Summer is almost here and you are planning on some new patio furniture this year. It is a considerable investment if you need everything to furnish your patio all at once. Plan on taking some time to research what is available online and off. Keep your projected price in mind. There are suggestions about what you should know when buying patio furniture.

Your living room furniture may get heavy use, however, it doesn’t get rained on or baked by the sun. A windy day may toss your patio furniture off the patio. Thunderstorms are a weathering factor. Your patio furniture should be washable first of all.

Choose the stores where they sell patio furniture in your price range. Don’t spend more than you can easily afford. But do buy things of good quality. You don’t want to have to purchase the same pieces for a few years. Keep in mind windy days and furniture that has to be covered between family cookouts.

List the furniture you need in order of importance. For large families with kids, the study redwood picnic table might be a safe buy. It is just like the ones in the public parks, only prettier. When the kids scratch it, you will not have to worry. You can relax and enjoy the summer. If the kids spill soda on it, no problem.

Summer is filled with fun activities. Water will splash on your outside furniture. Kids will make splashes of their own with kool aid and soda. Some of your adult guests are bound to spill drinks on your new cushions. Expect these trivial accidents. Buy washable patio furniture cushions.

You will want a table with matching chairs and a colorful umbrella to shade you when the sun is hot. You may want a seating arrangement of couch, love seat and chair with coffee table and perhaps one end table. There are lovely but inexpensive sets in wicker, plastic and aluminum.

Aluminum is pretty easy to soap up and hose down. So is plastic. The aluminum may heat up in the sun and burn your legs when you sit down. Of course, you will be wearing shorts or a swim suit so be cautious. The wrought iron and wood furniture is not going to heat up or blow away on a windy day.

Don’t forget the toddler set. There are small sized picnic tables and lawn chairs made just for them. Get them in bright primary colors to please the little ones. Older children always enjoy a glider sized for two.

Try to follow a theme and match all your pieces to complement rather than clash with each other. Modern, rustic and Victorian styles are made in various colors and finishes. Plan ahead so you do not have a grouping that is too eclectic.

If you can afford it, wrought iron patio furniture is as solid and attractive as any available type. Often black with a fancy, slightly lacy look, it is sturdy enough to support that 300-pound uncle who joins you on the fourth of July.

Look over all that is available. Plan how many pieces you want. Make a list of the various possibilities. Go shopping and make your selections. If at all possible, wait for the patio furniture you want to go on sale. Everyone loves a bargain. The money you save can finance your next family cook out. Now go shopping and remember what you should know when buying patio furniture.

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The classic example of long life in grape culture is the famous grape vine in Hampton Court, England, known to be hundreds of years old, with a trunk six feet three inches in circumference and one branch 150 feet long. In that northern climate it is protected by a glass grapery, but because of skillful pruning and care it is still producing large bunches of luscious white grapes.

We know, now, that it was wild grape vines which so impressed the first European visitors to North America, Lief Ericson and his Norsemen, that they named the country “Vinland.” When the colonists arrived, they thought the quality of the native fruit much inferior to the European varieties they were accustomed to, so they started quickly to import European vines. Almost every colony had laws to encourage grape growing and hundreds of vineyards were set. Skilled French vine growers were imported, and there were even penalties in some places for settlers who failed to plant grapes.

History of the Concord

Efforts to introduce Old World grapes (types of Vitis vinifera), however, were to little avail, and as late as 1798, the Dufour’s Kentucky Vineyard Society’s $10,000 experiment using European vines was unsuccessful despite the greatest attention to every detail of their care. Failures were mostly due to the ravages of the phylloxera, a root louse, which attacked the “alien” vines. Native vines, known as Northern Fox grapes - Vitis labrusca - were able to resist the attacks of this sucking insect.

A limited success had been achieved with Isabella and Catawba varieties, which carried a blending of American and Old World grapes, but their successful range was so limited that Ephraim Wales Bull of Concord, Massachusetts, began experimenting. He planted selected fruit of the wild grape in his garden and nursed the resulting seedlings for six years.

Only one proved to be worth keeping. In his words, “The seeds from this were in turn planted and from these I obtained ‘Concord.’ On the 10th of September, 1849, I was enabled to pick a bunch of grapes.” In the January, 1854, issue of Magazine of Horticulture, he wrote, “The Concord grape is a seedling, in the second generation, of our native grape. The seedling from which the Concord was raised grew near to a Catawba, and it is quite possible it was impregnated by it.

