Favorite Annuals

Once more the Wish Books, as a friend calls them, are coming in the mails. And once more we look ahead and plan for next summer's flowers. With annuals, we have the opportunity of creating new and different pictures each season, yet always there are old favorites which we cannot get along without. Now that we have installed solar landscape lights in the garden we cannot live with those either.

In looking back over garden pictures that have pleased me, one particular grouping comes to mind. It was planted with particular attention given to evening effect. At the back of the bed there were several large datura plants, which opened their sweet scented white trumpets each evening. Several clumps of the flowering tobacco-nicotiana affinis-were scattered thru the bed, and the edging was a double row of ten weeks stocks, in cream color and purple.

The datura grows easily and rapidly in any ordinary soil, but rewards one generously for. extra attention, well rotted manure- added to the soil and liberal watering in dry weather. Their large trumpets, white tinted purple, give out the richest perfume and look almost tropical. Both the datura flowers and the nicotians droop, when the sun gets hot next day, but give a beautiful evening picture. I had the white nicotiana, as I think the white flowers show up much better for evening effect but they, also come in a variety of colors.

The ten weeks stocks were started early, in a box in the house, and set in the garden after frost danger was past. These also come in many colors, mostly double and very fragrant.

Tagetes Signata Pumila

This little marigold is a treasure. Its blossoms are small, single. The plant is dwarf, and if not crowded will grow into a perfect little mound. The foliage is very finely. cut and delicate, the odor is entirely unlike marigolds, it is rather suggestive of lemon. It blooms profusely all summer and is never unsightly.

Odorless Composting

Have you hesitated to improve your soil with garbage or manure because of the odor, insects, and bothersome turning and watering that may accompany attempts to compost it?

If that has been the case you may find helpful a method of composting manure or any good compost makings that solves all of these problems and is nearly effortless as well.

This technique, evolved by A. M. Bond, of Thetford, Vermont, makes use of black polyethylene plastic sheets, which not only hold in desired heat and moisture but also valuable nutrient gases. Bond uses the method on manure composting. The steps in the process are simple.

You need not dig up the strip of ground under the heap, but doing so assures better drainage if it is needed.

Then gather the manure, garbage, grass clippings, leaves and other debris; heap the mixture oblong-wise; and wet it down with the hose. You'll also get better and faster compost if, when mixing, you'll neutralize with fine limestone.

Spread the plastic sheet over the mixture and cover the edges of the plastic on all sides with several inches of soil to seal in heat, gas and moisture. You may wish to put up a temporary fence around the compost pile to keep children or dogs from injuring the plastic with their feet.

In three months or less you should find the mixture completely corn-posted and odorless and ready to use in the garden.

Winter Feeding For the Garden Birds

Winter weather is very detrimental to our wild birds, especially if the natural food sources are scarce or made unavailable due to deep snow and ice. Strong healthy birds can usually withstand a single severe storm, but it is during long-continued adverse conditions that their resistance is lowered to the danger point. We should be prepared for these emergency periods and provide food and shelter.

Feeding stations for song birds can usually be established right in one's own back yard, in fact a shelf attached to a window sill will often enable one to see several kinds of birds at close range. The variety of foods acceptable to wild birds is quite large. Cracked corn, small grains, nuts, sunflower seed, suet, raisins, and the lowly weedseeds. They need water also, and so a pan set out near the feeder is truly a help too.

The Little Torenia

I have passed and repassed the little Torenia when I got a new flower catalog and only this spring did I find it blooming in a store and asked what it was.

Being told and that it was an annual and could be raised -every summer I sent for it immediately and planted it and, now it is in bloom and so, so pretty. I want all my friends to get it. It reminds me of a little hood with an ornamented cover. The flower is small but so lovely.

Another flower I have tried this summer is the Achimines. It is beautiful but I have but one color, the red kind. It is simply never out of bloom and has often seven blooms at once.

Be sure to plant every new flower next year and enjoy your surprises as I have.

Is It Better For Gardeners To Own Power Equipment?

Spraying attachments are available with many garden tractors. In addition to making work easier they enable the gardener to do a much more thorough job on ornamentals and vegetables, especially on fruit trees. Power dusters are also available, in case dusting is preferable to spraying. A tractor also comes in handy for pulling a planter, fertilizer spreader and trailer, as well as for raking hay and doing many belt jobs.

More and more people are finding it desirable and profitable to own power equipment. With a good tractor and implements, plus a little skill in operation, almost any garden chore can be done well and in a fraction of the time required, using hand tools. Garden tractors and attachments have been greatly improved and simplified in recent years to the end that they are more economical and easier to handle than one might expect.

Should I Put Fertilizer In My Garden Before Or After Spading?

Fertilizer - Have dressing spread all over the garden when it is delivered, which should be just before plowing or spading. Do not lug it around with a fork.