DETAILS OF GARDEN WORK 



soil in well about the roots; for this your fingers are better 

 than a trowel or shovel. When the hole is half filled pour in 

 water. Let it settle, then repeat the process. This washes 

 the soil closely about the roots. Fill up, press down firmly, 

 then make the soil loose on top with a rake. 



Newly planted trees and shrubs should be cut back about 

 one-third the last year's growth. This sacrifices most of the 

 blossoms of the present spring, but the tree is the stronger for 

 it and will repay you another season, and as Andrea del Sarto's 

 Lucrezia should have said, 



" The present by the future — what is that ? " 

 How TO Divide Plants 



September or early October is the time of year when gen- 

 erosity is likely to flourish in the garden, for it is the season 

 par excellence for enlarging one's borders by dividing perennials. 

 The most delightful of exchanges are current among gardeners, 

 and, like the quality of mercy, there is no strain about this 

 form of generosity: it blesses both him that gives and him that 

 takes. One gardener, in separating his phlox, finds more 

 roots than she needs, therefore some of the phlox goes over 

 the fence to a neighbor's garden in exchange for clove-pinks 

 or columbines. They are a far pleasanter form of introduc- 

 tion than when merely bought. 



This dividing of plants is, for a beginning gardener, no 

 small ordeal. One has somewhat the feeling of Abraham ofiEer- 

 ing up Isaac when, standing before a thrifty, prosperous plant, 

 one contemplates digging it up, beheading its stems, chopping 

 its roots into pieces, and planting these melancholy fragments 

 in a new and untried place in hope of a distant good. Yet with 

 some plants it is essential to their health and as harmless a 

 practice as cutting back a house plant. 



197 



