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If we could garden without any interference from the pests which attack plants, then indeed gardening would be a simple matter. But all the time we must watch out for these foes little in size, but tremendous in the havoc they make.

As human illness may often be prevented by healthful conditions, so pests may be kept away by strict garden cleanliness. Heaps of waste make great breeding grounds for insects. I do not think a compost pile will do harm, but unkempt, uncared-for spots seem to invite trouble.

Keeping the soil aerated is helpful, and there’s a critter that can help with that — the lowly earthworm. They constantly stir up of the soil aiding in keeping it open to air and water. When I was in elementary school, I even had some pet earthworms. That was cool.

Birds can also be a garden’s friends. Many of our common birds feed upon insects. Sparrows, robins, chickadees, meadow larks and orioles are all examples of birds who help in this way.

There are also friendly insects that feed on other and harmful insects. Some kinds of ladybugs do this well, and they’re pretty, too. The ichneumon-fly helps, as well.

If you live in a humid area, some species of toad can be quite the heros with the number of insects they can consume in one meal. The toad deserves very kind treatment from all of us.

Gardeners should try to make their gardens attractive to birds and toads. A good birdhouse, grain sprinkled about in early spring, a water-place, are invitations for birds to stay a while in your garden.

If you wish toads, fix things up for them too. During a hot summer day a toad likes to rest in the shade. By night he is ready to go forth to eat. How can one “fix up” for toads? Well, one thing to do is to prepare a retreat, quiet, dark and damp. A few stones of some size underneath the shade of a shrub with perhaps a carpeting of damp leaves, would appear very fine to a toad.

Landscape gardening has often been likened to the painting of a picture. Your art-work teacher has doubtless told you that a good picture should have a point of chief interest, and the rest of the points simply go to make more beautiful the central idea, or to form a fine setting for it. So in landscape gardening there must be in the gardener’s mind a picture of what he desires the whole to be when he completes his work.

Close your eyes and picture a house of natural color, that mellow gray of the weathered shingles. Now add to this old house a purple wisteria. Can you see the beauty of it?

The place for a flower garden is generally at the side or rear of the house. The backyard garden is a lovely idea, is it not? Who wishes to leave a beautiful looking front yard, turn the corner of a house, and find a dump heap? Not I. The flower garden may be laid out formally in neat little beds, or it may be more of a careless, hit-or-miss sort. Both have their good points. Great masses of bloom are attractive.

You should have in mind some notion of the blending of color. Nature appears not to consider this at all, and still gets wondrous effects. This is because of the tremendous amount of her perfect background of green, and the limitlessness of her space, while we are confined at the best to relatively small areas. So we should endeavor not to blind people’s eyes with clashes of colors which do not at close range blend well. In order to break up extremes of colors you can always use masses of white flowers, or something like mignonette, which is in effect green.

The ideal spot for a garden is one with southern exposure. Here the sun lies warm all day long. When the garden has this type of sun exposure, the rows of flowers should run north and south. Thus placed, the plants receive the sun’s rays all morning on the eastern side, and all afternoon on the western side. This way, you are less likely to have any lopsided plants.

Suppose the garden faces southeast. In this case the western sun is out of the problem. In order to get the best distribution of sunlight run the rows northwest and southeast.

The idea is to get the most sunlight as evenly distributed as possible for the longest period of time. From the lopsided growth of window plants it is easy enough to see the effect on plants of poorly distributed light.

Keeping in mind that you wish the sun to shine part of the day on one side of the plants and part on the other, you can sort out any situation. The southern exposure gives the ideal case because the sun gives half time nearly to each side. A northern exposure may mean an almost entire cut-off from sunlight; while northeastern and southwestern places always get uneven distribution of sun’s rays, no matter how carefully this is planned.�

Regardless of what kind of rose you have in your garden, these tips apply:

• Always make sure that your equipment is clean and sharp.

• Cut at a 45-degree angle about 1/4 inch above outward-facing bud. The cut should slant away from the bud.

• Find the canes that are shriveled, dark brown, or black. Remove these first, as they are dead or dying and can drain the energy of the entire plant.

• Take a look at the remaining canes. Remove all the weak, thin ones — those that are less than a pencil in diameter.

