of earth lie unproductive. He harvests his early crops speedily and puts the idle ground to some good use. Readers of Ameri- can Homes and Gardens, who may have missed the article on "Summer Work in the Vegetable Garden," by Mr. F. F. Rockwell, in the June, 1912, issue of the magazine (page 200), should turn to it without delay, as its sugges- tions will prove of great value to everyone interested in home garden topics. Finally a word about watering: When watering your garden remember that one good, thorough wetting down of the soil will be worth more than half a dozen sprinklings. Surface wetting may be better than noth- ing at all, but plants are watered not to remove the dust from their foliage, but to afford the thirsty, hard-working roots ample moisture for sustenance. SLUGS IN THE GARDEN AN amateur gardener has written the editor of this de- partment to ask for suggestions as to the best way to rid a garden of slugs, having been bothered by the havoc these plant pests wrought last season. Now, slugs are fond of moist places and thrive on moisture, except that which lime-water supplies. A good plan, then, is to put a lump of lime twice the size of one's two fists in a pail of water, leaving it there four hours. Next strain off the liquid, and as slugs are nocturnal in habit, water the plants they trouble several evenings in succession. Slugs may also be trapped

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