Faults in Gardening 



Note 3 



Of course my remarks in the preceding 

 chapter are in nowise directed against the 

 common hardy annuals. These plants 

 pass their whole term of life in the gar- 

 den, start up from the ground in their 

 proper season as naturally as do the 

 weeds, and it is quite immaterial whether 

 they are self-sown or sown by hand. It 

 is widely different in the case of those 

 half - hardy flowers — perennials, made 

 annual most of them — which are set in 

 the beds in the middle of their growth, 

 and are weeks before they seem at home. 

 I think such beds highly objectionable 

 when constituting the sole or main feature 

 of a garden, to which everything else 

 must give way. The common annuals 

 are, in fact, of great value, especially for 

 children's gardens. Their growth can be 

 watched from the earliest stages, and its 

 great rapidity, the speedy performance of 

 all promise, together with the conscious- 

 ness of having tended the plant from the 

 very first, exerts a peculiar fascination. 

 But many annuals are getting spoilt 

 through the senseless desire of change 

 for the sake of change ; — old good sorts 

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