4 



MANUAL OF GARDENING 



be that part of the personal or home premises devoted to orna- 

 mentj and to the growing of vegetables and fruits. The garden, 

 therefore, is an ill-defined demesne; but the reader must not 

 make the mistake of defining it by dimensions, for one may 

 have a garden in a flower-pot or on a thousand acres. In 

 other words, this book declares that* every bit of land that is 

 not used for buildings, walks, drives, and fences, should be 

 planted. What we shall plant — whether sward, lilacs, 

 thistles, cabbages, pears, chrysanthemums, or tomatoes — we 

 shall talk about as we proceed. 



The only way to keep land perfectly unproductive is to keep 

 it moving. The moment the owner lets it alone, the planting 

 has begun. In my own garden, this first planting is of pigweeds. 

 These may be followed, the next year, by ragweeds, then by 

 docks and thistles, with here and there a start of clover and 

 grass; and it all ends in June-grass and dandelions. 



Nature does not allow the land to remain bare and idle. 

 Even the banks where plaster and lath were dumped two or 

 three years ago are now luxuriant with burdocks and sweet 

 clover; and yet persons who pass those dumps every day say 

 that they can grow nothing in their own yard because the soil 

 is so poor! Yet I venture that those same persons furnish 

 most of the pigweed seed that I use on my garden. 



The lesson is that there is no soil — where a house would be 

 built — so poor that something worth while cannot be grown 

 on it. If burdocks will grow, something else will grow; or if 

 nothing else will grow, then I prefer burdocks to sand and 

 rubbish. 



The burdock is one of the most striking and decorative of 

 plants, and a good piece of it against a building or on a rough 

 bank is just as useful as many plants that cost money and are dif- 

 ficult to grow. I had a good clump of burdock under my study 

 window, and it was a great comfort; but the man would persist 

 in wanting to cut it down when he mowed the lawn. When T 



