Round the Year in the Garden 



all, and if the statement is rather exaggerated, at least 

 the moral is plain to see. It is only by watching a 

 garden approach gradually to the ideal one set out to 

 achieve that full pleasure is gained; the progress of 

 the trees and plants may give even greater delight 

 than the consummation of their beauty. 



The most interesting and easily the cheapest way of 

 adding to the treasures of a garden is to raise plants 

 from seed. Most herbaceous perennials bloom in the 

 year following that in which seed is sown, and they grow 

 with remarkable vigour once the seedling stage is passed. 

 It is a mistake to purchase big plants, especially of shrubs. 

 Choice shrubs are expensive, and their loss is bound to 

 lead to disappointment. The risk of failure is minimised 

 if small specimens are planted in early autumn. 



Alterations in the Garden. The season of waning 

 flowers has its own peculiar compensations in the oppor- 

 tunities afforded of preparing for another year, and of 

 carrying out such alterations as may have been decided 

 upon. While it is true generally that the garden which 

 was well planned in the first place and has grown old 

 with the passing years charms us most, there is always 

 scope for alterations of some extent. To the gardener, 

 happily disdainful of the intervening months, and visual- 

 ising next summer's display, come inspirations for im- 

 provements in the arrangement of beds and borders and 

 walks, and for fresh planting. No phase of gardening 

 is more exhilarating than that of working to a fresh 

 design, whether it be merely perfecting an awkward curve, 

 forming a new rose bed, or the more ambitious task 

 of making a rockery or planting a new flower border. It 

 were perhaps idle to attempt to suggest improvements 

 likely to be useful generally, yet so many gardens 

 exemplify similar errors that even a wide statement may 

 possibly contain details that are of value in individual 

 cases. 



In planting the garden some people consider it only as 



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