TOWN GARDENING 



GARDENING in towns and their neighbourhood is hampered 

 by conditions which the dweller in the pure country air knows 

 nothing of, but gardening may be pursued with pleasure even 

 in the suburbs of London and the great towns of the midlands, 

 where many a mechanic grows his special favourites with 

 consummate skill, sufficiently so to make even his country 

 friends envious of his well-deserved success. Success depends 

 of course upon individual effort. The man who will not try 

 cannot succeed. He bewails his lot amidst smoke and dirt, 

 raves against (and with reason) the domestic cat, and even 

 levels abuse at the tiny heads of the chirping sparrows. But 

 with reasonable attention to details and a proper choice of 

 subjects the town garden should be gay with blossom for 

 many months. 



One cannot remedy the impure air, although the atmos- 

 phere of a large town or its surroundings is not so disastrous 

 to plant growth as many imagine. The atmosphere is fre- 

 quently blamed when the cultivator is really at fault, in not 

 trenching the soil well, and in filling the garden with hungry 

 rooting shrubs bent upon extracting every ounce of goodness 

 from beds and borders. Perhaps a description of a garden in 

 which flowers, and even fruits and vegetables, have been suc- 

 cessfully grown, may give fresh courage to those who have 

 hitherto reaped nothing but failure. Mr. Woodall, a well- 

 known gardener, who " gardens " for his own pleasure, writes : 

 " Few things are more depressing to the average man than 

 the dismal aspect of a neglected back-garden in a town of 

 considerable size. Such a plot came under my notice not 

 long ago, and, under judicious and careful arrangement, it 

 has in a very short time proved such a pleasure that I think 

 some details may be of use to those who find themselves 

 possessors of such a potential ' Eden.' As is usually the 

 case in all ordinary town gardens, the area is about three 

 times as long as it is wide in this case containing quite a 

 third of an acre surrounded by sooty brick walls devoid of 

 any climber whatever. The ground is quite flat and the 

 soil strong clay, which, however, had once been well worked. 



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