6 My New Zealand Garden 



below the surface when I first set eyes upon it, it 

 is now nowhere less than 2 feet, and in one 

 part quite 5 feet, below. 



Layer upon layer of thick turfs have annually 

 been laid upon it, and in four successive winters 

 shrubs had ditches dug all round them and rails 

 poked under them, and so were levered up out of 

 their water-logged holes to receive another layer 

 of good soil beneath them. Of course, the question 

 arises, Why not have done it all in one winter ? 

 This is easily answered. The undertaking would 

 have been too gigantic for me, so it was gradually 

 accomplished by the one man that nobody who 

 keeps a horse, a cow, and a garden can do com- 

 fortably without. A certain amount of risk attended 

 these operations, but only a few shrubs succumbed 

 to them, though the water-logged holes and bad 

 soil proved extremely fatal to many, the most 

 lamented of them being a Jacaranda mimosifolia. 

 I was told that these splendid trees would not 

 flower for fifteen years, so I heartily wished to live 

 that time to see them. Imagine my surprise and 

 delight when I found my four-year-old, 4-foot- 

 high specimen making for flower ! It managed 

 one beautiful panicle of bloom, and then died 

 from want of root comforts. I know how it 

 struggled to live, for I knew what was going on 

 underground. I had planted it as a tiny plant, 

 in a tiny hole to fit it, but in spite of that it grew, 



