186 HOME AND GARDEN 



the Lavender hedges which are m the region where 

 pleasure garden meets working garden, and the flowers 

 are wanted as a crop, the bushes are only kept for 

 three flowering years, after which they are pulled up 

 and destroyed and a young hedge made, the plants 

 being put about three and a half feet apart. I always 

 think it well with all these plants and shrubs of South 

 European origin to put them out as early as possible, 

 not later than the middle of October, so that their 

 naked roots may get hold of the ground while it is 

 still warm. In places where the soil is stiff" enough 

 to take up growing things with a ball of earth it 

 matters less, but here and in other poor soils the 

 earth shakes off entirely, leaving the roots quite 

 bare. 



If the plant has been grown in a pot this 

 difficulty does not occur, but I have a great dis- 

 like to growing hardy plants and shrubs in pots ; 

 the roots become painfully cramped and distorted, 

 and the damage done to them, besides the risk of 

 inefficient planting — for a pot-bound root needs the 

 most careful manipulation — does not in any way 

 compensate for the convenience. The Lavender 

 crop is carefully watched and harvested at the 

 moment of its best early maturity. This is when 

 a good number of the lower flowers in the spike 

 are open, but none of those in the top. We 

 arrange to have the two hedges that are in bear- 

 ing in such positions that one is in a rather 



