DEVOTED TO 



THOMAS MEEHAN", Editor. 

 W. G. P. BBINCKLOE, Publisher. 



DECEMBER, 1867. 



VOL. IX. -NO. 12 



PLOWER-GAHDEM AND PLEASURE- 

 GROUND. 



The practical operations of this department, at 

 this season, do not amount to much. Pruning is 

 the chief thing in order, and really this is often done 

 with little more reason than a boy has for whittling 

 a chip — merely to have something to do. For not- 

 withstanding the many papers that have been writ- 

 ten "on the philosophy of pruning," the naked 

 question, " What is the best time to prune trees?" 

 is one with which the gardener is continually bored. 

 The keen-edged gardeners give the cutting reply, 

 " any time when your knife is sharp," but the more 

 good natured say, " It depends on what j^ou want 

 to cut for." The street cutter " wants to keep the 

 tree head low," and cuts down to make them 

 branch lower ;" cutting in winter does not have this 

 effect, so that unless one has some other object to 

 combine with it, such as to clean the tree of bark scales 

 or the larva of other insects, or the giving of em- 

 ployment to some half-starved tree carpenter, the 

 work might as well be left undone. If you want a 

 branch to push strongly at the point where you cut 

 a part away, prune in winter. If your tree has 

 branches crossing each other, or has half dead 

 branches, or any thing tending to spoil the form or 

 symmetry of your tree, prune in winter ; but as a rule 

 the less pruning is done, the healthier will be your 

 trees^ for it may be accepted as a rule in gardening 

 that all pruning, whether in winter or summer is a 

 blow struck at the vitality of the plant. 



Sometimes we have to sacrifice a good object to 

 gain some other point. So in hedges. The plants 

 are usually trees. To cZevigorate them and keep 



them bushy is our great object. The principal 

 pruning is therefore in summer. The winter prun- 

 ing is simply to keep them in shape. There is, 

 however, one kind of pruning which just suits both 

 the principle and the season, namely, thinning out 

 where thick planting has been adopted, as it is now 

 by all who want a new place to look well without 

 waiting too long for the charm. 



Our readers will do well to remember that it is 

 not so much severe frost that hurts vegetation in 

 winter, as it is severe thawings following the freez- 

 ings. Every thing, therefore, no matter how hardy 

 they may be, will be benefited by having something 

 thrown over them, to prevent ear??/ thawing. Small 

 things, such as hardy herbaceous plants, can be 

 protected by a little earth, and there is nothing 

 better. Seed-beds are also improved by this cov- 

 ering, but if earth is used for them, it should be 

 very sandy, because it cannot well be removed, and 

 seeds cannot come through stiff soil- 

 It would be well, at this season of leisure, to ex- 

 amine and decide on the course of improvements 

 for the ensuing year. 



It does not, in very many cases, require much 

 time or money so to alter the appearance of a place 

 as to make it bear a very different look to what it 

 did in the past year. A new clump ot cheap shrub- 

 bery may be planted, or an old one taken away to 

 admit a new view that may have grown up since 

 the original planting. A strip of gra^s may be laid 

 down on what was once bare gravel. Here a small 

 rockery may be put together ; there a nest of roots 

 thrown up, and ferns and trailing plants freely in- 

 terspersed between them. In this corner you may 

 place a stump, and entice Ivy or some climbing 

 vines to grow over it — a rustic arbor may be formed 

 in some inviting nook, and in another shade-en- 

 ticing spot, a rustic chair or bench be fixed. Even 

 the outlines of the flower-beds may be changed, or 

 of the walks themselves, or even the contour of the 

 surface in some instances, and all, in many cases, at 

 the expense of a very small expenditure of time and 

 money. 



In all these undertakings, money, time and vex- 



