284 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



and regular hoeing and cleaning. There are many conditions in 

 which, even if we do allow weeds to go to seed, they can be used as 

 a mulch ; as, for example, in young orchard and turf and other 

 planting in or near turf where weed seeds can do no harm. Burning, 

 therefore, should be kept to a few essential uses. The source of 

 success in flower gardening is to be always busy sowing or 

 planting; there is scarcely a day or a week when some things 

 have not been planted or attended to if we want a succession 

 of beauty ; but when the men are from morn to night busy hoeing 

 and watering and with other routine work, it is difficult to get time 

 for securing the successions of plants of various kinds on which the 

 lasting beauty of a garden at all seasons depends. 



The old labour of grubbing up walks, which was so constant and 

 dreadful in the very heat of summer, is got rid of by weed-killers, of 

 which one dressing a year will sometimes suffice to keep the walks 

 clean, and, better still, prevent us from having to rip up the surfaces 

 of the walks, which was common in every garden until quite recently, 

 and is carried on still in many places. By abolishing ignoble routine 

 work, in this and all ways we can, we have time for the real work 

 of the garden, in adding to its beauty with new or beautiful things 

 and improved ways of growing and arranging them. 



A fire on the spot is a great aid in the garden when active 

 changes have to be made, and foul borders or shrubberies renovated 

 or replanted. Where, in stiff soils, Twitch and 

 Fire as a other bad weeds take possession, with perhaps a 

 cleanser. number of worn-out shrubs, the simplest way is 

 often to burn all, not trying to disentangle weeds 

 from the soil in the usual way, but simply skinning the surface 

 2 inches, or more if need be, and burning it and the vital parts of the 

 weeds, first removing any plants that are worth saving. In light 

 soils the labour of cleaning foul ground is less than in heavy, adhesive 

 soils, but fire is a great aid in all such cases. If we are removing 

 ugly and heavy masses of Laurels, or other evergreens which have 

 never given grace or flower to the scene, we should burn them root 

 and branch at the same time. The result will be that we get rid of our 

 worst weeds, and turn enemies like Goutweed into ashes. This weedy 

 surface of garden ground is often some of the best of the soil, and it 

 is much better to keep it where it is, but purified. Regular cleaning 

 will keep down all young weeds, but it is a struggle to get the old and 

 bad weeds out of the soil, owing to the broken roots of Bindweed, 

 Twitch and Goutweed, which escape the closest forking and sharpest 

 eyes. There is no barrowing or carting to take the weeds to some 

 rotting heap, while, on the other hand, the friendly fire eats up and 

 kills at once the whole of them and converts them and the burnt 



