Around the House

If there is no garden, small or large, attached to the house, this circumstance need not be regarded as the obstacle of obstacles that cannot be overcome. Rooms have windows, and many dwellings have balconies. It is easy to create in them gardens attractive to the eye, spreading good cheer, and inexpensive besides. If a shelf were made of thick wood, its length equal to the width of the window or exceeding it by about a quarter of a meter on each side, its width roughly a third, with a rim ten centimeters high and small holes in it, and if it were fastened firmly to the wall below the window at a distance of about a third of a meter, then a great number of plants could be set in it, putting forth decorative leaves of wonderful colors and charming shapes, and fresh, smiling flowers whose sweet fragrance delights every morning and every evening.

And if the plants of window and balcony gardens receive the care they deserve — a care that will take no more than a few minutes daily for each window or balcony, and rendering this service to the plants never amounts to more than planting them in suitable soil and watering them properly, together with supplying them with the foods they need — the result will be that all the plants live long, enjoying good health, and become a source of constant delight.

As for the pots in which the plants are to be grown, they should be chosen of the smallest size, so that they can easily be moved from place to place. After a few weeks or months it may become necessary to move the plants from their small pots into larger ones. The time for this is known by turning the plant out of its pot: if its roots are found to have threaded through the soil, reached the inner walls of the pot, and wound around them, then the plant must be moved to a larger pot. In no case should a plant be kept in the window garden that needs a pot larger than No. 20; in the case of balcony gardens, No. 25. By a No. 20 pot is meant one whose height is 20 centimeters and the diameter of whose upper opening is likewise 20.

Plants should not be planted in new pots until these have been soaked in water for a quarter or a third of an hour, so that the new, bone-dry earthenware may absorb the greatest quantity of water it can.

If the pots are old — that is, previously used — they must, before being used again, be washed inside and out with a stiff brush and warm water in which a little soap has been dissolved, so that they are rid of any insects that may be clinging to them.

Careful watching of the condition of the plants' leaves tells us the condition of the plants. It teaches us that yellowing and dropping leaves indicate that the plants are being given more water than they need. And if the color of the leaves turns a pale green, this indicates that the plants are hungry and in need of food. This fault can be promptly corrected by watering them every three or four days with water in which a little nitrate of soda, or nitrate of lime, or sulfate of ammonia has been dissolved, at the rate of one teaspoonful to a glass of water.

The same must also be done with plant food. Pigeon droppings are among the most suitable of foods or fertilizers, for they contain all the important elements the plant needs. A tablespoonful of them is steeped in a glass of water for twenty-four hours or more, producing a liquid of great benefit to the plants if they are watered with it once every week or two.

And we must always remember that plants, like the rest of living creatures, can be attacked by fungous diseases and insect pests, and that to them too the famous proverb applies: prevention is better than cure.