THE EARLY WINDOW-BOX 9 



As we agreed just now, really to enjoy a flower we must 

 have grown it. 



In London and all large towns gardening has its trials. 

 Many will not attempt the task, and rely wholly on the 

 cut flowers of the florist or the daintily filled pots and 

 baskets he sells us, the blossoms in which last hardly 

 longer than those we buy by handfuls. What are the 

 inhabitants of flats and tall town tenements to do when 

 they long for the joys of a little gardening — real garden- 

 ing — and have not so much as a bit of a back-yard to call 

 their own ? Well, even in towns and cities, where 

 there is a will there is a way. One or two alternatives 

 are open to us ; one is the Window-box, another is the 

 Roof-garden, and there is the Balcony. 



The window-box is both the easiest and the most 

 general, but, common as are these town adornments, it 

 is a matter of fact that very little " gardening " is done 

 in them. For the most part the man in the street gets 

 as much aesthetic enjoyment out of a window-box as its 

 owner, and often, except in the matter of payment, has 

 about as much to do with it. The lordly mansions, in 

 front of which are displayed the most beautiful colour- 

 schemes during the fashionable season, are often closed at 

 other periods of the year, while their owners are away 

 enjoying flowers in distant places. It is of the window- 

 gardening of that far larger class that lives in London all 

 the year round we would say a word or two. Window- 

 gardening might become ten times more interesting than 

 it is now if people only woke up to a sense of its 

 possibilities. 



Too frequently the window-boxes of the million 

 follow the fashions that are set them by the " ton," and 

 come out radiant only with the dawn of summer. True, 

 in some cases, the baldness of winter and early spring is 

 mitigated by the planting of a few small shrubs, green or 

 variegated ; but not infrequently so little interest is taken 



