Independent gardening advice for real gardens, balconies and windowsills.
Practical advice on growing food and flowers, improving soil, and making the most of small spaces. Start anywhere — the garden will meet you.
People of the present day can scarcely be contented with tall, waving timothy in the front door-yard, and the rickety board-fence that enclosed a scene of almost primitive rusticity--the state of thin...
Experience only can teach the beginner just how to manage his vegetables and plants in this new winter garden. But at the outset he must remember one thing: If it is true that he has control of his mi...
There are some general rules that will apply to taking care of all plants in the house; then there are several groups, the different sorts in which are handled more or less alike; and lastly there are...
Manure of some sort is essential to the growing of plants in pots or boxes, both because of the plant-food it adds to the soil, and because it improves its mechanical condition and sponginess or water...
A Controlling Principle. The chief purpose of liming land is to provide a base with which acid may combine, so that the soil may be friendly to plant life. Lime has little power to distribute itself t...
In the foregoing chapter on homemade greenhouses very brief reference was made to the various methods of heating. It will be well to understand a little more in detail how to heat glass structures, as...
Mildew is a microscopic fungus, that is parasitic upon cultivated plants. Roses, Bouvardias, and especially grape vines, are subject to its attacks. If not arrested, mildew will soon strip a plant of...
It would seem, at first thought, that the proper condition of moisture could be furnished as easily in the house as anywhere. And so it can be as far as applying water to the soil is concerned; but th...
Of this class we need not speak in detail to any who have ever seen its delicate moss-covered buds, and inhaled their delightful odor. They are perfectly hardy, and can be wintered without any protect...
Both Orange and Lemon trees can be easily raised by sowing the seeds in good, rich soil, and after the seedlings become of sufficient size, a foot to fifteen inches high, they should be budded or graf...
The Holly fern (Cyrtomium falcatum) is another very desirable house plant and has been a favorite for years. It has very dark green substantial glossy foliage, and stands up well. There is a new Holly...
Ageratum--Valuable for its bright blue flowers and dwarf growth, going in well with other plants. There is also a white variety. Make cuttings in August, or cut back and pot up old plants. Alyssum--Go...