has got to the point of eliminating plants like hollyhocks, which do not 
succeed with her unless they get this care) and there is fertilizing, with 
here a little sheep manure on the anemones, there a handful of bone- 
meal around each rose bush, or a little liquid manure on the same. 
Staking has to be done with care, if it is not to show, and watering takes 
time and strength. The ground must be prepared for annuals, if they 
are to be sown in the open ground (not the best way in a small garden) 
or they must be raised in flats or frames ; and so on, ad infinitum. 
And here a word of caution as to annuals, the snare of the begin- 
ner. Cut out of your small garden, where you get no help, as many as 
possible. The novice, tempted by catalogues, orders many more than 
she can manage, a packet here, another there of those she thinks she 
cannot bear to be without. A few springs and early summers de- 
voted to transplanting seedlings from one flat to several fiats, and 
thence to the open ground, and this same gardener, with little help, 
will be cured of the promiscuous annual habit. 
Next, plan your garden with system and accuracy, the more of 
both the easier for the caretaker in the long run. Allot the space 
carefully, giving much thought to color, and then stick to your plan, 
refusing with firmness all offers of extra plants from kind friends. 
If you can figure, before beginning, how many plants of a certain 
variety should be put in a given space (not in rows, of course) and 
adhere to that plan, you will succeed better than the tender-hearted 
person who cannot bear to waste a plant and sticks in here and there 
what is left over. Give away or waste plants ruthlessly. 
And here other objections to annuals may be offered. In a small 
garden they, in general, require more care to look presentable than 
do perennials. The writer is not one who cares for the gardener- 
tidied garden either. Nor is color scheme so sure as with well- 
chosen perennials. The healthiest plants of all are so often off-color, 
and at best entail so much replacing. After they have bloomed they 
die quite thoroughly; the leaves dry up, as do the stems, and it 
is necessary to put something in their place and at once. Some per- 
ennials, of course, have this same fault, but for the small garden those 
with the most enduring foliage should be chosen. 
Again, let not the beginner change her plan in the middle of sum- 
mer, or even at the end of a first year. Let her change slowly, as an 
outgrowth of experience, not of whim, and she will have more to show, 
for her self-control will be rewarded in spite of discouragement. 
"Self-control," that is the motto for the beginner in gardens! 
By its firm exercise she may, instead of spending every minute at her 
disposal laboring hotly and hurriedly, find time occasionally to sit 
