had become warm or the weather settled. Haste often
makes waste. If the soil is cold and damp seed often fails to germinate
in it, and this obliges you to buy more seed, and all your labor goes
for naught.

To the method and time of planting advised above, there is one
exception--that of the Sweet Pea. This should go into the ground as soon
as possible in spring. For this reason: This plant likes to get a good
root-growth before the warm weather of summer comes. With such a growth
it is ready for flowering early in the season, and no time is wasted.
Dig a V-shaped trench six inches deep. Sow the seed thickly. It ought
not to be more than an inch apart, and if closer no harm will be done.
Cover to the depth of an inch, at time of sowing, tramping the soil down
firmly. When the young plants have grown to be two or three inches tall,
draw in more of the soil, and keep on doing this from time to time, as
the seedlings reach up, until all the soil from the trench has been
returned to it. This method gives us plants with roots deep enough in
the soil to make sure of sufficient moisture in a dry season. It also
insures coolness at the root, a condition quite necessary to the
successful culture of this favorite flower.

Weeds will generally put in an appearance before the flowering plants
do. As soon as you can tell "which is which" the work of weeding must
begin. At this stage, hand-pulling will have to be depended on. But a
little later, when the flowering plants have made an inch or two of
growth, weeding by hand should be abandoned. Provide yourself with a
weeding-hook--a little tool with claw-shaped teeth--with which you can
uproot more weeds in an hour than you can in all day by hand, and the
work will be done in a superior manner as the teeth of the little tool
stir the surface of the soil just enough to keep it light and open--a
condition that is highly favorable to the healthy development of young
plants. I have never yet seen a person who liked to pull weeds by hand.
Gardens are often neglected because of the dislike of their owners for
this disagreeable task. The use of the weeding-hook does away with the
drudgery, and makes really pleasant work of the fight with weeds.

If seedlings are to be transplanted, do it after sundown or on a cloudy
day. Lift the tender plants as carefully as possible, and aim to not
expose their delicate roots. Get the place in which you propose to plant
them ready before you lift them,