SPADEWORK 
5 1 
will only have a few bright clumps in an other- 
wise bare border all through the summer. 
In a very small garden one can have the 
delicious jumble of a cottage garden, where 
every plant is a personal friend to be cared 
for and watched, but a large border is very 
difficult to “ do ” really well for five or six 
months of the year. If it is planted so as to 
be at its best from the middle of June to 
September, the bare appearance of the earlier 
months can be avoided by carpeting in autumn 
with pansies and forget-me-nots, with some 
bold clumps of tulips and daffodils. These 
will be out of the way, or have died down, 
and will not interfere with the perennials 
when they come on later. 
A great difference of opinion exists as to 
whether it is better to leave the old flowering 
stalks of perennials until the autumn or to cut 
them down. 
Those who advocate the first-named plan 
maintain that to cut down the stalks without 
letting them mature is to destroy the vigour 
of the plant. Others, the writer included, 
prefer, or perhaps find it necessary, to cut the 
stalks down, to prevent the untidy appearance 
after flowering, and to make room for later 
plants to be staked out. It is certainly better 
