GARDENING B Y M YSELF. j 07 



well, and promise to cover their rough ce- 

 dar hedge with beauty. The browner, the 

 rougher your hedge sticks are, the prettier, 

 — so I think. A smooth green carpenter's 

 trellis never sets off the vines to so good ef- 

 fect. Let them wander a little on their way 

 to the top, and they will make all the fairer 

 show. 



Flower beds now want daily inspection. 

 In spite of all your care some few seedlings 

 will die ; so that one morning you will find 

 a blank in a patch of asters, and next day a 

 vacant place among your stocks, and your 

 regular lines of phlox will become irregular, 

 needing a few new recruits. Then close 

 watching against the w^eeds is of much im- 

 portance, and far better than fighting against 

 them. Sorrel and clover and couch grass 

 w^ill make short work with your delicate 

 plants ; choking them, starving them to 

 death, making them die of both shade and 

 hunger. For so enwrapt with a coarser na- 

 ture than its own, the seedling flower can 

 get strength from neither the ground nor 



