90 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



plants, and from their colour are not worth growing in 

 pots. 



AU round the top of the hole described above is a 

 raised bed, left irregular in places from the throwing-up of 

 the earth that was dug out. The whole thing is on a very- 

 small scale in my garden, but it partakes slightly of the 

 nature of the rockeries at Kew, which anyone interested 

 in this kind of gardening can see, and by seeing learn. 

 The great point of making a rockery is to have large 

 mounds of good earth, and then lay stones on them, 

 making terraces and little fiat beds, stoned over to retain 

 the moisture and prevent the earth being washed away. 

 The old idea was to have stumps of trees or mounds of 

 stones and brick, and then fill in the interstices with 

 earth. This is no good at all ; the plants have no depth 

 of earth, and perish. The trouble of such gardening 

 consists only in the constant hand-weeding that it 

 requires. This must be done by someone more or less 

 experienced, as very often the most precious plant looks 

 like a small weed, while in other cases many planted 

 things are no better than weeds if left alone, and quickly 

 choke and destroy aU their less vigorous neighbours. 



Weeding ! What it means to us all ! The worry' of 

 seeing the weeds, the labour of taking them up, the way 

 they flourish at busy times, and the dangers that come 

 from zeal without knowledge ! When we first went to 

 live in the country, an affectionate member of the famUy, 

 who hates weeds and untidiness of all kinds, set to work 

 to tear up ruthlessly every annual that had been sown, 

 and with pride said, ' At any rate, I have cleared that 

 bit of ground.' Weeding, if tiring, is also a fascinating 

 employment ; and so is spudding. The first is best done 

 in dry weather, the second in moist. I am aU for reducing 

 lawns and turf, except for paths, in small gardens ; but 

 what there is of grass should be well kept, and free from 



