Vintage Garden Tidbits

Flowers are beautiful hieroglyphics of nature, with which she indicates how much she loves us. ~Wolfgang von Goethe

Today's tips are again from 10,000 Garden Questions Answered by Experts, published in 1944. I found so many practical tips, I wanted to share again.

Fit the box to the window space but if it is longer than 3 foot make it in two sections. For good results the box should be not less than 8 inches deep and 10 inches wide. Use 1 inch thick wood pieces and bore 1/2 inch holes, 6 inches apart in the bottom of the boxes for drainage.

The best soil for window boxes should be rich with plenty of humus to retain moisture. Use 2 parts loam, 1 part rotted manure or leafmold with a 5 inch pot of bone meal mixed in with each bushel of soil. (loam is basically a good soil that has a mixture of sand, silt and clay making it light and not too heavy. I would recommend buying topsoil when using it for window boxes, then adding the other items as described.)

Plants for around the rim of a pond or pool: Astilbe,cardinal flower, Japanese Iris, marsh marigold, rose mallow and Siberian Iris.

Pinks (Dianthus) in rock gardens: They do well in a well-drained sunny location. Do not make the soil very rich and do not over water them. Pinks do well gentle slopes, planted so that they can spread over the top of a rock, or in flat, well-drained pockets. Start with young, pot grown plants if possible and plant them out at about 9inches apart.

On OFL we have tips on planting a new rock garden-
http://www.oldfashionedliving.com/rockgarden.html