262 MORE POT-POURRI 



inches apart, at ri^ht angles to the previous lines, and 

 hoe again. This, when finished, will leave a number of 

 tiny square patches of seedlings eight inches apart 

 each way. 



' 8. A week later thin out the little patches by hand, 

 leaving only one plant in each. Now every plant will 

 have eight inches square to grow in. 



' 9. Directly the plant shows the first sign of running 

 up to blossom, put a thin line of two-feet-high pea- 

 sticks between every two, or at most every three, lines 

 of the plants to strengthen them to resist the wind and 

 rain. They will soon grow above and hide the sticks. 



'10. In dry weather thoroughly soak the bed once a 

 week. A little sprinkle overhead is no use. 



' JV. B. — Be sure the operation described in No. 6 is 

 done early enough ; otherwise the plants will have 

 become ' ' leggy ' ' before your thinning is complete, and 

 when once Poppies become "leggy," they are prac- 

 tically ruined.' 



March 14th. — My garden is now full of the old wild 

 Sweet Violet iViola odorata) of our youth — before even 

 the ' Czars ' came in, much less the giant new kinds. I 

 have an immense affection for this Violet, with its 

 beautiful, intense colour and its delicate perfume. It 

 grew all about the Hertfordshire garden under the 

 hedges, and little seedlings started up in the gravel 

 paths, looking bold and defiant ; but, all the same, they 

 were rooted out by the gardener when summer tidying 

 began. At the end of March or early in April, when 

 the rain comes, I divide up and plant little bits of these 

 Violets everywhere, and they grow and flourish and 

 increase under Gooseberry bushes and Currant bushes, 

 along the palings covered with Blackberries, under 

 shrubs — anywhere, in fact — and there they remain, 

 hidden and shaded and undisturbed all the summer. 



