SMALL TOWN GARDENS 



Gardeners who live in the suburbs of a town can, by 

 a little extra care and perseverance, grow flowers, fruit, 

 and vegetables almost as well as those who live in the 

 remote country. But there are many who are placed 

 actually in the town itself, and whose gardens consist 

 merely of little back-yards almost surrounded by bricks 

 and mortar ; those little plots which Dickens described 

 as "enclosed bits of dirt." Yet the keen and enthusi- 

 astic gardener can convert even a little slum back-yard 

 into a real garden, which shall contain beautiful flowers 

 in eight months out of the twelve. Of course in this 

 case a good deal of preliminary trouble must be taken. 

 To plant flowers in the sour, caked mixture of bricks, 

 concrete, and decomposed cabbage which constitutes the 

 "soil" of most back-yards is mere waste of labour. 

 The first thing to do is to dig and break up the soil 

 to a depth of at least two and a half feet. For this 

 purpose a pickaxe will probably be necessary, as well 

 as a spade. At least half of this soil must be taken 

 away, and good soil substituted. The best soil to add 

 consists of sods of turf, of which a load may be some- 

 times purchased cheaply from a suburban builder when 

 he is clearing new ground for building purposes. Also 

 a really liberal dressing of stable manure must be 

 thoroughly incorporated with the soil. Two wheel- 

 barrow loads of manure should be allowed to each rod 

 of ground. Unless this preparation of the soil is 

 thoroughly done no good results can be looked for. 

 The work should be done in the autumn, and the 



