NOVEMBER. 



721 



NOVEMBER. 



winter bids vegetation prepare for a rest. 

 In the kitchen garden the crops will make 

 little progress for the four months following 

 this. During that time will be apparent 

 the amount of forethought displayed in 

 summer and autumn cropping. If a fair 

 amount of Brussels sprouts, savoys, and 

 other .winter vegetables have been pro- 

 vided, this is the main point ; and sup- 

 posing herbs, salading, and minor crops 

 have been attended to, then, if any ground 

 is unoccupied, lay it up in rfdges, having 

 trenched it or dug it deeply, supposing the 

 ground to be light, but if it be heavy or 

 clay soil do not throw it up in ridges. 



T^lrn^ps. These should be hoed and 

 kept clean. 



November. Orchard House, 

 Work in. 



If these are either open or unroofed, see 

 that the hungry birds do not destroy the 

 next year's crop. They seem fond of 

 model standard trees, and in a single 

 day will often mar the hopes of a twelve- 

 month. The lights should also be placed 

 on these structures, as it is a dangerous 

 practke to allow standard trees to be much 

 frozen. The cold is also much more 

 intense here than on the surface of a 

 south or west wall. 



November. Shrubbery, Work 

 in. 



Flowering Shrubs. Aralia Japonica is 

 a splendid shrub from Japan, of rich foliage, 

 and throwing out numerous expanded 

 clusters of bloom of whitish -green colour, 

 each cluster being composed of several 

 spikes of bloom 18 inches long, diverging 

 from a common centre ; it requires a 

 sheltered spot in the garden, however. 

 The spiraeas are another highly ornamen- 

 tal family of shrubs, some of them of con- 

 siderable height, as Spiraea prunifolia flore- 

 pleno ; others for planting behind smaller 



shrubs, when the long spikes of bloom 

 bend gracefully forwards, like S. Lind' 

 leyana ; others of the genus are dwarf 

 shrubs of good habit, as Spir&a (or Hoteia) 

 Japonica, and bloom in rich spikes both of 

 white and pink flowers, in great abundance. 



Magnolias. Among the shrubby flower- 

 ing plants that are only met with in the 

 best gardens, but which might be cultivated 

 anywhere, may be mentioned the mag- 

 nolias, natives of North America, China, 

 and Japan, which have a noble foliage 

 and wonderfully beautiful flowers, some 

 of them emitting a powerful and most 

 agreeable fragrance. They flourish well 

 in a compost of good loam, peat, and 

 decomposed leaves. Magnolia grandi- 

 flora and its varieties, all American, are 

 perfectly hardy, flourishing luxuriantly in 

 the open border even when exposed to 

 cold and cutting winds. No garden 

 should be without them. 



Reserve Garden. For the purpose of 

 renovation the necessity of a reserve garden 

 cannot be too strongly urged. Most her- 

 baceous plants blossom incomparably finer 

 from young plants propagated betimes than 

 from old and exhausted ones, such as we 

 see generally in the pleasure grounds. With 

 a reserve garden in which the best shrubs 

 are coming forward, alterations are easily 

 made ; where overgrown branches have 

 to be cut back and thinned, the operation 

 must be performed gradually, and a portion 

 headed down every season until the whole 

 is renovated and covered with young foliage. 

 When headed down and in a proper state 

 of luxuriance, keep it so. Nothing looks 

 worse than a mass of rambling overgrown 

 shrubs, with large heads and a confused 

 array of naked ugly stems. 



Routine Work. Shrubberies should now 

 be thinned out, and other alterations com- 

 pleted, and the formation and repair of 

 new shrubberies brought to a close during 

 the month. 



47 



