142 FLOWEBS AND THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



no appliances of the kind of any sort, and we wanted 

 to see the garden gay and tidy, as soon as it could be 

 dug and laid with paths. Our only appliance for rear- 

 ing plants from seed was a table for garden pots, placed 

 against a window of tolerable aspect, and there we 

 reared plants enough to fill the garden (with the aid of 

 a few purchases) by the time it was ready to be planted. 

 Elaborate directions on window gardening have been 

 written in the Cottage Gardener (now the Journal of 

 Horticulture), arid elsewhere, and are fully deserving of 

 attention ; but for making the inside of the window 

 available for raising seedlings, striking cuttings, and 

 any simple work of the kind, a very few concise hints 

 will be sufficient. 



In the first place, if the pots are not new, let them 

 be made very clean ; before filling them with mould put 

 crocks at the bottom to insure good drainage, and take 

 care that the mould for filling them is not sour, clung, 

 and poor, but rich, good, and of the quality best suited 

 to the plant or seed to be grown. Take care to get first- 

 rate seed, and to sow it thinly. It is a great mistake to 

 sow seed too thickly, for if plants are ever fine after 

 coming up thickly it is quite in spite of circumstances. 

 Thinning out can never be done without almost as 

 much injury and disturbance of the roots to those which 

 are left, as to those which are removed, so that if the 

 seed be so sown that the plants will come up an inch 

 apart, and be left so until they grow large enough to 

 require transplanting, much time will be saved. Plenty 

 of air is indispensable, but the pots must not be allowed 

 to stand in a draught. If a plant covered with buds be 

 left between an open window and an open door the buds 

 will fall : this shows how injurious draught is, but by all 

 means give the plants abundance of air the best and 

 purest at command. With regard to watering and clean- 

 liness, which appertain the one to the other, the water 

 used should always be a few degrees warmer than the 

 temperature in which the plants live ; the rule for water- 

 ing should be to water only when the plants want it, and 

 then to water well, and, to cleanse the leaves, set the pots 



