200 ROUND THE YEAR 



WEEDS. 



I have about an acre of ground to look after. The 

 natural slope is so sharp that in order to get a level 

 tennis-court and a level terrace round the house, great 

 embankments of earth have had to be formed. Some 

 of these are planted with evergreens ; one has been 

 covered, with very little trouble and no cost, by the 

 Creeping Buttercup. My gardening friends smile when 

 I tell them that I am planting one of the commonest 

 and most mischievous of weeds. But I am well 

 satisfied with the plant. It forms a thick mass of 

 green foliage, which completely hides the ground all 

 the year round. In summer it is gay with yellow 

 flowers. When it has once established itself no 

 intruders can gain admission, and neither clipping nor 

 weeding is required. But care is needed to keep the 

 Buttercup within bounds. It is a rapid creeper, and 

 will spread fast over ill-tended ground. If I had three 

 or four acres to mind instead of one, I would plant no 

 Creeping Buttercups. 



The pastures which formerly occupied this site 

 abounded with Sorrel and Earth-nut (Bunium 

 flexuosum) and these are our most troublesome weeds. 

 The tough, yellow root-stocks of the Sorrel, and the 

 chestnut-shaped tubers of the Earth-nut enable them 

 to offer a stout resistance to the hoe and every other 

 weeding tool. Turn over the ground as often "as you 

 please, they come up again in undiminished numbers. 

 There is no remedy but total extirpation one by one, 



