A GARDEN DIARY 21 



imposed earth they appear to be quite indifferent. 

 The spring that followed our first operations of 

 this kind bluebells flowered better than usual, 

 as if glad to be freed from some of their trouble- 



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some neighbours, especially probably that pest of 

 copses, dog mercury. The introduced bulbs, 

 which now share the ground with them, are 

 mostly of the taller kinds, daffodils predominat- 

 ing, and for these the fact of the soil being all 

 newly upturned is an advantage. Our present 

 plan is that the sides of the glade shall remain 

 permanently uncut, or cut at most once or twice 

 a year, the central, or walking space, being kept 

 regularly mown. The bulbs, being at the sides, 

 will thus not suffer. Moreover the considerable 

 difference of height between mown and unmown 

 grass is bound to give height and emphasis to 

 our little glade. As in the similar case of 

 planting rock gardens, such considerations may 

 seem to some poor devices. Yet upon the 

 successful carrying out of them depends the 

 whole of that " general effect " which is all that 

 such critics probably heed. We are not, after 

 all, Nature's mandatories, and our little slopes 

 are not Alps, or even alpine meadows. If we 

 can attain to so much as a suggestion of the 

 sort of thing we dream of we may rest content. 



