Gardening Indoors and Under Glass | Page 8

a pot is not a good thing to try to start plants in: the
amount of earth is too small and dries out quickly. Seed pans are better,
but even they must be watched very carefully. A wooden box, or flat, is
better still. Cigar boxes are often used with good results; but a more
satisfactory way is to make a few regular flats from a soap or cracker
box bought at the grocer's. Saw it lengthwise into sections two inches
deep, being careful to first draw out nails and wire staples in the way,
and bottom these with material of the same sort. Either leave the
bottom boards half an inch apart, or bore seven or eight half-inch holes
in the bottom of each, to provide thorough drainage. If they are to be
used in the house, a coat or two of paint will make them very
presentable. Of course one such box will accommodate a great many
seeds--enough to start two hundred to a thousand little plants--but you

can sow them in rows, as described later, and thus put from three to a
dozen sorts in each box.
Where most beginners fail in attempting to start seeds is in not taking
the trouble to prepare a proper soil. They are willing to take any
amount of trouble with watering and heat and all that, but they will not
fix a suitable soil. The soil for the seed box need not be rich, in fact it is
better not to have manure in it; but very porous and very light it must
be, especially for such small seeds as most flowers have. Such a soil
may be mixed up from rotted sod (or garden loam), leaf-mould and
sharp sand, used in equal proportions. If the loam used is clayey, it may
take even a larger proportion of sand. The resulting mixture should be
extremely fine and crumbling, and feel almost "light as a feather" in the
hand. If the sod and mould have not already been screened, rub the
compost through a sieve of not more than quarter-inch mesh--such as a
coal-ash sifter. This screening will help also to incorporate the several
ingredients evenly and thoroughly.
While we provided holes in the seed box for drainage, it is best to take
even further precautions in this matter by covering the bottom of the
box with nearly an inch of coarse material, such as the roots and half
decayed leaves, screened out of the sods and leaf-mould. On the top of
this put the prepared soil, filling the box to within about a quarter of an
inch of the top, and packing down well into the corners and along sides
and ends. The box should not be filled level full, because in subsequent
waterings there would be no space to hold the water which would run
off over the sides instead of soaking down into the soil.
The usual way is to fill the boxes and sow the seed, and then water the
box on the surface, but I mention here a method which I have used in
my own work for two years. When filling the box, set it in some place
where it may be watered freely, such as on the cellar floor, if too cold
to work outdoors. After putting in the first layer of coarse material, give
it a thorough soaking and then put in about two-thirds of the rest of the
soil required and give that a thorough watering also. The balance of the
soil is then put in and made level, the seeds sown, and no further
watering given, or just enough to moisten the surface and hold it in

place, if dry. The same result can be obtained by filling and sowing the
box in the usual way, and then placing it in some place--such as the
kitchen sink--in about an inch of water, and leaving it until moisture,
not water, shows upon the surface. Either of these ways is much surer
than the old method of trying to soak the soil through from the surface
after planting, in which case it is next to impossible to wet the soil clear
through without washing out some of the small seeds.
After filling the box as directed, make the soil perfectly smooth and
level with a small flat piece of board, or a brick. Do not pack it down
hard,--just make it firm. Then mark off straight narrow lines, one to
two inches apart, according to the size of the seed to be sown.
The instructions usually given are to cover flower seeds to from three
to five times their own depth. You may, if you like, take a foot-rule and
try to measure the diameter of a begonia or mignonette seed; but you
will probably