100 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GAKDENING. 



to look upon stones in the soil, or subsoil, as theii' 

 natural enemies ; whereas, in moderation, experience 

 has proved them to he among our hest friends. Had 

 the cost involved through incessant stone-picMng 

 been devoted to the deepening and enriching of sur- 

 face tilths, it is probable that the produce of fields 

 and gardens might have been doubled years ago. Of 

 course, there are soils so much over-stoned as to be 

 inconvenient for garden pmrposes; and in such, the 

 operation of trenching will be made a means of 

 reducing their numbers. But as a rule, in gardens, 

 little or no stone-picking iieed follow or proceed 

 abreast of trenching. 



The Time to Trench, and After-treatment 

 before Cropping. — October or November, or 

 oven earlier, should the crops have been previously 

 cleared off, are the best months for trenching. The 

 whole of the winter will at such seasons lie before the 

 newly-trenched surface, and what that means must 

 be seen to be appreciated. It is hardly too much to 

 say that frostings and thawings, solvent showers and 

 drying winds, convert sterile earths into fruitful 

 surface moulds, and endow our semi-dead soils with 

 life-sustaining energy and productive force. All 

 these beneficial influences are enhanced if, some 

 time in February or early in March, the newly- 

 trenched soil is forked over in the opposite direction 

 to what it was trenched, and once more the surface 

 left rough, though on the whole even or level. 

 The phrases seem contradictory, but they are not. 

 Even very large clods may be so distributed that as 

 they break and mellow into smoothness, the ground 

 will be found sufficiently level for cropping purposes. 



The Time to Kepeat Trenching. — This wiU 

 vary very greatly in different soils. Some soils that 

 stand in great need of dressing may be trenched 

 with advantage every third or fourth year ; others 

 may not need trenching again for eight or ten years. 

 Hence a plan of all gardens should be kept, gi^'ing 

 1he date and a few other particulars, such as the 

 time every portion of the ground has been trenched, 

 drained, or specially treated. Such memoranda 

 would prove invaluable indices and guides to future 

 treatment, and explain many apparently inexplicably 

 varied results to be noted in the same garden. 



The ground should either be trenched backwards 

 or across the next time, thereby insuring its being- 

 more thoroughly mixed. Generally, too, a gain in 

 depth of from four to six inches may be safely made 

 at each trenching, especially when a layer of manure 

 has been spread ov^r the subsoil. The gi-eater per- 

 viousness of trenched lands allows of more aix' 

 and water passing through ; and these must cany 

 some enriching elements with them, besides those 



gained from the chemical properties of the manure. 

 All these begin so soon as liberated the apparently 

 hopeless task of converting the barren, inert subsoil 

 into fruitful mould. The earth-worms also work 

 deeper, and grow fatter and stronger in trenched 

 than in untrenched land, and hence exert a far more 

 potent influence than they did before in the further 

 improvement and em-ichmont of the ground. 



THE FLOWER GAEDEN. 



Bt William ■Wildsmith. 



SUMMER BEDDING. 



THIS term is applied to that mode of flower gar- 

 dening which consists in putting out plants of 

 a more or less tender nature during the month of 

 May and beginning of June ; a method that has 

 done more to foster a love of flowers and of garden- 

 ing in general amongst the great mass of the people, 

 than the most elaborate scheme — devised with that 

 intent — could have been expected to accomplish. 

 The system has its detractors, but those who would 

 wish it discontinued have not yet told us, or shown 

 us, an alternative way to produce the same pleasing 

 combinations as is done by summer bedding ; and 

 till that time we must continue to plant out as usual, 

 making such improvements as we can and shall, 

 from lengthened experience, as to material and ar- 

 rangement. 



We ought, however, to note one or two of the 

 principal objections to summer bedding, and the first 

 is, " The plants are too tender, too short-lived," put 

 out in June to be destroyed at the end of Septem- 

 ber. This we are compelled to accept as a valid 

 objection, but it is to a large extent capable of 

 remedy ; though, certainly, the application of the 

 remedy must be at the expense of some loss of colom-. 

 A little colour, however, can be well spared, for 

 gaudiness is not beauty : a fact, which, if thoroughly 

 recognised, with special reference to this matter, 

 would tend to the reduction of gaudiness, and to 

 greater refinement of arrangement. Hardier plants 

 might be used more freely, of which there are num- 

 bers most suitable for the purpose now available, but 

 which was not the case when summer bedding fii'st 

 came into vog-ue. 



Another objection is on the ground of sameness, 

 monotony — "One garden is just like another," and 

 so on. To this the answer must be, blame not the 

 system itself for this, but those who have the work- 

 ing out of the scheme. Why should two gardens be 

 alike ? Even if the same kinds of plants be used, a 

 very moderate amount of individual originality will 



