Because December has so much activity for the entire family, the garden may easily be neglected. December is usually the month when the ground will be frozen on the surface for the first time of the season. Normally the weather will moderate, the soil surface will thaw, and some digging can be done. December is … Read more
Chestnuts, Buckeyes (or horse-chestnuts), and most acorns must be planted while still moist. If they are permitted to dry out, they will not grow. Seed Germination Seeds should be gathered in September or early fall from selected trees and placed in plastic bags such as arcs used for the deep freeze. However, the closed bags … Read more
The first killing frosts have stopped visible activity in the garden. But many straightforward, warm days give the gardener an urge to dig. This is good because digging the soil is one of the top things that need to be done in November. Expose the earth to the freezing and thawing action of winter. Garden … Read more
Mums dominate this month in our gardens. There is much work to be done—plant daffodils at once in the well-prepared ground. Bone meal is the safest fertilizer. Thrifty buys are Dutch iris, Roman hyacinths, and the graceful little candy stick tulip Clusiana, for these stay with us and multiply. Other tulips and exhibition hyacinths are … Read more
In most of our areas, hard frosts have come by mid-November. Mild weather sometimes holds until Thanksgiving, leaving some hardier annuals such as snapdragons, stocks, sweet alyssum, lobelia, verbena, and petunias still in bloom if they have been protected. Garden mums and roses can be expected to supply great colors right up to a general … Read more
What is the recipe for a sunken garden? What and why are its characters different from the usual garden area? Sunken Areas Of course, no two sunken areas would be treated alike, but certain factors are sure to be present, regardless of location or geographic area. The area included would not be too large, perhaps … Read more
A Christmas tree may be a fir, spruce, pine, or other evergreens that are common in any particular region. Trees that are most commonly used as Christmas trees throughout the country are spruces or firs. These two make up the bulk shipped to practically all parts of the United States The balsam fir, Abies balsamea, … Read more
Entomologists believe successful agriculture would be impossible without birds. They occupy a unique position among insect and weed destroyers. Their remarkable powers of flight enable them to gather immediately at the sites of insect infestation or at areas where the ripened seed is abundant. Their high metabolism rate, higher than human temperature, faster respiration, and … Read more
Do you know that once there lived in this country, a little Scotchinan who had the such magic touch in his ability to grow plants that he changed a large desert waste into an enchanting paradise that ranks with the world’s greatest—Golden Gate Park? His peculiar genius for over half a century was devoted to … Read more
Willows grow almost universally over the humid parts of the temperate zones and, generally speaking, are held in little esteem by the average person. Yet, in their way, they are indispensable in the landscape scheme. They are especially picturesque when spreading gracefully over a body of water. In the earliest spring their bark suddenly brightens, … Read more