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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



must learn what this means and see that it is done. Most soils 

 are well drained by nature, but my own garden is an example of 

 the contrary. Formerly every flower-bed on a sloping lawn 

 filled with water, and ran over at the lower side in wet weather, 

 and of course nothing choice would grow until this was remedied. 

 You may try your soil by digging a hole 3 feet deep in your 

 flower border, and filling it with water ; if after three or four 

 hours the water stands in the bottom, artificial drainage is prob- 

 ably required ; but different parts of the same garden may vary 

 much. A good test of drainage is afforded by plants themselves. 

 Observe Gentianella, Hepatica, and Christmas Rose. If the two 

 last keep their old leaves through the winter till the new ones 

 come, and if all the three flower well, your garden may be gay 

 with flowers all the year round ; but where any one of the three 

 flourishes there is not much fault to find with the drainage of 

 the soil. 



However, it is better to be contented at first to make up your 

 flower borders with plants which you know by your own ex- 

 perience, or that of your nearest neighbours, to do well in your 

 soil and climate. In this way you will bring no failures into 

 conspicuous places, and visitors to your garden will observe how 

 well everything seems to do. But every garden, however small, 

 must have reserve and trial beds behind the scenes. It is better 

 to try to do, if possible, with fewer cabbages and potatoes, and 

 to take part of the kitchen garden for the reserve beds. These 

 beds should be composed of different mixtures of soil — some of 

 the natural soil of the garden, some lightened with leaf-mould 

 or sand, some mixed with lime and brick rubbish, and so on. 

 Have as many of them as you can, both for providing flowers for 

 house decoration — some of the best of which grow on very un- 

 sightly plants — and for propagating what you wish to increase ; 

 also for nursing seedlings till large enough for the mixed borders, 

 but mostly for gaining experience with plants new to you, and 

 finding whether you can do well with them, and in what soil 

 they do best. You can then promote them to a more honourable 

 position when you please. 



Flower borders should never be dug, unless you intend 

 entirely to empty and replant them. In strong and exciting 

 soils, in which plants grow fast and are short-lived, this should 

 be done every five or six years ; in the intervals you will from 



