CHAPTER III 



" THE SEASON " WINDOW-BOX 



" The summer approaching with richness — 

 And the infinite separate houses." 



The spring months over, and our early blossom faded, 

 how joyfully one hails the crowd of summer flowers, that 

 appear as if by magic, begging us to buy them. Market- 

 carts and barrows filled with " bedders " meet us at every 

 turn, and their wafted sweetness in square and street is 

 intoxicating. We must clutch these old joys and hold 

 them. How now about the window-box ? 



To be practical, two -courses are open to us. Bulbs 

 are not at all fond of being moved ; they like to rest in 

 peace while their grass grows long and straggly, to feed 

 the bulblets underground ; but this does not look pretty, 

 so if we have any place where we can store the spring 

 flower-box, we may remove it bodily, and leave the rest 

 to Nature. If not, we had much better clear it all out 

 ruthlessly, and start afresh. 



One mistake that should be guarded against is that of 

 filling the summer window-box too soon. People are in 

 such a hurry ; they want to smarten up their houses with 

 growing summer flowers, even before the end of May. 

 To put it on the lowest ground, this is waste of money ; 

 but worse, it is cruelty. We might as well stand our 

 darling occupants of the warm nursery outside their 

 open windows, with nothing on but pinafores ! All 

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