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March is a month where things begin to wake up. Every place your eyes turn you begin to see plant life start to stir, as we put on our gardening clothes eager to participate in this great and exciting adventure.

Tops on the activity list, if you were neglectful last Fall, is that of cleaning up the garden of brush, paper, unwanted leaves and other refuse. Enclosed gardens, especially those in residential areas, tend to cage paper and rubbish blown in from the streets during the Winter.

Plant annual seeds in the greenhouse or sunny window for early bloom. Asters, calendulas, petunias, marigolds, zinnias and others may be started. Cosmos, cornflowers, poppies, nicotiana and other hardy kinds may be sown directly in the garden.

Top dress the grass and lawn with a complete fertilizer as soon as it is free from snow, and roll it when dry enough in order to settle the turf after the Winter’s heaving and thawing.

Prune climbing roses before the buds begin to break. Cut away dead, weak and diseased wood from climber types such as Paul’s Scarlet. In handling rambler kinds, like the well-known Dorothy Perkins, sever all canes that have flowered to the ground, leaving only those produced last season to respond with bloom.

Fruit trees of all kinds may be planted. Even if your garden is small and your gardening time limited, you should consider a few of the dwarf trees. There are also new, hardy forms of peaches, plums and apricots, grapes too, which should not pass unnoticed.

Check your dahlias to see that they have not dried out too much, and prepare them, along with glads, montbretias, tuberoses and other bulbs for Spring planting. Tuberous begonias and cannas are best given an early start indoors. While indoors don’t forget to give your Hoya a bath and to clean all the collected dust off the leaves.

Sometime during the month, your garden will be bright with crocus, snowdrops, scillas, winter-aconite and dwarf iris. Look around in other gardens for other appealing varieties of these which you can add to your collection.

When the soil is workable and it does not stick to the tools, sow seeds of radishes, peas, carrots, parsnips and beets.

Thin raspberries and blackberries by removing old canes. Tie the others to supports, and top back those that are too long.

In many parts of the country, Winter does not let go during this month, so continue to feed the birds. Moreover, clean out old birdhouses, make or purchase new ones and set them up to encourage the birds to nest on your grounds. They will make big indentations in the insect populations of your property.

Seeds of tomatoes, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and other tender, slow-maturing vegetables, should be started in the coldframe or greenhouse. Plant in the garden only after warm weather has arrived.

Remember to resume your garden notebook. Keeping records is fun as well as practical.

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Window boxes can become a definite part of a foundation planting as can soil wells or raised beds (also called “planters”) that some architects include in their building designs.

It is wise to avoid soil wells if possible; they usually require artificial watering. The drainage problem in some instances may also become serious. In regions where the winters get quite cold, the plants growing in soil wells are likely to freeze and will have to be replaced each spring.

If you do use flowers or plants in window boxes or soil wells, try to limit them to a few very soft-colored flowers, and mainly to foliage plants such as English Ivy, the trailing Asparagus Fern, etc.

Winter Care of Window Boxes

Each fall you should remove plants and soil from window boxes for several reasons. One is that this will avoid having the box break away at the joints due to frozen earth expanding. Also by doing this you can change the soil in the box. Growing flowers in a box robs the soil of its natural nutrients and new soil should be added or the old should be wholly replaced. Still another reason is that emptying the box gives you an opportunity to make necessary repairs on the box. Most boxes would last much longer if given a little repair and a new coat of paint each winter.

Grass in Foundation Planting

The question of where to have grass around the foundation planting has not been given much consideration in America. Picture a walk running parallel to the house between the driveway and the front door, and 6 feet away from the house as already suggested. Now visualize a foundation planting requiring 5 feet of this space; that leaves a 1-foot strip for grass between the foundation planting and the walk. It is hopeless to try to maintain such a narrow strip as decent turf. Lawn mowers are simply not made for it; the blades grind into the soil and make raw, bare spots. This dulls your lawnmower blades while it sharpens your temper.

The usual alternative is to get down on your hands and knees with a pair of grass clippers and spend valuable minutes and hours trimming the strip by hand. Now think how simple it would be to continue the ground cover all the way out to the walk and eliminate the grass strip altogether, thereby saving much laborious cutting and trimming. This is another instance where you can exercise judgment in making your own landscape plans.

