IRISH GARDENING 



VOLUME VI. 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF HORTICULTURE AND 



ARBORICULTURE IN IRELAND 



OCTOBER 



lOII 



Town Gardening. 



By Miss H. .M. White, LL.D. 



GARDENING in town is beset with many 

 difficulties and disappointments of which 

 the country gardener knows nothing-. 

 The best results are not attainable in town, 

 and many people mig-ht therefore think that it 

 would be wiser 

 not to attempt 

 gardening- at all 

 in town, and to 

 allow it to re- 

 main a country 

 pleasure. There 

 are, however, 

 people who can- 

 not accept this 

 advice, as the love 

 of plants is too 

 strong- in them to 

 be killed either 

 by disappoint- 

 ments or ob- 

 stacles. This feel- 

 ing- is testified 

 to by the lanky, 

 ill-grown gerani- 

 ums in jam pots 

 and the starved 

 nasturtiums in 

 blacklead boxes 

 of the slums, no 

 less than by the 



well-cared-for little plots of the more pros- 

 perous parts. Further, it is always wise to 

 make the most of our circumstances rather than 

 to be paralysed into inactivity because the 

 highest achievements are unattainable. 



The town gardener must, however, remember 

 that "the best is the enemy of the good"; 

 he must therefore sternly repress all compari- 



I'lu'lo I'v 



sons between town and country gardens, if he 

 desires to preserve even the semblance of sere- 

 nity of mind. He must measure his achieve- 

 ments only with those whose limitations are 

 similar to his own ; he must not hope or expect 

 to produce results 

 which are pos- 

 sible only where 

 the east wind 

 does not whirl 

 round corners, 

 devastating all 

 that it finds in its 

 path, where the 

 sparrows do not 

 descend in locust- 

 like swarms to 

 prey on every 

 tender bud, 

 and where the 

 heavily-laden air 

 does not leave a 

 deposit of grime 

 on leaves and 

 flowers alike. 



Space is the 

 primary consider- 

 ation in a town 

 garden, and 

 one's first feeling 

 in beginning to 

 work there — especially if previous experiences 

 have been under happier conditions - is that 

 there is no room for anything. Hotbeds must 

 be foregone, a propagating bed (that first neces 

 sity in a garden) is difficult to provide, and the 

 storing ot' such essentials as manure, sand and 

 sods is a still more serious trouble. In town 

 the whole garden is en evidence— there are 



[Miss Eile 



KA Coi.i.KGE Garden. 



