POT-POUERI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



JANUABT 



Introductory — Indispensable books — An old Hertfordshire garden — 

 Eeminiseences — My present garden plants in a London room — 

 Japanese floral arrangement — Cooking vegetables and fruit — 

 Making coffee — Early blossoms — Winter gardening— Frost pic- 

 tures on window-panes. 



January 2nd. — I am not going to write a gardening 

 book, or a cookery book, or a book on furnishing or 

 education. Plenty of these have been published lately. 

 I merely wish to talk to you on paper about several sub- 

 jects as they occm- to me throughout one year ; and if 

 such desultory notes prove to be of any use to you or 

 others, so much the better. One can only teach from 

 personal knowledge ; yet how exceedingly Umited that is ! 



The fact that I shall mention gardening every month 

 will give this subject preponderance throughout the book. 

 At the same time I shall in no way attempt to super- 

 sede books on gardening, that are much fuller and more 

 complete than anything I could write. For those who 

 care to learn gardening in the way I have learnt, I may 

 mention, before I go further, three books which seem to 

 me absolutely essential — ' The English Mower Garden,' 

 by W. Robinson ; ' The Vegetable Garden,' translated from 

 the French, edited by W. Eobinson; and Johnson's 



B 



