WEEDING AND RAKING. 93 



I do not at all approve of hoeing in a flower 

 garden. It may be done in a shrubbery, or 

 where the borders are filled with coarse-grow- 

 ing herbaceous plants, or where they are so 

 wide as to make it impossible to weed them 

 without trampling down the earth. As soon as 

 the beds are weeded, loosen the earth between 

 the plants a little with a hoe, previously to rak- 

 ing the borders. Raking, however, requires 

 some care, and will be better learned by 

 w r atching a gardener perform this work, than 

 by any instructions I can give. 



When a border is well raked, it is perfectly 

 even and smooth, and no scratches of the rake 

 are left behind. I leave it to your own discre- 

 tion as to how often it is necessary to weed 

 and rake : the oftener this is done, of course 

 the neater the garden will be. 



I find, by always pulling up the weeds as fast 