• Remove any sucker growth. The best way to do this is to dig down to the root where the sucker originates and rip it off where it starts. If you just cut off the suckers, you encourage the re-growth of several more where once there was only one.

• After making cuts, it is a good idea to seal the ends of the cuts. This will help prevent cane borers. Ordinary, household white glue works well.

The hardy hibiscus (Hibiscus moscheutos) is also called the common rose mallow or Swamp rose mallow.

When deciding where to plant one, find a place in your garden where the plant will receive six to eight hours of direct sunlight.

Because they are such prolific bloomers, hibiscus are heavy feeders. You want to give them enriched soil with lots of organic matter. That way they have a slow continuous food source all season. In addition, supplement the plant with a water soluble fertilizer such as Miracle Gro.

Water the plant thoroughly after planting and continue to water weekly during the first year to ensure it becomes well established. Once established, watering will only be necessary if there is no rain for an extended period of time.

For the winter, cut the stems down to approximately six inches tall. In the spring, when it begins to grow, prune the old stems back completely and mix in an application of granular fertilizer to give it a good start.

The height of the hibiscus shrub can range from about three to seven feet and the leaves are heart-shaped and are sized proportionally to the flower.

Some of the varieties of plants growing in your yard may actually be harmful to the environment.

“What many homeowners and gardening enthusiasts may not know is that some popular garden varieties of plants may actually be considered invasive weeds,” says Alan Tasker, Ph.D., National Noxious Weed Program Manager at the USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service. “They are considered invasive because they can take root in a particular area and spread unchecked, possibly choking out other plant species natural to that area.”

I’ve seen this happen with bamboo. If you don’t plant it with the roots surrounded my a deep cement barrior, the plant will start sending up shoots in your neighbor’s yard. My father had to constantly pull up these shoots after our neighbor planted bamboo in along the fence between the two properties.

Some of these invasive weeds can be quite pretty, including some wildflower mixes, multifloral rose (Rambler Rose), orange daylily and Baby’s Breath. Whether or not these plants are invasive or not depends on the geographical location. Plants can be star performers in one region yet pose a serious threat if introduced into another. So it’s worth a trip to your local nursery or visiting your state’s department of natural resources website to find out if your yard is harboring any potential invasive species.

Some store chains are doing things to help out. Meijer stores removed Norway maple and Lombardy poplar from their inventories because they are known to be invasive in the Midwest. They also have tagged some of their stock “Recommended Non-Invasive” to help customers identify the proper species to plant in their area.

Lowe’s also worked with organizations in Florida to eliminate potentially invasive plants from their stores in that state and are currently working on a similar initiative in California.

Many common weeds are notorious allergens. Because their seeds and spores are readily disseminated over wide areas, increased pollen levels can wreak havoc with allergy and asthma sufferers. Ragweed, pigweed, Russian thistle and sage brush, along with poison ivy, oak and sumac, are just a few invasive species that irritate allergies.

Another weed, giant hogweed, actually blocks the skin’s resistance to ultraviolet light, often leading to serious sunburn.

Invasive plants, or biological pollution, cost an estimated $34.7 billion annually, according to a Cornell University report, devouring three million acres a year in the U.S.

“Invasive weeds can take over cattle grazing areas, as leafy spurge has done in the northern plain states or overrun crops, much like cocklebur in corn and soybean crops throughout North America,” says Dr. Tasker.

An interesting site from the University of Nebraska, Kearney features a cost calculator that tracks the cost of invasive species in the U.S. in real time. (Note this site tracks the cost of all invasive species, including plants, animals and insects.)

We all play a part in containing these overpowering species from destroying our natural lands. Awareness is the first step. Contact your state’s department of natural resources to find out more about invasive species in your area or log on to www.wssa.net for more information.

Harvesting Tools
Of implements for harvesting, beside the spade, prong-hoe and spading- fork, very few are used in the small garden, as most of them need not only long rows to be economical, but horse-power as well.

The onion harvester attachment for the double wheel hoe, may be used with advantage in loosening onions, beets, turnips, etc., from the soil or for cutting spinach.

Running the hand-plow close on either side of carrots, parsnips and other deep-growing vegetables will aid materially in getting them out.

