Miscellaneous, 



154 



[August, 1908. 



for a whole day to dig over the plot, and 

 level it just nicely so as to leave us 

 but little to do besides putting in the 

 plants and seeds ; also a good supply of 

 cuttings ; and as there was still fully 

 two hours' time after digging, the gar- 

 dener gave us much useful help and 

 guidance as to our little plantation and 

 its future possibilities. I must not for- 

 get to say we were fortunate in this our 

 first garden to have in it at regular dis- 

 tances — standing well back— a fig tree, an 

 apricot, loquat, and a pomegranate, all 

 of which are, the gardener says, sure to 

 give a nice lot of fruit next season, quite 

 as acceptable in their way as the flowers 

 of the other plants will be. We then 

 planted a number of roses, which father 

 gave us, and this proved sufficient for 

 our first day's efforts in our very own 

 little garden. Afterwards, during a 

 whole week we made quite a large addi- 

 tion of plants, which were given to my 

 brother or myself by friends of our 

 father's from their pretty gardens at St. 

 Kilda and Camberwell. These plants 

 were of the following kinds : — Geraniums 

 in variety, daisies (pretty pink ones), 

 carnations, perennial phloxes, violets, 

 hydrangeas, echeverias (various kinds), 

 and some cuttings of three or four kinds 

 of climbing pelargoniums, twelve kinds 

 of roses (cuttings), and a good many 

 other things, such as veronicas, blue, 

 silvery-leaved, and mauve-flowered ; also 

 a supply of seeds of asters, phloxes, 

 zinnias, and linarias for sowing in the 

 spring. 



"The way we put in the roses and 

 other shrubby plants was at distances of 

 about 4 feet apart, and standing well 

 back in the bed ; then we planted the 

 smaller growing (dwai^f) plants in the 

 front of the border ; some of these were 

 verbenas, oxalis, cowslips, primroses, and 

 here and there a pretty blue pentstemon, 

 and a nice little set of a pink-flowered 

 plant called by the gardener Heuchera 

 sanguined ; whilst in the front we made — 

 it multiplies very quickly — a pretty moss- 

 like edging, rich emerald green, and we 

 found it most suitable ; we may add, too, 

 that it was much admired by our 

 visitors. Its name is, so father told us, 

 Spergula pilifera. When one treads on 

 this, it is as it' the feet would sink in its 

 pile carpet-like cushioning. It likes the 

 shade to some extent, and stands a 

 rather limited supply of sunshine ; but 

 it must have, we find, a fair amount of 

 water put on in the evening as a matter 

 of necessity to save sun-scorching. 



"I may add that, in addition to the 

 climbing roses and pelargoniums for the 

 fence at the back of our plot, we added 

 two or three passion fruit plants, some 

 Tecomas (McKenii and Jasminoides), 



also a few of Coboea scandens (which we 

 first raised from seed in a pot). The 

 passion fruit climbers we raised from 

 seed out of a small purchase of this fruit 

 in a Glenferris road produce shop. 



So far as we have gone with our little 

 garden, father says, we have made a 

 good deal of progress — everything now 

 for the past two or three months has 

 done very well, indeed ; and he added, as 

 he kindly tied up some of our climbers 

 against the wire netting and trellis work 

 that, if we waited patiently, the shelter 

 given by the climbers against the strong 

 winds both hot and cold would, with our 

 care in other respects, give a good show 

 of colour as varied as the rainbow from 

 the many flowers now growing so well, 

 and enable us to not only supply the 

 house or a friend now and again with a 

 choice supply of blooms, but also to give 

 us some very practical knowledge, of 

 which, as to many plants and flowers, 

 both my brother Frank and myself 

 (Flora) were quite ignorant at the 

 commencement of our pleasant work of 

 partnership as amateur horticulturists 

 in our spare time, principally either 

 before or after school hours. And we 

 found that we enjoyed both our meals 

 and nightly rest the better, to say but 

 little of the improved interest we took 

 in our lessons, and the outcome in every 

 way proved satisfactory, so our father 

 and mother, aljo our many friends, tell 

 us. Anyway, a good many of our fellow 

 scholars come to see the garden fre- 

 quently, and we know that some of them 

 think of doing their share of flower cul- 

 ture, too, in their own ground, with the 

 hope of doing as Avell or better than we 

 did. Of course, we wish them success, 

 but they will have to work hard to do 

 even as well as we have done ; at least 

 we believe so from our successes, to say 

 nothing of our many failures, for which, 

 of course, father says (with a twinkle in 

 his eye) we are at liberty to blame the 

 climate ! Well, we think he is right, for 

 the terribly hot summer we have been 

 suffering from for many weeks past has 

 also told badly on other gardens than 

 ourownall over the suburbs of Melbourne. 



"We commenced our little Malvern 

 early last spring (September), aud we are 

 still enduring our summer (February), 

 being thankful that on the whole our 

 floral treasures have mostly survived 

 and thriven, because (in addition to one 

 or two welcome downpours of rain) the 

 demand for extra care has not been 

 denied our much-loved little garden by 

 my ever helpful brother and myself. — 

 ' Frank and Flora.' 



"P.S.— As soon as we can get shade 

 enough from the climbers, which will 



