56 THE WILD GARDEN. 
book to tell all the charms and merits belonging to the use 
of a variety of small plants to carpet the ground beneath and 
between those of larger growth. It need hardly be said that 
this argument against digging applies to two or three beds of 
shrubs, and places where the “shrubbery” is little larger than 
the dining-room, as much as to the large country seat, public 
park, or botanic garden. 
There are great cultural advantages too, in leaving the 
whole of the leaves to nourish the ground and protect it from 
frost or heat. I append a note from a correspondent inquiring 
about what he supposes practical difficulties, and an answer 
to them :— 
You draw a pretty picture of what a shrubbery border should be 
and how it should be kept in winter. There should be no digging, 
and the fallen leaves should be left. I fully agree, except as to the 
leaves. Theoretically, it seems quite right to allow the leaves to lie 
and decay amidst the surrounding plants, but in practice it does not 
answer. There are, for instance, in most gardens such things as slugs 
and snails. These delight in a leafy covering, and, protected from 
frost by the shelter, will prey upon the perennial green leafage and 
the starting crowns of the herbaceous plants, and do an immense 
amount of mischief. Then there are usually in gardens in winter, 
especially in hard weather, blackbirds and thrushes, which in their 
efforts to obtain food set all notions of tidiness at defiance. A troop 
of fowls would hardly turn a flower border more topsy-turvy than 
would a few of these birds. The first storm that came would whirl 
the disturbed leaves all over the place, much to the disgust of the 
cultivator, and the hardy plants would find that the theory of a natural 
dressing of leaf manure had broken down. I detest the forking of 
borders so common in winter, A moderate stirring of the surface 
first with a two or three-tined rake is good, then a dressing of soot or 
guano, or both, and over all a thin surfacing of old pot soil, or the 
rough screened produce of the rubbish heap, or, in fact, any kind of 
refuse soil that may offer. I think that most cultivators will agree 
that such a plan would answer better than the natural, but very 
inoperative leaf-dressing,—A. 
