THE GARDEN WEEK BY WEEK 



radically defective, but an experienced eye can see that 

 all is not quite as it should be. The garden has not 

 really lost its youth, but it has arrived at a stage when 

 old age has become a possibility — hair just a little 

 thin, complexion a wee bit wanting in freshness, foot- 

 steps tending to drag instead of striking out briskly. 

 Nothing develops quicker than slackness of this kind. 

 The garden decollete \^ too soon the garden /^^j/. 



It may be suggested that such a condition is natural, 

 and therefore to be expected. Plants, it will be said, 

 have a defined period of youth, the same as animals, and 

 if the components of a garden sink, by however slow 

 degrees, towards the "sere and yellow," the garden 

 collectively must show the effects of it. But this is not 

 so convincing as it appears at first. Properly managed 

 gardens are made up of materials which mature at 

 different seasons. We have flowers that give their best 

 beauty in spring, others in summer, and others again in 

 autumn. We have early Apples and late ones. We 

 have Potatoes that are mature in July, and others that 

 do not ripen until October. This being so, it cannot be 

 admitted that a garden must necessarily decline in 

 August. Something will depend on circumstances. A 

 garden on a hot, sandy, or chalky slope in a dry district 

 may fade in August if the rainfall is very scanty ; it will 

 certainly do so unless resolute efforts are made to keep 

 it fresh. But a garden on good soil in moist localities 

 ought to be better in August than in any previous 

 month. There will be abundance of Roses, and they 

 alone are a great force. Sweet Peas will be in full 

 glory — stronger, taller, more floriferous than in July. 

 Gladioli will be coming into beauty, and they have a 

 wonderfully revivifying effect on a garden. Hollyhocks 

 and Pentstemons will be at their best. The advance 

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