A STROLL THROUGH THE GARDEN — MAY. 
195 
ready to plant out, and should be placed in 
the borders. Autumn flowering bulbs, such 
as the cok'hicums, Guernsey lilies, and such 
like, should be now removed, and I have no 
doubt those crocuses are being dug up to 
make room for them ; the crocuses have 
been in the same place three successive 
seasons. 
The houses look gay as ever ; for although 
some things are going out of bloom, others 
come in, and they make a very pleasing 
change. The azaleas have succeeded the 
Cainellia japonica, which are just now kept a 
little wet and warm to make them complete 
their growth and set their flower buds. That 
beautiful looking flower, like the gaudy head 
of some foreign bird, is the Strelitzia regina; 
the flower is very strange, but somewhat 
lasting, and its richly contrasted orange and 
purple makes a great show. The scarlet 
flowers of the Ixora coccinea are making 
their appearance, but they will grow very 
much longer. Look at the heath house, and 
see the beauty of these varieties with flowers 
like wax ; they have had very little fire heat 
to carry them through the winter, and they 
look as fresh, as green, and well filled with 
blooms, as if they were artificially made. 
The men seem busy ; two or three at the 
wall trees arc rubbing off those shoots which 
are not wanted, and removing any that cross 
each other, or grow straight out from the 
wall ; they are also thinning some of the 
fruits, for if all were left on, none would be so 
fine as when but a moderate number are 
allowed to perfect themselves. The man who 
is syringing the trees and the wall with the 
garden engine and a fine rose is actually 
washing the insects out of the wall, and de- 
stroying them where they have fallen. The 
vine shoots that are useless have been stopped, 
but those branches that have fruit on them 
have to be pinched off at the joint, or, under 
some circumstances, the second joint beyond 
the fruit. In the forcing house you may see 
the strawberries in various stages ; they all 
require watering occasionally as the fruit 
swells, and nothing can be better than they 
are doing. If you observe, some have ripe 
fruit, some have green fruit, and others only 
flowers. 
All seems bustle in the kitchen g^ai'den. 
bowing beans, peas, endive, pot-herb~, 
radishes, and all the cabbage tribe that were 
not sowed last month, is work that seems to 
be in hand now. The cauliflowers under 
glass are coming into flower, and young plants 
kept over are now to be planted out in that 
rich piece of ground now vacant. Here they 
are planting scarlet beans a foot apart. There 
they are planting out cabbage, hoeing turnips, 
onions, and carrots, and sowing various sorts 
of brocoli, as well as more turnip?, carrots, 
spinach, and other vegetables. Observe, in 
one place they are preparing the ground for 
new crops, and in another they are drawing 
the earth to the stems of peas and beans well 
up and advancing, as well as to cabbages and 
other forward crops. "We will just step into 
the melon ground. The man there has re- 
moved all the dung that projected beyond the 
wood-work of the frame, and even under- 
mined it by pulling out some of the dung 
from beneath. This is for the purpose of 
replacing with hot fresh dung, to give it new 
heat ; when he has done this in front, he will 
do it behind in a similar way, so that the 
heat will be completely renewed ; and this 
process has to be repeated so long as it is de- 
sirable to keep up the heat. A sort of under- 
ground hot-beds are made for cucumbers and 
melons, by burying dung hot from the stable, 
and properly prepared, in trenches, and the 
natural soil is thrown back again, so that there 
is between six and twelve inches thickness of 
soil on the dung ; upon these ridges cucum- 
bers and melons are put out this month, and 
covered with hand-glasses so long as it is 
necessary. When the plants more than fill 
the hand-glasses, they are propped up with 
bricks or flower pots at the corners, and the 
plant spreads out all over the bed. Observe, 
the man is planting a row of scarlet beans 
along the foot of the high fence that separates 
the melon ground from the garden ; these 
will form a good blind to the wooden fence, 
and yield a most useful crop for two or three 
months. I see nothing else worth particular 
notice, unless it is the numerous plans for 
keeping the vermin, birds, &c. off the seed. 
Those long pieces of worsted, with papers 
like the tail of a boy's kite, are very eftective 
so far as birds are concerned, for they are 
constantly on the move, and birds do not like 
to approach the place ; that slight netting 
that is propped up six inches from the ground 
is an excellent security ; and those pieces of 
bread and butter that lie about are to kill 
mice : there is arsenic between two thin 
pieces ; it will kill many. 
We will now return to the house, and have 
a little conversation as we go along. Next 
month the late-planted ranunculuses will 
come into flower, and these will be fit for ex- 
hibition, because it is the very best that are 
saved for February planting. Observe, the 
pinks are spearing up for bloom ; they too 
come into flower in June ; they have been 
top-dressed, as it is called — that is to say, the 
top of the bed between the rows has been 
spread with decayed dung ; this, as with the 
pansies, washes down to the roots, and is of 
great nourishment, as well as helps the colour 
of the bloom. The early tuL'ps on the borders 
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