“Nature has given us a planting guide.  She tacks her notice on the fruit trees.  When those early blooming trees, the peach and the plum, put out their beautiful blossoms the first planting time is on.  To be sure the temperature then is a bit low, only about 45 degrees, so the planting is not of the more tender vegetables.  Get your seed of beet, carrot, cabbage, cauliflower, endive, kale, lettuce, parsley, parsnip, onion, pea, radish, turnip and spinach.  These may all be planted.

“The next signal to watch for is given by the blooming of the apple trees.  This is the planting time for the more tender seed.  These need a temperature of about 60 degrees in the shade, real apple-blooming time.  Corn, beans, egg plant, melon, squash, cucumber, pumpkin, tomato and pepper seeds may be planted.

“But when is the time to put out the hotbed, or indoor-started seedlings?  When the apple blossoms drop their petals and have passed by is the signal for them to go into the ground.  Of course, they naturally would be the last, for they are made very tender from their glass-grown coddling.

“When it comes to the planting of seed there are certain things to remember always.  First the ground should be made very fine.  This is an easy matter if the planting is done in the hotbed, but more of a problem in the outdoor garden.  It is foolish to plant at all if one does not intend to do things right.  So work over the seed bed thoroughly.  After all is fine and deeply worked, say to about a foot deep, the next thing to consider is this—­how deep should a seed be planted?

“The depth depends upon the size of the seed.  Take such small seed as poppy, parsley, even lettuce, and these may be just sprinkled on the surface of the ground.  Then tread them in with the foot or place a board over them and walk on the board.  In this way the small seed are pressed into the soil quite sufficiently.

“For seeds in general the following might answer for a rule:  There are seeds like corn, oats, wheat and the grasses which come up unhampered by their seed leaves.  Such seed may be planted deeply—­say ten times the thickness of the seed.  Other seed like beans, squash, radish, etc., push and carry their seed leaves up through the soil with them.  So these, because of this extra work, should be planted nearer the surface.  Four or five times the thickness of the seed is a safe rule to follow.

“When the seed becomes entirely or nearly saturated with water then germination begins.  Sometimes people soak their corn in tepid water before planting.  This hastens germination.  But on the other hand if the soil is very wet and cold the soaked seeds may rot in so much moisture.  Certain seeds have very thick coverings.  Canna, date and nut seeds are examples.  Their cases are so hard and absorb moisture so slowly that germination is a long process.  To hasten this little holes may be drilled in the case, thus giving the plant germ a chance to get out.  Nurserymen crack the nuts in order to help matters along.  You can readily see what a really difficult piece of work it is for a tiny embryo or baby plant to break open a thick case.