296 MORE POT-POURRI 



require much less care (see 'English Flower Garden'). 



I am often asked what my vegetable seed bill amounts 

 to. The fact is, I never know. Seeds are so cheap that 

 I get what I want. Where the waste comes in is in sow- 

 ing them in too large quantities at one time, instead of 

 in succession, not thinning out, etc. It is always worth 

 while to sow all useful vegetables several times over, 

 whether in spring or summer. 



The ordinary amateur feels the extreme difficulty of 

 growing flower seeds either in boxes or even out of 

 doors, and says that in the end it is decidedly cheaper to 

 buy plants. This is, of course, true of all the strong- 

 growing herbaceous things. But every gardener soon 

 finds that if you want any quantity of one thing, or if 

 the plant is not particularly suited to the soil, it is in- 

 finitely better to grow the plants from seed than to buy 

 one or two specimens, which constantly die. I would 

 always advise beginners to try sowing seeds in little 

 squares in the seed-bed. It is only by this process that 

 they can learn what does well from seed and what does 

 not. Seed-beds in April should be in different aspects 

 — some cool and damp, and some dry and sunny, accord- 

 ing to the nature of the plant sown and the country it 

 comes from — and left, only [weeded, for one or two 

 years. I am quite sure no garden will ever look full and 

 varied all the year round without a great number of 

 plants being grown from seed. It is a later stage of 

 gardening, that is aU, just as collecting and saving your 

 own seed is a later stage still. 



I saw the other day in a Suffolk newspaper some ob- 

 servations on seed -sowing under glass. They seemed to 

 me so useful just at this time of year that I copied part 

 of the article : ' Sowing seeds may to the superficial 

 observer seem a simple affair ; yet it is one of the most 

 important operations in gardening. There is a great 



