WINDOW GARDENING. 



563 



WINDOW GARDENING. 



Potting and Drainage. In potting, 

 adapt the pots to the size of the plants as 

 near as possible or rather, to what the 

 plant is expected to be as allowance must 

 be made for growth of the root as well as 

 the plant. Let the pots be perfectly clean. 

 Effectual drainage of the pots does not 

 consist so much in the quantity of drainage, 

 as in the arrangement of it. A potsherd 

 should be placed over the hole ; some 

 pieces of pot, broken rather small, over 

 that ; and these again covered with a layer 

 of peat fibre or rough earth. This gives 

 efficient drainage, and need not occupy 

 more than an inch and a half of the pot. 

 Hard-wooded plants should be potted 

 rather firmly; soft-wooded should be left 

 rather loose and free. 



How and When to Water. See Watering. 

 Training and Pruning. When training 

 is required it should be done neatly and 

 tastefully, using thin and pointed sticks, 

 and very fine fibres of raffia, matting, or 

 soft twine ; avoid anything like stiffness or 

 formality, which is the opposite extreme 

 to the graceful habit of plants. The same 

 may be said as to pruning. Cut out such 

 shoots as interfere with the symmetrical 

 outline of the plant ; but more may be 

 done by timely disbudding than by cutting. 

 Management of Plant Frame for Win- 

 d<nv Plants. I have mentioned plant 

 frames as being desirable, if not indis- 

 pensable, for window gardeners who have 

 the means of growing a variety of plants 

 to stock their windows at all seasons. In 

 the management of plant frames nothing 

 is better for the bottom or floor, in spite 

 of all that has been said against it, than 

 finely sifted coal ashes. The ashes should 

 be firmly troddon down and made per- 

 fectly level. So treated, it never gets 

 sloppy, but absorbs all surplus water a 

 great consideration. Worms or slugs also 

 dislike crawling through or over it. A 

 plant frame generally has short legs pro- 



jecting below the boarding : these should 

 be sunk in the ground to keep it steady. 

 The glass should be kept clean, and there 

 should be room sufficient to admit of draw- 

 ing the lights off at the back. 



Window Gardening, Green- 

 houses for. 



The most efficient contrivance for 

 window gardeners is the Wardian case, 

 which see. It is obvious that these minia- 

 ture greenhouses may be applied with great 

 ease to any window ; a pair of brackets on 

 a level with the sill will form a stage, 



which may either support a case such as 

 we have described, or a permanent green- 

 house may be erected thereon. All that is 

 required is a glazed frame, from 12 to 18 

 inches high in front, with glazed sides, 

 rising to the window-sash at an angle of 

 30, with a framework to receive a sash at 

 the same angle, which may be hinged to 

 the window frame. If this frame extends 

 to three-fourths of the height of the window, 

 t will not interfere very materially with the 

 ight of the room. Of course, the plants 

 are watered and arranged from the room 

 within. All manner of ornamental pro- 

 ections may be formed, in the manner 

 described and as illustrated in the accom- 

 panying engraving, and when any case 

 outside the window is deemed objection- 

 able large ornamental bell-glasses may be 



