Gardening Indoors and Under Glass | Page 2

(Phoenix Roebelenii) 101
Weddell's Palm 101
A pan of forced crocuses 116
Victory gladiolus 117
A second story window-box 128
Iceland poppies and trailing vines in a window-box 128
A movable plant table 129
Inside a small greenhouse 148
A small lean-to greenhouse 149
A three-sash coldframe 164
The simplest type of window greenhouse 165
Tomatoes in the greenhouse 196
Cucumbers and lettuce in the greenhouse 197

GARDENING
INDOORS
AND UNDER GLASS

Part One--Plants in the House
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
To-day the garden is in the zenith of its glory. The geraniums and
salvias blaze in the autumn sun; the begonias have grown to a small
forest of beautiful foliage and bloom; the heliotropes have become
almost little trees, and load the air with their delicate fragrance.
To-night--who knows?--grim winter may fling the first fleet-winged
detachment of his advance across the land, by every roadside and into
every garden-close; and to-morrow there will be but blackening ruins
and burned bivouacs where the thousand camps of summer planted
their green and purple in the golden haze.
And what provision, when that inevitable day of summer's defeat
comes, have you made for saving part of the beauty and joy of your
garden, of carrying some rescued plants into the safe stronghold of your
house, like minstrels to make merry and cheer the clouded days until
the long siege is over, and spring, rejuvenescent, comes to rout the
snows?
I do not know which is the more commonly overlooked, the importance
and fun of keeping the living-rooms of the house cheerful with plants
and flowers in winter, or the certainty and economy with which it may
be done if one will use the plain common-sense methods necessary to
make plants succeed. Too much care and coddling is just as sure to
make growth forlorn and sickly as too much neglect. That may be one
reason why one frequently sees such healthy looking plants framed in

the dismal window of a factory tenement, where the chinks can never
be stopped tight and the occupants find it hard enough to keep warm,
while at the same time it is easy to find leafless and lanky specimens in
the superheated and moistureless air of drawing-rooms.
It certainly is true that many modern houses of the better sort do not
offer very congenial conditions to the healthy growth of plants. It is
equally certain that in many cases these conditions may be changed by
different management in such way that they would be not only more
healthy for plants to live in, but so also for their human occupants. In
many other cases there is nothing but lack of information or energy in
the way of constructing a place entirely suitable for the growth of
plants. To illustrate what I mean, I mention the following instance of
how one person made a suitable place in which to grow flowers. Two
narrow storm windows, which had been discarded, were fastened at
right angles to the sides of the dining-room windows, and the regular
storm sash screwed on to these. Here were the three glass sides of a
small conservatory. Half-inch boards made a bottom and roof, the
former being supported by brackets to give strength, and the latter put
on with two slanting side pieces nailed to the top of the upright narrow
sash spoken of, to give the roof a pitch. Top and bottom were covered
with old flexible rubber matting which was carried back under the
clapboards making a weather-proof, tight joint with the side of the
house. Six-inch light wooden shelves on the inside gave a conservatory
of considerable capacity. How many houses there are where some such
arrangement could be made as the result of a few hours' work and
thought, and a very small expense. And yet how infrequently one sees
anything of the kind. In many instances such a glassed-in window
would be all that is needed, sufficient heat being furnished by a radiator
under the window within the house. In the case mentioned, however, it
was necessary to heat the small greenhouse. This was done by
installing a small gas stove in the cellar, as nearly as possible under the
window greenhouse. Over this stove a large tin hood was fitted, with a
sliding door in front to facilitate lighting and regulating the stove. From
the hood a six-inch pipe, enclosed in a wood casing for insulation, ran
through the cellar window and up into the floor of the conservatory,
ending in a small radiator.

These details are given not with the idea that they can be duplicated
exactly (although in many instances they might), but to show what a
little ingenuity and effort will accomplish in the way of overcoming
difficulties.
Nor is the reward for such efforts as these restricted to