A GARDEN DIARY 21 
imposed earth they appear to be quite indifferent. 
The spring that followed our first operations of 
this kind bluebells flowered better than usual, 
as if glad to be freed from some of their trouble- 
some neighbours, especially probably that pest of 
copses, dog mercury. The introduced bulbs, 
which now share the ground with them, are 
mostly of the taller kinds, daffodils predominat- 
ing, and for these the fact of the soil being all 
newly upturned is an advantage. Our present 
plan is that the sides of the glade shall remain 
permanently uncut, or cut at most once or twice 
a year, the central, or walking space, being kept 
regularly mown. The bulbs, being at the sides, 
will thus not suffer. Moreover the considerable 
difference of height between mown and unmown 
grass is bound to give height and emphasis to 
our little glade. As in the similar case of 
planting rock gardens, such considerations may 
seem to some poor devices. Yet upon the 
successful carrying out of them depends the 
whole of that “general effect” which is all that 
such critics probably heed. We are not, after 
all, Nature’s mandatories, and our little slopes 
are not Alps, or even alpine meadows. If we 
can attain to so much as a suggestion of the 
sort of thing we dream of we may rest content. 