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In many old homes, or homes that were purchased as such and remodeled in line with modem trends, we find rather awkward architecture. In New England, for example, there are many houses in which the living quarters and certain farm buildings were all included in one unit because of the severe winters experienced there. This resulted in typical step-down construction from a high point at one end to the low point at the far end.

Some people buy such properties, tear off some of the farm sections, and find themselves with a tall, awkward-looking home and the problem of how to improve its appearance. This can be done by various tricks of design, chief among them being the use of horizontal lines in the planting and the concealment of one end of the tall part of the building by the use of large trees, especially evergreens. Vines can also be introduced to make artificial breaks across the tall section, giving strong horizontal lines where they did not exist before. The eye follows horizontal lines more easily and quickly than it does vertical lines. Your head moves easier to look from side to side.

House on a Knoll

A house that appears to be sitting on top of a knoll is, undoubtedly, the most difficult type to landscape. If money, time, and material are available, retaining walls can be constructed to add long horizontal lines extending well beyond the actual building.

The horizontal lines will force attention to themselves, instead of to the high perched house. These retaining walls also permit the development of flat areas for suitable landscape plantings around the house.

If the ground drops away quickly on one or both sides, your objective should be to make long, wide plantings from the corners of the house out as far as possible to each side. Place the usual plants at the outside corners of the house, but as the planting extends farther away from it select plants that grow larger than those close to it. Eventually you will plant small trees, and, if you have enough space, you will finally wind up using large trees at the ends of these wing plantings.

Your goal is to have, when the plants are mature 10 to 15 years hence, a silhouette that will create a funnel effect toward your house. Admittedly it will take quite a few years to realize this, since the plants will have to be rather old before the effect will be seen. However, because you know what you are aiming at, it should not bother you although it may look a little unfinished to the casual observer.

Sometimes we encounter trouble in our landscape planning as a result of worrying about what other people will think while our planting is in its first stages. So we must train ourselves to not be too concerned over their opinions. We must always remember that in working with landscape plans you are dealing with the future, not the immediate present.

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The more modern a building is in design, the fewer plants are likely to be required for the front foundation planting. Most buildings of this type are attractive in themselves so the only real reason for using any plants at all is to soften the vertical lines. By keeping this in mind you will considerably reduce the cost of your landscaping.

Ground Cover

It is advisable to use plenty of ground cover material under the foundation planting for three reasons: first, it prevents mud from splashing up onto your home; second, it ties one plant to another which may be quite a distance away by providing a green carpet between them; and, third, it adds another long horizontal line to the picture.

A ground cover also makes it unnecessary to cultivate and weed the shrub beds. And when mowing adjacent grass, if you run the mower along the edge of the ground cover, you will not have to trim the grass by hand. This is an age when anything that cuts down the maintenance of a property is in order. And, if you do employ a gardener, he will have to devote much less time to the maintenance work if your garden is designed properly.

Blank Wall Spaces

A common mistake in the past was the attempt to cover all blank wall spaces with plants. Only under the rare circumstance in which a building is admittedly ugly is it necessary to cover all blank walls; and perhaps not always then.

An architect, in designing a home, may use large wall areas to obtain a certain desired effect. If the owner tries to conceal them with plants he not only spoils the intended architectural effect but wastes money as well.

Avoid Plants under Windows

The long practiced but really unnecessary habit of placing plants under windows is also to be frowned upon. We have urged locating plants where vertical house lines meet the ground. But the vertical lines of windows, even picture windows, do not do this. Again, we must train ourselves to refrain from this practice even though we have long been accustomed to seeing it done on many properties.

Instead of copying what others have done, you should use your head when landscaping your property. Originality in carrying out ideas will keep your home from looking exactly like the one next door, even though the same landscaping principles were followed in developing both.

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The Augustine elm is well adapted to street tree planting. Its compact, deep root system lets it flourish and support itself in a limited area. At Winnetka, Illinois, several trees which were planted in a four-foot square of soil chiseled out of solid concrete have made satisfactory growth during the last five years.

Its root system is also desirable because in general trees with compact, deep roots do not cause much sidewalk lifting and cracking. American elm and other trees with wide spreading, shallow roots are noted for the damage they do to concrete.

