GARDENING 



IN WINDOW-BOXES, ORNAMENTAL POTS, 

 TUBS AND BOWLS 



In the cottager who fills the inside ledge of her never-opened window 

 with giant geraniums, sacrificing to them aU the air of aU the family, 

 and in the wealthy owner of a riverside frontage who makes a roof- 

 garden of his boat-house or supplements his lawn with stone vases 

 to further brighten a bright scene with a quick succession of the most 

 expensive bedding-out plants, the same spirit of floral decoration 

 is expressing itself. And between these two extremes are now an 

 increasing number who make a study of window-box gardening, of 

 ornamental pot or tub gardening, of growing bulbs indoors in bowls, 

 and so on — elaborating schemes of more or less successful colour 

 and charm wherewith to brighten the outside or the inside of their 

 homes. So that in a book on gardening some hints on the care and 

 contrivance of these substitutes of the garden proper may be found 

 useful. 



And certainly the fascination of watching flowers grow at such 

 close quarters, of devising harmonious effects on a miniature scale, 

 is one that repays those who pursue it ; and if, with our modem craze 

 for quick results, we cannot hope to rival the Japanese, who will 

 patiently produce you a forest tree of fitting dimensions for your 

 dining-table, we can yet do a great deal in a small space that is 

 genuinely decorative and worth whUe. But it must be remembered 

 that in no branch of " gardening " is greater daily and individual 

 care required. Where only a comparatively few handfuls of soil 

 are being made to produce the very maximum of plant life, a week's 

 want of water, a careless and too heavy watering — ^whereby the 

 earth grows caked and sodden, and the roots decayed — the neglect 

 of the timely administration of a sparing quantity of artificial manure 

 in the water, or the failure to quickly sponge leaves that are choked 

 with dust, or to remove dead leaves and blossoms and, as in the case 

 of geraniums, even dead pellets, will cause the most disheartening 



n6 



