360 
GARDENING FOR CHILDREN. 
means ought tliey to be allowed to leave them 
thicker than they ought to be ; for nothing 
detracts so much from healthy growth. In 
the miSdle of the bed, and among large plants, 
the use of the hoe may be shown in weeding; 
but among small seedling plants hand weeding 
is the safest. When the seedlings are large 
enough to plant out, (and we ought to have 
mentioned that these hardly ever need be 
thinned, because they are so soon removed 
after they have begun growing,) the pupil 
must be shown how to manage this operation. 
A small piece of wood cut to a tapering form 
is sufficient to make a hole for ordinary flow- 
ers, such as ten-week stocks, mignonette, 
China asters, balsams and other annuals ; so 
it is also for columbines, wall-flowers, sweet- 
Avilliams, Brompton stocks, and perennial 
lupines ; but planting out to any extent is 
done with a proper dibble, an implement with 
a place for the hand like the handle of a spade, 
and tapering off to a bluntish point, shoed or 
cased with iron, with which the hole can be 
made an inch or a foot deep, as may be re- 
quired ; and when the root is held down in tiie 
hole, by thrusting down the dibble by the side 
of it two or three times the first hole is closed 
about the roots of the plant. It will be neces- 
sary to explain, that mignonette and ten-week 
stocks, balsams, China asters, and such like 
annuals, may be planted out in threes : make 
a circle with the top of a six-inch flower-pot, 
and plant them in the circle six inches from 
each other ; they will have abundant room, and 
even if one be placed in the centre it will 
matter but little; they are for border flowers, 
and are not required to be developed so finely 
as tliose in beds or pots ; but three on the 
CTcle will be enough. With regard to the 
perennials, they may be planted out later, but 
ought not to be less than a foot apart, except 
in nursery beds, from which they are again to 
be removed, and in which six inches apart 
will do, because they do not remain to grow 
their full size. If they are to be planted out 
where they are to bloom, the next year they 
must be a foot from each other and from every 
thing else ; and the young gardener should be 
told the reason, which is, because they require 
a foot of room to grow in perfection, and even 
more would be better if there were abundance 
of room. As the seedlings advance, the pupil 
should be taught to support those that require 
it, — for instance, he must place small branches 
of wood to the sweet peas, to allow them to 
grow up among them for support, and place 
sticks to any tall-growing aimuals that require 
it, as nothing looks worse than to see the 
advancing stems of flowers leaning and, lop- 
ping about. He must be taught also to give 
them water in very dry weather, with a 
watering-pot that has a rose, to enable him to 
sprinkle all over the surface like rain, or by 
taking it off to pour a full stream if necessary. 
Fie must be constantly reminded of weeding, 
for in the growing months weeds would soon 
get the upper hand of the crops or flowers, 
and overrun the whole plot if not hoed out or 
pulled out pretty often ; indeed as fast as they 
grow the necessity of cleanliness cannot be 
too earnestly impressed on his mind — neatness 
and tidiness not only in keeping all flowers 
properly supported, but all decayed flowers 
and stems cut down, all that have done flower- 
ing removed, and so on. Again, as China 
asters and some other plants will plant out late 
as well as early, some may be planted out in 
the places where the earliest things come off, 
and by blooming later in the autumn continue 
the succession of flowers. If inclined to in- 
dulge the young gardener with one or two 
showy plants, two or three dahlias to plant 
out in June will keep up the gaiety of 
his garden until the frost cuts them off. To- 
wards the autumn you may direct his at- 
tention to bulbs, because it is the time he has 
to brgin providing for his spring flowers. 
A few crocuses, narcissus, and hyacinths, 
which should be planted in October or No- 
vember, will highly gratify a youthful aspirant 
for floral honours ; and he must be here taught 
to label the places where he deposits them, 
with their pi'oper names, and, if he please, 
their heights and colours, so that he may be 
able to regulate his other planting accordingly. 
He must be shown how to remove subjects as 
soon as their beauty has gone by, and to re- 
place them, if possible, with other things. He 
must be specially shown how to support his 
dahlia plants, if he has any, that the wind 
may not blow them down, nor beat the flowers 
one against another. As some of the annuals 
ripen their seed, the young gardener may be 
taught to save it, and thus provide for future 
seasons, or put himself into a position for 
exchanging with others. As we approach the 
winter months the borders must be kept clear 
of weeds and decaying plants. Falling leaves 
must be raked off, and saved with all other 
decaying vegetation to rot somewhere out 
of sight, for there is no better manure than 
the mould formed of rotted leaves. Wall- 
flowers may be planted about the borders, 
because they will bloom early in spring, and 
be out of flower in time to remove them for 
stocks or other annuals, and this should be 
well explained to him at the time. The next 
spring he will see the flowers of his own 
pei'ennials ; but the columbine, the perennial 
lupine, and some others, should occupy pro- 
minent places ; the wall-flowers and sweet- 
williams may be renewed every spring by 
seed, but the perennials need not, for, as he 
should be told, they are permanent, and may 