In addition to its desirable root system, the fairly compact top and ascending branches make the tree suitable for street planting. Overhead interference is not great. The tree can be planted in median strips as well as between sidewalks and street. In Cicero, Illinois, a two and one-half mile median strip was planted with these elms. In several years they produced lots of interesting shadows and provide a distinct separation between the lanes of traffic.

Its compact shape also makes the tree ideal between fairways on golf courses. In large areas group plantings of the tree are more attractive than individual plants. However, on a large site where there is a lot of grass as a foreground and tall trees as a background, an individual specimen commands a lot of attention.

Group planting does not rule out the use of the Augustine ascending elm on the home grounds. The tree blends nicely with other large trees and in small areas can be used as an individual to fill a need that any tree might serve. On large lawns where several trees can be used, an effective arrangement is to plant a tree at both sides of the rear of the property and one along the property line on either side of the house and slightly to the rear of the house. This gives a triangular arrangement which enables the trees to tie the backyard setting together.

The definite V crotch that most Augustine ascending elms have presents a problem of durability. Generally trees with horizontal branches are best able to resist wind and ice damage. However, this elm withstands all weather conditions despite its V crotch. Its strength may lie in the fact of its upright limb structure.

Any well-drained soil that supports deciduous trees will also maintain Augustine elms. Planting is the same as for any tree. Dig a large hole, spread the root system in the hole and firm soil around the roots. After the hole is filled, mulch the area with peat or ground cobs. Prune to eliminate irregular branches and establish a balance between the top and roots. Last of all, wrap the tree, and water every other week during the first summer, if necessary.

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Christmas decoration fashions may change, but succeeding generations are continuing to utilize the traditional symbols and especially the favorite evergreen tree. Another Christmas green for this season is the holly with its glossy foliage and red fruits. Pyracanthas covered with scarlet berries are offered by a few florists. These two berry plants are indeed prized treasures. hut they are not suited to window garden culture. The florists’ Christmas offerings are beautiful and satisfying, yet there is also room for home grown berry plants. When we look around for unusual plants for our window gardening we may overlook some of the old favorites because they have not been called to our attention in the garden pages for some time.

House plants add color to Christmas decorations, and life to any home. Ardisia crispa and Rivina humilis are among the easily obtainable berry plants. In warm climates ardisia is grown as a shrub or tree, but it is a good subject for pot culture. It does not require special soil or care and its berries are the same size and color as those of holly. My largest plant is about ten years old and it is five feet tall above its seven-inch pot. It is constantly well decorated with numerous red fruits. It is a rather slow grower that does not require repotting often. The thick textured, way-edged leaves, four by 1 inches, make this plant attractive even before it begins to fruit.

When it becomes the desired height, the bushy top may be air-layered and rooted and another excellent plant will he the result. Cuttings for propagation may be obtained from young shoots of semi-matured branches. Well ripened seeds germinate in from four to six weeks and the seedlings are easily grown if given good light and some sunshine. They begin to bloom and produce berries at about three years of age and as plants become older they produce more and more drooping clusters of long lasting fruit. Each cluster holds from 15 to 20 one-seeded berries. They remain on the plant two years or more and a plant may carry several seasons’ fruit, constantly enhancing its beauty.

The flowers are small. white or slightly colored, with a five parted corolla and five stamens attached to the throat of the corolla. The anthers are large and hand-pollination is not necessary to insure a good crop of fruit. The berries are green while small, but with rich soil and good light and sunshine the color soon becomes bright and uniform. Watering overhead (sprinkling) should be avoided until the berries are set.

Although there are probably more than 200 species of ardisia, only .a few are available in the usual lists. The white, black or rose colored berry plants may be found in some collections. A good standard soil mixture of sandy loam. leaf mold or peat moss suits ardisia. Pulverized manure should be added to the mixture for older plants. The soil should be kept moderately moist as for most house plants and good drainage is essential. Bright light, near the glass, hastens blooming, and plenty of sunshine, when not too hot, intensifies the color of the fruit.

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Success in grape growing depends greatly on pruning. Best time for this is the early months of the year. A warm day in January or February when the ground is clear of snow is ideal, but the job should be accomplished before the middle of March when the sap rises.

