GARDENING BY M YSELF. j 6 1 



will want it. For you must know that 

 criticism there is much what it is elsewhere, 

 and "■ best efforts" meet with only their 

 common reward. You will find the one 

 weak spot in your garden detected, the one 

 failure noticed before the many successes. 

 What has come from necessity will be laid 

 to your choice, and your spare minutes 

 must bear the blame for not doing the work 

 of hours. People who have not tried, know 

 so much of gardening ! — and so little. But 

 bear it all meekly, — much of it is true — on 

 the face. There are too manj^ petunias, no 

 matter how they came. And the young 

 weeds you have been trying to get at for 

 the last week, are still in sight. And some 

 plants do not flourish — a painful fact enough, 

 without your being asked reprovingly — 

 "What is the matter with them?" Some 

 people " would give half" your stock '' for 

 carnations" — as you would perhaps, if you 

 had the money ; and some "don't like zin- 

 nias" — useful as they are when you cannot 

 afford a background from the tropics ; and 

 14* 



