IN MY LADY'S GARDEN 



drainage, covered with small lumps of peat, and filling only hall 

 an inch of space above this with the finest possible sifted soil 

 (a mixture of loam, peat, and leaf mould), which must be 

 made quite flat and firm before the seed is sown. The box 

 can then be lowered into a pan of lukewarm water (taking 

 care that this does not flood the surface), and a covering of 

 glass (which must not, however, quite exclude the air) 

 should then be placed over it, adding a piece of paper to 

 shade the seed. 



The tiniest of plants will appear in ten or twelve days, 

 and may be pricked out separately into slightly larger boxes 

 prepared in the same way, placing them 2 inches apart. 

 Their subsequent cultivation is a repetition of this, giving 

 them more room and slightly richer soil at each shift, anc 

 keeping them growing as late as possible in the autumn by 

 means of artificial warmth. The little tubers they form will 

 start into life with the spring, and can then be potted up 

 separately. The most valuable plants in a batch of seedlings 

 are those which germinate the last, so that special care 

 should be taken of the smaller seedlings. 



There has been a catastrophe in the bird world of the 

 garden. Ruby, one of the tame robins, having built her nest 

 too near the ground, there must have been a battle royal 

 with some cat (or possibly a rat) in which her poor little 

 mate lost his life fighting for his family, and two of her four 

 nestlings disappeared also. The other two were quickly 

 picked up from the path (being unable to fly, though partly 

 fledged) and deposited in an artificial nest of moss in a nest- 

 box. This was then hung up, well out of harm's way, in 

 the garden shelter, and for several days the little widowed 

 bird fed the surviving nestlings until they were able to fly, 

 constantly flying to the hand of her human friend for biscuit. 



Yet she did not neglect to add plenty of insect food 

 between whiles. After one or two crumbs, the hard-working 

 little mother always went in search of animal food for her 

 children, returning with a beakful of caterpillars, a fine 

 worm, a spider, or some other insect, before giving them 

 more farinaceous food. At last they retreated to the thick 



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