high while still
loosely spread. Melons, squash, pumpkins or similar sprawling vines may
be grown in it. For each plant dump about one-half a wheelbarrow of
good soil on the top, level and sow in it, or set out plants, if the
seedlings are started elsewhere. The roots of these plants like the
loose run the open manure allows. In extreme dry weather the growing
squash or pumpkins should be well watered. In the fall this manure has
become fine in texture and makes a splendid winter's mulch for
snowdrops, crocus, etc.

Do not be in a hurry about removing the winter's covering when the
first warm days of spring appear. More damage is done in early spring
than in settled cold weather. It is the alternate freezing and thawing
that does the most damage, and the surface water lying over the crowns
of plants, which the frozen ground underneath does not allow to go
down. I have seen roots of shallow-rooted plants, _Lobelia cardinalis_
for instance, growing in clayey soil, lying on the surface of the
ground in spring--pried out by soil expansion. Part of the covering may
be removed quite early but enough should remain to shade the ground.

SUMMER MULCHING

Shallow-rooted plants like the cardinal flower (_Lobelia cardinalis_)
and the tall, fall-flowering hardy phloxes, dislike the hot sun beating
down on their roots. Being surface rooters, and at the same time fond
of moisture, they suffer when the surface soil is dried out. They
should have a summer mulch to intercept the radiation of moisture from
the soil.

The spent manure I mentioned as fine for covering bulbs, is splendid
for this purpose and as it is of the same color as the soil, its
presence is hardly noticeable; besides it adds humus. Almost any open
material may be used, that will not offend our ideas of tidiness in
appearance. Grass clippings from the lawn-mower may be used.

Some plants are late in appearing above ground in the spring,
_Platycodons_ for instance, and there is danger of their being dug up
by impatient amateurs who have either forgotten their presence or
imagined they were dead and the ground vacant. It is well, therefore,
to place in the fall some cane stakes at each plant or in a row around
a group of this class to indicate their presence. I also place stakes
at each lily as they generally occupy open spaces between perennials,
and I seldom wish to disturb them if it becomes necessary to remove one
of the perennials.

With few exceptio