IRISH GARDENING. 



23 



Evil of Overcrowding in 

 Gardens. 



By A. E. BURGESS, Horticultural Lecturer, Herts County Council. 



IN the course of my numerous visits to various 

 gardens, especially the gardens of amateurs, 

 I notice a great tendency to overcrowd. 

 The flower border, which should be a thing of 

 beauty and a constant source of pleasure to the 

 owner, is in many cases so crowded that instead 

 of strong, vigorous plants, producing an abun- 

 dant supply of good flowers, we find small, 

 weak stems, with very poor flowers. 



Perennial herbaceous plants 

 thought by many amateurs (anc 

 gardeners, too, for that 

 ter) to be able to take a 

 of themselves. I hav 

 seen some herbaceous 

 plants that have stood 

 in the same spot for 

 twenty years without 

 division. The h e r- 

 b ac e o u s border 

 should be practi- 

 cally replanted 

 every three or four 

 years if the best re- 

 sults are to be ob- 

 tained. The plants 

 should be lifted and 

 divided, and the whole 

 border re-arranged, 

 Each plant should 1 

 given space according t 

 spread of its branches. This 

 re-arrangement of the flower bed 

 or border increases the interest 

 and pleasure of the owner. I 

 find the best time to divide most 

 herbaceous plants is immedi- 

 ately after flowering. This, of 

 course, means a departure from 

 the old hard and fast rule — viz., 

 to divide all the plants in 

 winter or spring. Many plants 

 will, of course, finish flowering in summer — 

 e.g., Doronicums, Iris, &c. The hardy annuals, 

 of course, as one can easily see, come off 

 worse in this respect. Seeds are generally 

 sown far too thickly. This would not so 

 much matter if the seedlings were thinned out 

 early. The thinning should be done early, in 

 fact as soon as the young plants can be handled. 

 It is best to do the work gradually— that is, let 

 the thinning be done in three or four operations 

 at intervals of three or four days. When the 

 thinning is complete each plant should stand 



Scene /«] 



I know not where the white road runs, nor 



What the blue hills are ; 

 But a man can have the sun for friend 



And for his guide a star. 

 And there's no end of voyaging when 



Once the voice is heard. 

 For the river calls, and the road 'calls, and 



Oh ! the call of a bird. 



singly, from four to nine inches apart, according 

 to the size and vigour of the full grown plant. 

 If more care was given both in sowing and early 

 thinning many an amateur would be surprised 

 at the quality and beauty of the flowers. 



The vegetable garden, too, comes in for its 

 share of overcrowding. A prominent member 

 of the Vegetable and Fruit Committee of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society has been lately 

 writing to the gardening press, advising cot- 

 tagers and others to sow peas four inches apart 

 in the drills, and I certainly think this is good 

 advice. At least the plants should be two inches 

 apart, but four is better. Runner beans should 

 be nine inches apart, and dwarf beans from four 

 to six. 



ow many have been disappointed 

 in the yield — from what looked 

 I promising crop in the 

 ing — of onions. I am 

 ften told that onions 

 are purposely left for 

 thinning late, in order 

 to use the thinnings 

 for table use as re- 

 quired. I venture 

 to think, however, 

 that it would be far 

 more profitable to 

 sow thinly and 

 single out the 

 plants early, and use 

 the surplus seed for 

 sowing a patch speci- 

 ally for pulling green. 

 The root crops, such as 

 carrots, beet, &c., are 

 otten ruined by allowing 

 the plants to stand thickly 

 too long in the beds. These 

 should be singled out as soon 

 as they can be handled, in order 

 to obtain good results. The 

 same may be said of green 

 crops in nursery beds. Plants 

 are often so weakened by a 

 long stay in the seed beds that 

 they never sufficiently recover 

 to produce good crops. If 

 crowding is bad in the flower and vegetable 

 plots, it is infinitely worse in the fruit plot. 



I have in my mind two or three gardens where 

 the trees and bushes have become interlaced, 

 and have produced a thicket. The owners can- 

 not make up their minds to sacrifice a few trees 

 for the sake of the others, because, as they, 

 say, "they are such fine trees, and it would 

 be a pity to destroy them " when young trees 

 (of bush form) are planted 9 or 12 feet apart, 

 it seems to be a great distance, but it is not 

 a bit too much. 



\Co. Ma^o. 



