THE FLOEAL WOULD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



165 



ground. The best way to grow peas now, is in 

 trenches. Take out the trench a depth of 

 two feet, lay at the bottom six inches of 

 rich, half-rotten dung, then fill up to within 

 nine inches of the surface, and tread over. 

 Then sow, and cover with two inches of 

 mould, and bank up the sides of the trench, 

 so that the peas will grow in a sunk alley 

 of about six or eight inches depth. At each 

 end of the alley, close it in with a spadeful 

 of earth, so as to make a trough of it. As 

 soon as the peas are up, sprinkle them plen- 

 tifully with soot or wood-ashes ; stick 

 directly, and then every evening in dry 

 weather, you can fill the alley with water, 

 alternating twice a week with manure 

 water, and the crop will come wonderfully 

 fine. This plan is the one we always adopt 

 after the beginning of June, and we have 

 for years had healthy rows of peas, and 

 abundance of produce, when, elsewhere, the 

 heat has turned them yellow before their 

 time, and the gathering has scarcely paid 

 for the seed. The method is not so trouble- 

 some as it appears, for the filling the trench 

 with water is but a few minutes' work, and 

 being sunk and closed at the ends, there is 

 not a drop wasted. 



Gather kidney beans close; every pod 

 left to ripen checks the productive powers of 

 the plant. Gather peas with great care, 

 using a pair of scissors where time can be 

 spared, rather than the clumsy way of pul- 

 ling them with the hands. Take up onions, 

 shallots, and garlic, as they ripen, and store 

 for winter. Give asparagus-beds plenty of 

 liquid manure, and use the grass mowings 

 from the lawn as mulchings, to prevent the 

 soil from cracking. Earth up celery for 

 early use, but the rows that are not forward 

 must be kept open and well watered, as the 

 plant grows very slowly after being earthed 

 up, the object of the earthing being to 

 blanch it only. Sow saladings for succes- 

 sion. In the fruit garden, thin out foreright 

 shoots, and admit light and air to the wood 

 required to ripen for next season. Keep 

 gooseberry and currant bushes open in the 

 centre, and leave on the bush fruits only as 

 much wood as will bear a fine crop next 

 season. Cuttings of gooseberries and cur- 

 rants may be struck now in a moist shadj r 

 border, and if sufficient canes were not got 

 in last winter, the deficiency may now be 

 made good, and a season be saved. 



Flower Gakden. — Budding is the most 

 important operation this month. After 

 heavy rains is the best time, and the opera- 

 tion should be performed at dawn or after 

 sunset ; but early morniug is the best, as 

 the sap then flows freely. The stocks should 

 be vigorous, and if the weather continue 



dry, and if the sap flows slowly, a drenching 

 of liquid manure or plain water, for two or 

 three nights in succession, will prepare 

 them, without waiting for rain. Cut- 

 tings of all kinds may now be struck 

 out of doors ; antirrhinums, phloxes, pent- 

 stemons, alyssums, dielytras, &c, and cut- 

 tings of laurels, aucubas, and other shrubs, 

 must be struck in the shade ; but geranium 

 cuttings should be struck in the full sun, 

 and the sooner they are got in the better 

 plants will they make to stand the winter. 

 Where long ripe branches of geraniums can 

 be spared, they are better than soft shoots ; 

 and, if pinched for time, strike a lot of such 

 ripe branches in five-inch pots, half-a-dozen 

 in a pot, put all round, and they need not 

 be potted separately till spring, when started 

 for bedding out. Our best lot of Queens' 

 Reidiis, Commanders, and Tom Thumbs, 

 were struck this way last summer, to save 

 the time of taking up and potting in autumn. 

 In February they were started into growth, 

 then potted into sixties, and turned out in 

 May — a course of treatment attended with 

 the least possible amount of trouble. 

 Dahlias want special attention now as they 

 come into bloom; earwigs are very de- 

 structive to them, and must be trapped with 

 bean-stalks, or a handful of hay may be 

 stuffed into an empty flower-pot and put on 

 a stake, and the vermin shaken out into 

 salt and water every morning. Edwards' 

 earwig trap, sold by Mr. Edwards, of Paul's 

 Square, Birmingham, is an admirable in- 

 vention for the dahlia grower, because most 

 effectual as a trap, and obviating the use of 

 all those ugly contrivances which deface 

 many gardens where dahlias are grown. 



Greenhouse. — Pelargoniums done bloom- 

 ing must be turned out, but with the pots 

 plunged in tan or ashes, and the plants 

 sheltered. After a week's exposure, cut 

 them in to the first or second eye at the bot- 

 tom of each shoot, and place them in a cold 

 pit, to make their new growth. They must 

 now, for some time, be kept from growing 

 rapidly, and have but little w r ater. When 

 they have broken well, they must be re- 

 potted into the smallest pots their roots can 

 be got into, and all the old soil must be 

 shaken of, and the roots moderately thinned. 

 Shift all greenhouse plants required for late 

 blooming, and grow them on to a good size 

 before allowing them to blossom. Cine- 

 rarias for winter blooming must have good 

 culture and shifts as required, and camellias 

 may be shifted, if necessary, but, if well 

 potted in the first instance, they will 

 flourish in the same pots for three seasons 

 in succession, and to overpot them is to do 

 them injury, from which they may never 

 recover. 



