THE 



GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



AND 



HORTICULTURIST. 



DEVOTED TO HORTICULTURE. ARBORICULTURE AND RURAL AFFAIRS. 



Edited by THOMAS MEEHAN. 



Vol. XIX. 



MARCH, 1877. 



Number 219. 



.LOWER ^ARDEN AND ^LEASURE ^ROUND. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



There is nothing of more importance to be 

 continuallj' remembered than that lavish ex- 

 penditure on one's grounds or gardens by no 

 means signifies beauty and taste. There may be 

 true art in the gardening on a lot of but a hun- 

 dred feet, and none on a pretentious place of as 

 many acres. We would particularly recommend 

 at this season of the year a consultation of works 

 on taste in landscape gardening with a view to 

 improvement in this respect. Of these there are 

 Downing, Kemp, and Scott, within the reach of 

 every one. A study of these works will not 

 necessarily lead to expense; indeed, rather the 

 reverse, for most likely the result will be to show 

 how expensive has been bad taste, and the good 

 economy of true beauty. 



As for expenditure, and the idea that garden- 

 ing as an art induces waste, nothing is further 

 from the fact. True art consists in the knowl- 

 edge of harmonies, and this knowledge leads us 

 to do the right thing at the right time. Out-door 

 gardening especially is cheap, — nature does so 

 much for us, and asks only the means to do it 

 with, that costly gardening is rather a burlesque 

 on her abilities. 



There is scarcely a garden of any pretension 

 that we know of, that could not be cut down 

 in size, one-half, to great advantage. We know 

 of some quite large gardens where several men 

 are kept, as well as many where the owner does 

 all his own garden work, in which everything is 

 a drag. There is too much to do. No excellence 



can be achieved in anything. Everything is 

 done out of season and hurriedly. No one can 

 take any pride in anything. The owner worries 

 at the cost, and instead of cutting down the work 

 cuts down the hands, and the remaining worry 

 and chafe, and things are still more cheerless 

 than before. There is nothing in gardening like 

 this, and the Baconian quotation that a "Garden 

 is the purest of all human pleasure?," never 

 was intended to apply to such gardens. How 

 cheap beauty is we have before referred to in 

 connection with the groimds around the Centen- 

 nial last year, to be repeated though with some 

 diversity, on the same grounds, by the same 

 hands this year ; and we hope the good lesson 

 will not be lost. 



So far as the general hints applicable to the 

 every year management of the flower garden 

 department is concerned, the annual pruning 

 must be got through with as soon as possible. 



Many delay pruning shrubbery until after se- 

 vere weather passes, so as to see what injury 

 may be done, but with March all should be fin- 

 ished, taking care not to trim severely such 

 shrubs as flower out of last year's wood, as for 

 instance the Wiegelia ; while such as flower from 

 the Spring growth, as the Althaea, Mock Orange, 

 &c., are benefitted by cutting back vigorously. 



Do not transplant extensively till the ground 

 is warm and the buds are about to push. Many 

 things die by exposure to winds for a few weeks 

 before they have warmth to push roots and 

 leaves into growth. 



The rule for pruning at transplanting is to cut 



