448 
A STROLL THROUGH THE GARDEN OCTOBER. 
he is parting the primroses and polyanthuses 
that he left undone last month. It is better to 
do this always directly they have done flower- 
ing, but every man has his own way of doing 
things. I approve of early parting, because 
there is ample time for the roots to spread, 
and the plants to get strong for blooming. 
That bed of wallflowers, two-year stocks, 
sweetwilliams, rockets, &c.j is much too 
crowded, but they have only been nursed 
there for planting out ; now while the gar- 
dener is making up the border where he is 
adjusting the size of perennials to be left 
there, he will plant out all these biennials for 
blooming. This would be the month for a 
general rout in the gardens, and for planting 
bulbs to bloom in the spring ; but as garden- 
ers are very unwilling to disturb anything 
while there is flower upon it, the border is not 
disturbed more than necessary ; besides, there 
are the colchicums and other autumnal flowers 
yet underground, and it does not do to dis- 
turb things too much, for fear of damaging 
what is out of sight. Many persons plant 
nearly all these bulbs this month, but next is 
quite time enough. 
Observe how the man is preparing all the 
winter quarters for the pinks, picotees, car- 
nations, pansies, cinerarias, and other plants 
in pots. The former have all been washed, 
the bottoms cleaned out, and the plants half 
of them stored for the cold season, which may 
be looked for now every day. 
You should take notice of the different de- 
grees of hardiness in the different tribes of 
plants; the last night's frost, which has totally 
ruined the dahlias, and cut off all the gera- 
niums in the garden, has no effect upon many 
things, which perhaps three or four more 
degrees of cold would kill altogether. Still 
plants are very badly described in catalogues; 
for instance, we see among hardy annuals 
some subjects which are cut down by the 
slightest frost ; witness the common nastur- 
tium, — the leaves of those are as black as those 
of the dahlia, yet that is called a hardy an- 
nual. I could go on with this subject some 
time, but it would seem that the only idea 
the seedsmen have of hardiness is, that when 
an annual will bear sowing in the open air, 
come up, bloom, and ripen its seed, it is called 
hardy. Now I have known the balsam to do 
all this, but that is nevertheless called tender. 
The kitchen garden is in excellent order. 
All the places on which there were other 
crops that have been cleared, are filled up 
with the various kinds of vegetables. The 
man who is digging has just taken up all the 
carrots in that piece of gi'ound, and is leaving 
it in ridges as he goes on, so that it is not 
intended to crop that for the present. It will, 
perhaps, have dung laid in the ridges early in 
the spring, potatos laid on the dung, and the 
ridges levelled to cover them. This will 
always give a heavy crop, but not always of 
the best quality. Or it may be, that the 
ground will be levelled, dung forked into it, 
and peas, or beans, planted on it ; that, how- 
ever, is unimportant, but it is very important 
to take cai-e that long deep-rooted plants 
should not be sown on the same piece of 
ground twice following. Carrots, parsnips, 
beet-root, and such like, should never follow 
one another, but should be succeeded by peas, 
beans, spinach, lettuce, and other crops that 
do not penetrate the earth so deep. It is also 
well to dung the ground once in a season, but 
not for every crop. Observe how thickly the 
cabbage-plants are set together in the rows, 
not more than six inches apart. The inten- 
tion of this is, that two out of three, or three 
out of four, may be drawn as soon as they are 
large enough to cut as greens ; and they form 
excellent winter greens, while those left at 
proper distances to cabbage, are none the 
worse for having been pretty closely invested 
when young. 
There is now coming a period wherein the 
practice in the garden is hardly varied by 
anything but weather. If the next two 
months are open and mild, there will scarcely 
be a change in the management of the garden, 
the whole time hoeing between the crops, 
earthing up young plants, clearing off the 
remains of crops that are going, or gone off, 
and such like. Covering tender things of a 
night, and other measures of protection to 
those subjects which require it, are things of 
course. 
The greenhouse is again filled with its 
usual plants, many of them larger than they 
were last year, and in pots which give their 
roots more room. Every place under glass is 
crowded ; indeed, greatly too much so. It is 
highly improper to place plants too close toge- 
ther ; they want air and light, and they should 
not only not touch, but they should not be near 
touching. The consequence of crowding is, 
that every plant must have a dark side, and 
that side cannot grow as well as the light side. 
Nobody can grow plants handsomely without 
giving them room all round. The forcing- 
house has already some tenants; most of these 
plants were forced last year, and will natu- 
rally be ready to start sooner than if they had 
bloomed at the proper season. I see the gar- 
dener has occupied a top shelf there with 
French beans ; this is purely an experiment, 
but the truth is, anything brought from seed 
is much easier put out of its way than grown 
plants. The conservatory now depends a 
good deal on chrysanthemums for its beauty, 
except to those who can admire plants out of 
flower. 
