104 Hardy Plants for Cottage Gardens 
showerettes—and the loose top soil not only absorbs moisture 
from the air and the night dews, but it acts as a mulch to the 
earth below. If you want to force any plant along, stir in a 
little ashes, manure or fertilizer, and then water well. The 
subject of water and watering is a serious problem with me. 
When the heavens are brazen, and the well is almost dry, and 
famine is sore in the land, my whole heart goes out to the suf- 
ferers. I then follow the advice of wise gardeners, and after 
stirring the soil well, I water as much area as I can thoroughly, 
and let that portion go for days while I relieve others. Par- 
ticularly do I water those in full’ bloom, or those about to 
bloom. I also place a thick mulch of grass clippings about 
the roots of those plants that suffer from drought: gladiolus, 
tritoma, larkspur, hollyhock. I have found the earth moist 
under this mulch a week after it has had a good drenching. 
A valuable help is the waste water from the Monday wash 
tubs, provided no washing powders, borax or turpentine has 
been used in the laundry. Also the water from jars in the 
bed chambers may be given as a fertilizer to roses, vines and 
shrubbery. But the chief point is to keep the soil light and 
porous and every drop given has full value. When I go about 
the garden in a pitiful mood, singling out extreme cases as re- 
cipients for my restricted bounty, my heart yearns for those 
that lie just beyond the water limits. One year when the well 
went almost dry, the suffering was so extreme that I could not 
bear the sight of it, and I did not go near the garden for weeks. 
All the more cruel is it when a shower will carry over the gar- 
den for days, and a heavy rain suffices for two weeks. 
One evening when plying my ineffectual watering-pot, I 
observed to Adam: “What generous agricultural methods 
Nature has! When she waters her charges she descends upon 
vast areas; she does not single out a township or even a State 
for her bounty, but she can cover half a continent. In the 