For fruit picking, with tall trees, the wire-fingered fruit-picker, secured to the end of a long handle, will be of great assistance, but with the modern method of using low-headed trees it will not be needed.

Pruning Tools
Another class of garden implements are those used in pruning but where this is attended to properly from the start, a good sharp jack-knife and a pair of pruning shears will easily handle all the work of the kind necessary.

Some Advice
As a final word to the intending purchaser of garden tools, I would say: first thoroughly investigate the different sorts available, and when buying, do not forget that a good tool or a well-made machine will be giving you satisfactory use long, long after the price is forgotten, while a poor one is a constant source of discomfort and aggravation.

Get good tools, and take good care of them. And let me repeat that a few dollars a year, judiciously spent, for tools afterward well cared for, will soon give you a very complete set, and add to your gardening pleasure.

Flowers may well go along the side of the building, or bordering a walk. In general, though, keep the front lawn space open and unbroken by beds.

What lovelier in early spring than a bed of daffodils close to the house? Hyacinths and tulips, too, form a blaze of glory. These are little or no bother, and start the spring aright. One may make of some bulbs an exception to the rule of unbroken front lawn. Snowdrops and crocuses planted through the lawn are beautiful. They do not disturb the general effect, but just blend with the whole.

One expert bulb gardener says to take a basketful of bulbs in the fall, walk about your grounds, and just drop bulbs out here and there. Wherever the bulbs drop, plant them. Such small bulbs as those we plant in lawns should be in groups of four to six. Daffodils may be thus planted, too.

The place for a flower garden is generally at the side or rear of the house. The backyard garden is a lovely idea, is it not? Who wishes to leave a beautiful looking front yard, turn the corner of a house, and find a dump heap? Not I. The flower garden may be laid out formally in neat little beds, or it may be more of a careless, hit-or-miss sort. Both have their good points. Great masses of bloom are attractive.

You should have in mind some notion of the blending of colour. Nature appears not to consider this at all, and still gets wondrous effects. This is because of the tremendous amount of her perfect background of green, and the limitlessness of her space, while we are confined at the best to relatively small areas.

So we should endeavour not to blind people’s eyes with clashes of colors which do not at close range blend well. In order to break up extremes of colors you can always use masses of white flowers, or something like mignonette, which is in effect green.

A building often needs the help of vines or flowers or both to tie it to the grounds in such a way as to form a harmonious whole. Vines lend themselves well to this work. It is better to plant a perennial vine, and so let it form a permanent part of your landscape scheme. The Virginia creeper, wistaria, honeysuckle, a climbing rose, the clematis and trumpet vine are all good choices.

Of course, the morning-glory is an annual vine, as is the moon-vine and wild cucumber. Now, these have their special function. For often, it is necessary to cover an ugly thing for just a time, until the better things and better times come. The annual is go-to plant for this work.

Along an old fence a hop vine is a thing of beauty. One might try to rival the woods’ landscape work. For often one sees festooned from one rotted tree to another the ampelopsis vine.

Landscape gardening may follow along very formal lines or along informal lines. The first would have straight paths, straight rows in stiff beds, everything, as the name tells, perfectly formal. The other method is, of course, the exact opposite. There are danger points in each. The formal arrangement is likely to look too stiff; the informal, too fussy, too wiggly.

As far as paths go, keep this in mind: a path should always lead somewhere. That is its business to direct one to a definite place. Now, straight, even paths are not unpleasing if the effect is to be that of a formal garden. The danger in the curved path is an abrupt curve, a whirligig effect. It is far better for you to stick to straight paths unless you can make a really beautiful curve. No one can tell you how to do this.

Garden paths may be of gravel, of dirt, or of grass. One sees grass paths in some very lovely gardens. I doubt, however, if they would serve as well in your small gardens. Your garden areas are so limited that they should be re-spaded each season, and the grass paths are a great bother in this work. Of course, a gravel path makes a fine appearance, but again you may not have gravel at your command. It is possible for any of you to dig out the path for two feet. Then put in six inches of stone or clinker. Over this, pack in the dirt, rounding it slightly toward the centre of the path.

There should never be depressions through the central part of paths, since these form convenient places for water to stand. The under layer of stone makes a natural drainage system.