The Library of Work and Play: Gardening and Farming.Shaw, Ellen Eddy
General
The Library of Work and Play: Gardening and Farming.
Shaw, Ellen Eddy
Gardening -- Juvenile literature
If you think over this garden with its brilliant poppy colour, the
heavy yellow of the marigold, the lighter colour effect of yellow in the
nasturtium, the dark red zinnia--quite a splash of colour, was it not?
In order to have great masses of brilliant colour in the same garden one
must break them in some way. There are two possibilities that are good:
first, paths between beds, and second, borders of white or
inconspicuously coloured plants. Sweet alyssum is good for this purpose
and so too is mignonette. Mignonette has such a small and modest little
flower that one thinks always of mignonette in terms of green. The
mignonette was massed at the entrance of the garden for pleasing and
subdued effect.
In staking out a garden it is well first to put heavy stakes, like the
ones the boys made, in each of the four corners of the entire plot and
put a string around. This strings off the outline of the entire garden.
Sight along the lines as Jay and Albert did to be sure the lines are
straight. In sloping land true up with great care. On a level bit of
land sighting is easy.
Next if there is a main path string that off using twine, stakes and
always sighting. If the garden is a large one of many small plots the
next thing to do is to string lengthwise the entire garden, measuring
off plots and paths. Then widthwise measure off paths. The side paths
give you the width-boundary of the plots. But the paths have cords
through portions of them. So put stakes in the corners of the plots. Cut
the cord in the centres of cross paths and tie to stakes. If carefully
done each plot is marked off shipshape.
In general make the main paths four feet wide, plot paths or side paths
eighteen inches. Plots with widths about one-third of the lengths are
right. This did not hold true for this garden since the beds were long
narrow strips. In such cases the width should be a comfortable one to
lean over and work across.
In staking such a garden plot as the girls' it is well to first line off
with stakes and cord the entire outline of the garden. Then next string
off main paths and intermediate ones. It is very easy then to string off
the beds, for the path boundaries have done most of the work for you.
The girls planted all their seeds except poppy and grass seed in drills
just as one plants lettuce and radish. This is a far easier way to plant
since as the little seedlings come up one can easily distinguish the
nice even row of little plants from weeds. They decided later that it
would have been easier if the poppy had come up in drills. For it came
up in little tufts here and there. And, sad to say, the poppy does not
stand transplanting.
In making drills take two stakes and a string. To either end of the
string tie a stake. The length of the string after tying should be the
length of the drill one wishes to make. This will be usually either the
length or width of the bed. This, then, is your line for the drill
making.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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