2 
426 ; | MONTHLY CALENDAR OF WORK | 
ploughing up the walks and washing away the gravel. If the season 
should be wet and rather mild, weeds will begin to appear on the gravel — 
walks, when they should be instantly destroyed, either by hand-picking, 
or watering with a strong solution : of salt and water. If the weather 
shouia be- mild and dry, air may be given to the greenhouse, and half- 
hardy piants kept in pits, or planted in the open ground, and covered 
during winter. The latter. ‘kind of: plants are very apt to damp off, if 
kept too close in mild weather. Honeysuckles, Clematises, and other 
deciduous climbing plants, may be pruned if the weather be open; and 
the dead wood cut out of flowering trees and shrubs. Snails and slu 
"may be destroyed in this month, as they will begin to move if 
weather be mild; and the easiest way of killing them 1 is to throw fiom 
into a cistern or other large vessel of water, where they will be very 
soon drowned ;—worms may be destroyed in the same manner. 
¢ 
a4 
, FEBRUARY. 
In this month the borders are dug over and manured ; the best general 
manure being the remains of an old hotbed, or celery trenches from the 
kitchen garden. Beds are prepared for Anemones and Ranunculuses, 
and the tubers planted. Hotbeds are prepared for the tender annuals, 
and the climbing kinds should be sown: of these the most beautiful are 
Ipomea rubro-cerulea, the beautiful blue Ipomea: Tropeolum cana- 
riensis, aduncum, or peregrinum, the Canarybird flower; Rhodochiton 
volubile, sometimes called Lophospermum Rhodochiton ; Lophospermum 
scandens, and erubeseens ; Cobzea scandens; and Maurandya Barclay- 
ana. Eccremocarpus or Calempelis scabra may also be raised from seed, 
and will flower the first year, but it will live two or three years, and 
sometimes longer. Most, or all of the others, will also live more than 
one year, if protected fron frost. The gravel walks require the same at- 
tention as in January, and snails and slugs should be killed, and the eggs 
of insects looked for and destroyed. ‘The deciduous Roses may be prun- 
ed and manured; and the old plants may be taken up and replanted, to 
prevent them from producing too much wood. Composts are also now 
prepared in the reserve ground. The turf is swept, and the whole garden 
put in order for spring. 
