[ 6oi ] 



A YEAR'S WORK IN THE GARDEN. 



A BRIEF calendar of the year's work may be useful to beginners in gardening, 

 and the information given will be brief, as the various details of culture and 

 selection of varieties have been considered at some length in the various chapters 

 of the work. 



JANUARY. 



The Flower and Indoor Garden. —The work to be 



performed this month depends largely upon the weather. 

 Sometimes the ground is fro/en hard, which stops all 

 planting of trees, shrubs, and hardy perennials. Sometimes, 

 on the other hand, il is very mild, when planting of all kinds 

 may be pushed forward without hindrance. When arrears 

 have to be made up, every opportunity should be taken at 

 this time, as planting of deciduous trees should not be 

 performed, if possible, when the sap has become very active. 



looking and unsatisfactory. This applies to the border as 

 well as lo the rock garden. Phloxes, especially the Phlox 

 stellaria group, are never seen in true beauty unless allowed 

 to ramble much in their own way. It will be very important at 

 this season to regulate the temperatures of the various houses, 

 Orchid, stove, and greenhouse ; but full information is given 

 upon these points in the chapters dealing with this important 

 phase of plant culture. Give water with great care, never 

 overdoing it, and remember that no fixed rule for watering 

 or syringing can be laid down. More moisture will be 



PHLOX STELLARIA. 



Therefore, where alterations must be made in the pleasure 

 grounds, in the shrubbery, or in the border, work away with 

 a will, forming good groups of Roses, and never performing 

 the work in a niggardly, half-hearted way. Bold groups are 

 a thousand times preferable to paltry clumps, dotted about 

 here and there without any good reason, the result being a 

 spotty, unwholesome effect, utterly unlike the restful aspect 

 of the garden artistically planned and planted. One group 

 of some beautiful Rose is more charming than the same bed 

 occupied with a dozen varieties of varying colours and 

 diverse habits of growth. When planting Roses or hardy 

 flowers, keep them away from overhanging trees or shrubs 

 with hungry roots, which fill the neighbouring soil and rob 

 it of fertility. Follow the advice given in previous chapters 

 upon the way to plant. Such plants as Dielytra spectabilis, 

 brought on in gentle warmth in the greenhouse, are very 

 pretty in the window or house now, and other things may 

 be introduced also, the Persian Cyclamen, Chinese Primrose, 

 and so forth. Hardy plants may be planted now if the 

 weather is favourable, and remember the advice, previously 

 given, that a group is better than a single specimen hungry- 



required upon one day than on another, and so forth, every- 

 thing depending upon the outside temperature. Heed must 

 be paid to those plants that are at rest, or at least not in 

 full growth ; these need less water than those very active. 

 Plants approaching their flowering stage, such as Chinese 

 Primulas and Persian Cyclamens, are benefited by weak 

 liquid manure. Azaleas, Lilacs, Staphylea colchica, and 

 other shrubs, gently forced, will be of much service towards 

 the end of the month for decorations. A number of shrubs, 

 Guelder Roses amongst them, respond readily to a little 

 artificial heat, not hard forcing. Carnations and Auriculas, 

 and, indeed, every plant that is quite hardy, but given 

 frame protection during the winter months, must not be 

 coddled. Give air on all favourable occasions and water 

 carefully. 



The Vegetable Garden.— There should be a good 



supply of forced vegetables now — Seakale, Asparagus, Chicory, 

 and so forth. Rhubarb is forced, as our previous notes 

 indicate, very easily, even under the stages of a warm plant 

 house. Asparagus may have a dressing of manure, and 

 plant a few Early Ashleaf Potatoes under a warm wall where 