Pruning is perhaps the most important skill the vineyardist must master. He must realize that fruit is borne only on wood of the present season which arises from wood of the previous season. This means that last year’s new wood is the only source of buds which grow into shoots bearing probably one to four clusters of grapes each.

The problem becomes (first) one of cutting back a limited number of good canes to a few buds which will produce as many new bearing shoots as the vine can support, and (second) cutting off entirely all remaining (even good) canes which would over-tax the vigor of the vine. With experience the grape-grower learns to tell from the looks of the cane, the size and growth of the vine in the previous year, and the variety’s characteristics for bearing, which and how many buds to leave.

He must constantly plan ahead for new wood low on the vines, so that the vines do not have to spend too much of their energy maintaining a great amount of unproductive wood. This necessary balance between fruiting canes this year and new wood for next year’s crop is difficult both to explain and to achieve, but usually the tendency of the beginner is not to prune severely enough.

More trimming and shaping comes after the grapes have bloomed and set the bunches. Each fruiting cane tries to grow on out into a long leafy cane beyond the three or four clusters which have formed. To make the plant use its strength for the fruit, these should be snapped off at about the second joint beyond the grapes. New shoots will try to grow at these points and often at the joint opposite the grape cluster, but these should be kept broken off as summer progresses. Keep just enough foliage to support the plant properly by making food and to shade the fruit. Usually the bunches of grapes should be thinned by about one-third so that they will ripen faster and more evenly.

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Sterilizing the soil and pots will not eliminate all the ailments your house plants are likely to get. The indoor environment under which plants are grown is the cause of many house plant ills.

The distribution and intensity of light in the average home is very uneven, often strongly one-sided and several hundred or even thousands of times less than the plant would normally receive outside on a sunny day. Atmospheric moisture (humidity), especially in winter, in most homes is much lower than what it would be outdoors.

With modern thermostat controls there is little change in temperature between day and night. The amount of soil in pots is strictly limited, forcing abnormal root growth. Most communities have a treated water supply which contains large amounts of minerals. If these are not periodically flushed out they accumulate and are often injurious. All of these factors, plus the irregular and fluctuating water supply, make it difficult to grow handsome house plants.

Plants weakened by low light, chilling, low or excessive humidity, a high content of soluble salts, over-watering and poor air circulation are more readily attacked by disease.

Before growing house plants which are strangers to you or with which you have had trouble, check with your local extension horticulturist or florist regarding the light, humidity, temperature, fertilizer, soil type and water requirements for each plant. When these factors are all in “favor of the plant” the chances of success are greatly enhanced.

Most house plants do best with a good lighting source which is as uniform as possible. Artificial illumination may be necessary to get “long-day” plants to bloom or other plants to grow well. The humidity of the air may be raised by placing the pots in shallow saucers filled with water, and on trays or in planters containing moist gravel, vermiculite or sphagnum moss. If practical, plants kept in a very dry room should be enclosed with a glass, clear plastic or cellophane-covered case, which has a moistened floor.

Most plants thrive at day temperatures under 70 degrees and night temperatures five to ten degrees cooler. Plants should be watered regularly, alternating between moderate wetness and dryness. Occasional drenches will flush out toxic salts and cleanse the foliage. Avoid heavy watering and extreme drying, using tap water at room temperature.

Keep Foliage Dry

Avoid wetting leaves and flowers when watering (or be sure it dries promptly). Free water on the foliage for a period of several hours may lead to leaf and stem spots, rots, blotches, stem cankers or galls, die-back, bud rot, mildew and gray mold. These diseases are caused by air-borne fungi and bacteria which can infect only through plant surfaces which are wet.

A final way to avoid trouble is to select your house plants carefully before purchasing or propagating. Diseases which affect the whole system of a plant, particularly those caused by viruses, can only be controlled by discarding plants which are abnormal, stunted, sickly or show symptoms of mosaic, ring spot, yellows or wilt.

If your soil and pots are sterilized, if only top-grade plants are chosen for propagating and growing in the home, if the environment (light, temperature, humidity, water and fertilizer) is carefully controlled to favor plant growth - there’s no reason why your plants “can’t look just like those you see in catalogs. The chances are those beauties were grown with plenty of TLC (tender loving care) - and in sterilized soil, too!

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