THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 113 



attendant on an attempt to grow vegetables without maintaining 

 the fertility of the soil by means of liberal dressings of fertilizing 

 matters. This point being conceded, all that need be said can be 

 summed up in a very few words. First of all, it is necessary to 

 decide upon the arrangements without delay, if not already done, to 

 avoid delay and confusion at planting-time, and also to insure the 

 beds being prepared in a manner most congenial to the subjects 

 with which they are occupied during the eusuing season. The 

 arrangements being determined upon, and the way in which each 

 bed is to be planted duly entered in a book, the work of preparation 

 must be proceeded with as fast as the beds are cleared of their 

 winter occupants. All the beds should be dug up as deeply as it 

 is possible to dig them ; but if all receive an equal dressing of 

 manure, the manure will be worse than wasted ; because plants that 

 do best in poor soil will grow too luxuriantly for them to flower 

 well, whilst others that require a very liberal share of nourishment, 

 will be partially starved for the want of food. Bedding geraniums 

 of all kinds, with but few exceptions indeed, do much best when 

 planted in newly-manured ground, as also do centaureas, the dwarf 

 tagetes, and a few other things that could be mentioned. On the 

 other hand, violas, calceolarias, and verbenas seldom do well unless 

 the ground has been liberally dressed with half-rotten manure. For 

 such things as petunias, ageratums, heliotropiums, and most of the 

 ornamental-leaved plants used for bedding, an intermediate course 

 is desirable, so as to maintain a healthy and moderately vigorous 

 growth without encouraging excessive luxuriance. The best manure 

 for plants of this class is either well -rotted leaf -mould, or decayed 

 or charred vegetable refuse used in a rather liberal manner. Few 

 gardeners care to take the trouble of regulating the dressing of 

 manure according to the requirements of the plants ; and the general 

 rule, so far as my observations, which have extended over a rather 

 wide area during the last half century, is to dress all the beds in the 

 flower garden alike. Consequently, the behaviour of the plants is 

 far from satisfactory, even if they do not fail altogether. In clear- 

 ing the beds in the spring, everything, excepting bulbs and plants 

 required for propagating purposes, should be dug in instead of being 

 wheeled to the rubbish heaps to poison the air of the whole neigh- 

 bourhood with the noxious exhalation arising therefrom. By bury- 

 ing the matter in the beds, a vast saving of time and fertilizing 

 matter is effected, independent of the objection of having a heap 

 of vegetable refuse in a state of decomposition in the garden. 



In making the arrangements for the forthcoming season, due 

 regard should be paid, as far as practicable, to putting each class of 

 plants in the position most congenial to it. In planting a group of 

 beds, primary importance must, of course, be attached to the group- 

 ing of the colours, but where the beds are dotted about on different, 

 parts of the lawn, much might be done in this respect. This, I have 

 no doubt, appears a trivial matter to many, but the failures arising 

 from the mistakes of putting shade-loving plants in the full sun, 

 and vice versa, are so numerous, and cause so much dissatisfaction 

 every season, that no apology is necessary for alluding to it here. 



VOL. VI. — NO. IV. 8 



