GARDEN HELPS

Conducted by Minnesota Garden Flower Society

Edited by Mrs. E. W. Gould, 2644 Humboldt Avenue So. 
Minneapolis.

Some suggestions for the use of coal ashes—­

This is the time of the year when the unsightly heaps of coal ashes are likely to appear in one’s back yard—­eyesores and apparently useless.

Yet there are several ways in which they can be used to advantage about the garden.

They should first be sifted, using a quarter-inch wire mesh.  The rough or coarser parts are well adapted for use on paths and driveways, forming a clean, firm surface with use.  These paths are especially good in the garden, for weeds do not grow readily in them, and they dry off quickly after a rain.

Such parts of the ashes as will pass through an inch mesh will make a very good summer mulch about fruit trees and bushes that require such care.  This mulch will conserve the moisture at the roots of the tree or plant at a time when it is very necessary to have it.

About a pyramid of these coarse ashes one may plant anything that requires much water.  The roots of the plants will run under the ashes and keep moist and cool.  Through a drought a little water poured upon the ashes will be distributed to the roots without loss.

The fine sifted ashes will render the tougher hard soils more friable, their chief virtue being lightening it.  In a very mild degree they are a fertilizer, though in no degree comparable in this respect to hardwood ashes.  Yet it has been proved that soil to which sifted coal ashes had been added grew plants of richer, darker foliage.  They must be very well mixed with the soil by a thorough spading and forking.

The following experiment was noted in the Garden Magazine:  A soil was prepared as follows:  One-eighth stable manure, one-eighth leaf mold, one-quarter garden soil (heavy), one-half sifted coal ashes.  Plants grown in this soil surpassed those grown in the garden soil next to them.

Coal ashes would not be advised for a light soil.

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Watch this page for announcement of Garden Flower Society meetings.

January 20th, Public Library, Minneapolis, Tenth and Hennepin, Directors’ Room, 2:30 p.m.

Subjects: 

Hotbeds, coldframes, management and care of the young plants, Mr. Frank
H. Gibbs.

The Minnesota Cypripediums.  Can they be successfully cultivated?  Miss
Clara Leavitt.

Five-minute talks on “The Best Things of 1915.”

Members are urged to bring their friends to this meeting.  No one who contemplates having a garden this year can afford to miss it.  Let us be generous and share our good programs with as many as possible.  Each member is host or hostess for that day.