CHEAP GARDENING 103 



these novelties would never, perhaps, be produced. 

 Mr. Wright complains, too, that the writers of most 

 gardening books assume the costliness of gardening. 

 He will not assume it; and yet he mentions a good many- 

 costly plants in his book, or at least plants that will 

 seem costly to the man who really wishes to garden 

 cheaply on a fairly large scale. Mr. Wright may urge 

 that he only mentions such plants in case his readers 

 may wish for a few luxuries. But the gardener who 

 wants an abundance of flowers, and wants them cheap, 

 will not be able to afford even a few luxuries. Those 

 who have only a slip of garden with one small border 

 and one bit of rockwork on it may afford, now and 

 again, to pay half-a-crown for a Lily or Daffodil bulb. 

 But those who have two or three acres of garden and 

 wish to make them all flowery at a small cost cannot 

 do this even once in a way. Their first problem will 

 be to get cheap plants. Their next to economize in 

 labour and manure. There are plants which need a 

 great deal of manure in most soils, and others which 

 need careful watering in hot weather, even though 

 they may in some cases be cheap to buy. There are 

 bulbs which need to be lifted and dried off, and others 

 which, however well treated, soon die out in most 

 English gardens. There are shrubs, too, which must 

 be protected in hard winters. There are carnations 

 that must be constantly renewed by means of layers. 

 There are bedding plants that need a greenhouse in 

 the winter, and exact all the labour of shifting them 

 into the greenhouse and out of it again. All of these 



