136 



MANUAL OF GARDENING 



Fall-planted trees should generally be mounded up, sometimes 

 even as high as shown in Fig. 152. This hilling holds the plant 

 in position, carries off the water, prevents too deep freezing, and 

 holds the earth from heaving. The mound is taken away in 

 the spring. It is sometimes advisable to mound-up estabUshed 

 trees in the fall, but on well-drained land the practice is usually 

 not necessary. In hilling trees, pains should be taken not to 

 leave deep holes, from which the earth was dug, 

 close to the tree, for water collects in them. 

 Roses and many other bushes may be mounded 

 in the fall with profit. 



It is always advisable to mulch plants that 

 are set in the fall. Any loose and dry ma- 

 terial — as straw, manure, leaves, leafmold, 

 litter from yards and stables, pine boughs — 

 may be used for this purpose. Very strong 

 or compact manures, as those in which there 

 is little straw or litter, should be avoided. 

 The ground may be covered to a depth of 

 five or six inches, or even a foot or more if the material is loose. 

 Avoid throwing strong manure directly on the crown of the 

 plants, especially of herbs, for the materials that leach from 

 the manure sometimes injure the crown buds and the roots. 



This protection may also be given to established plants, par- 

 ticularly to those which, like roses and herbaceous plants, are 

 expected to give a profusion of bloom the following year. This 

 mulch affords not only winter protection, but is an efficient 

 means of fertilizing the land. A large part of the plant-food 

 materials have leached out of the mulch by spring, and have 

 become incorporated in the soil, where the plant makes ready 

 use of them. 



Mulches also serve a most useful purpose in preventing the 

 ground from packing and baking by the weight of snows and 

 rains, and the cementing action of too much water in the surface 



152. Tree earthed 

 up for winter. 



