208 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



ECEMBEB, 1911 



Looking down the wriggly path, showing peonies, foxgloves, and an edging of hardy pinks. Hedge at right 



where the twilight is long. No American 

 ought to have a garden like this if he 

 cannot afford to keep one good gardener 

 at work on it all the time. 



In conclusion, I hope my readers will 

 revise whatever prejudices they may have 

 against croquet. It is one of the best 

 family games. It requires no special 

 dress, takes a short time, gives a parent 

 a chance to teach his children how to play 

 fair and lose gracefully, keeps the family 

 together at home, and if the green be 



perfect, it gives a chance for a good deal 

 of skill. Finally, the game may have a 

 lovely setting. Two sides of this croquet 

 lawn are bounded by trimmed hedges of 

 privet. The other two are lined with 

 hardy perennial and alpine flowers. Wher- 

 ever the lay of the land requires a ter- 

 race the Englishman loves to build a "dry 

 wall," *. e., one containing no mortar. He 

 puts a little soil in the crevices between 

 the stones and as each stone is laid he 

 puts in some alpine plants, such as pinks, 



bellflowers, woolly chickweed, rock cress, 

 etc. These bloom year after year with 

 very little care, for their long roots go 

 back into the bank of earth where they 

 find an unfailing supply of moisture, 

 combined with perfect drainage. This de- 

 partment of horticulture, known as "wall 

 gardening," was developed in England 

 during the last quarter of the nineteenth 

 century. America is ripe for it now and 

 I believe that in the next twenty-five years 

 wall gardening will sweep the country. 



Taking Care of the Vines in Winter -By w. c. McCollom, 



WINTER KILLING OF HARDY VINES PREVENTED BY PROPER ATTENTION BEFORE REALLY HARD 

 WEATHER SETS IN — HOW THE FERTILITY OF SOIL AND GENERAL MANAGEMENT ARE FACTORS 



Long 

 Island 



V\7HEN a vine winter-kills, there is 

 * ▼ something wrong. Either the plant 

 is not hardy enough to stand our winters, 

 or the local conditions are not favorable. 

 Bad location is one of the worst enemies 

 of vines and often leads to winter-killing, 

 but there are sometimes causes that are 

 beyond our control. Winter-killing is no- 

 ticed chiefly whenever the plants are in 

 an exceptionally dry or an exceptionally 

 wet location. To prevent this, then, we 

 must mulch very heavily in dry locations, 

 and drain, in some way, places where the 

 water lodges in winter and spring. 



We often find the winter-killing more 

 severe among plants that are not deep 

 rooters, and further, it will sometimes be 



noticed that these kill back a great deal 

 in comparatively mild winters. This can 

 be explained only in one way. The 

 frequent changes, in the alternate freezing 

 and thawing, rot part of the root system, 

 and, with some of the roots killed, the plant 

 cannot support all the top. A mulch 

 is the only preventive of this, as it keeps the 

 ground in a more uniform condition, but 

 the mulch should not be applied until 

 after the ground is frozen a little. 



Vines growing in a rockery, or, in fact, 

 any raised mound of earth, will kill very 

 badly sometimes. This can be attributed 

 to a lack of water, for being raised, the 

 ground, after freezing a little at the surface, 

 will turn off the rains and become very dry 



underneath the frozen crust. Of course 

 plants do not require as much water when 

 in a dormant state as when growing, but 

 they do need enough to keep the roots from 

 withering. If supplied with this necessary 

 amount the plant maintains enough action 

 to keep the top alive. Lack of moisture 

 kills more vines during winter than all 

 other troubles combined. I would sug- 

 gest, as a preventive for this, giving the 

 plants a thorough soaking in the fall, then 

 covering them with a good mulch. In this 

 case do not wait for the ground to get 

 frozen, as the idea is to retain as much as 

 possible of the moisture already there. 

 The higher the mound, the heavier should 

 be the mulch. The same suggestion holds 



