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THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



[May. 



M A Y. 



PLANTING EVERGREEN SHRUBS. 



Evergreens of all kinds may be planted any time during 

 this month with success. If the weather be not showery, 

 it will be necessary to water them both at their roots, and 

 also over their heads, two or three times a week, with the 

 garden-engine ; and if the ground above their roots be co- 

 vered with long littery dung, or other similar matter, to resist 

 the drought, a great saving of watering will be attained. 

 The shoots and leaves should never be allowed to become dry 

 or parched either by the sharp winds, which we often have at 

 this season, or powerful sunshine, which would be equally 

 injurious to them at this period, when they have not yet struck 

 root into the ground. Water is the principal food of plants ; 

 and if bountifully supplied to newly-planted trees, will greatly 

 assist them in their re-establishment. 



SOWING HARDY ANNUALS. 



All kinds of hardy annuals may still be sown, both where it 

 is intended that they arc to remain to flower, and also on 

 beds in the reserve garden, to be afterwards transplanted into 

 the flower borders. 



Those which were sown in March and April, should now 

 be thinned, where they may have been too thickly sown, to a 

 moderate and regular distance, according to the size and habit 

 of growth of the plants. If the weather be showery, take 

 advantage of it for this purpose, but if the weather be dry, let 

 them be moderately watered after thinning, to settle the mould 

 round the roots of the remaining plants, and forward their 

 growth. 



Those annuals which are of climbing habits, should be pro- 

 vided with supports to which to attach themselves, when they 

 stand singly in the borders of the flower garden. Such sup- 



