22 The American Flower Garden 



lowest bidder among competing nurserymen and waste years 

 looking at sickly, struggling or dying trees, shrubs and perennials 

 about his home rather than invest a little more money and get 

 satisfaction and joy from the start. Poor stock is dear at any price. 



In an out-of-the-way corner of your place prepare the ground 

 for a little nursery of your own by deeply ploughing the soil, 

 enriching it well, and lightening it, if it be heavy, with sand, leaf- 

 mould from the woods or humus from the compost heap. Plants 

 make very slow growth in clay soil. A rich, sandy loam, cool 

 and moist with much decomposed vegetable matter through it, 

 favours the rapid growth that the owner of a new place so greatly 

 longs for. As soon as the stock arrives, set it out in rows, with 

 room to spread and with sufficient space between the rows for 

 cultivation with the wheeled hoe. A mulch of stable litter or 

 leaves will protect the roots from drying out in summer and from 

 winter frosts. Perhaps a greater percentage of nursery stock dies 

 for the lack of mulching before it becomes well established than 

 from any other cause. If the house is not to be built for a few 

 years, this little nursery will yield a very high rate of compound 

 interest, for the small stock, which it pays the nurseryman best to 

 sell you, was comparatively cheap, but it would be sadly ineffective 

 on a new place; whereas the larger, older stock you now possess, 

 which is disproportionately costly and difficult to buy, gives 

 delightful, quick results. Be sure you know just the tree or shrub 

 for a given spot on your place before buying it. One can no more 

 plant one's grounds in a hurry than one can successfully furnish 

 a house outright in a week. One must feel one's way along, and 

 realise the need of a certain plant for a certain place before pro- 

 ceeding to get it. 



Near the place chosen for the garden, its jealous guardian 



