68 
CHILDREN'S GARDENS 
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so the first duty in spring is to weed. There 
is a right and a wrong way of doing every¬ 
thing, and often a strange instinct inclines the 
choice to the wrong. Even in weeding this 
may be the case. A badly weeded garden may 
look quite nice and tidy for a few days, but if 
the weeds have not been carefully and com¬ 
pletely pulled up by the roots and taken 
away, they will soon be as bad as ever again. 
Breaking off the tops will not do. You may 
have heard of the great poet Shakespeare, 
who wrote three hundred years ago, and said 
many things which are just as true now as they 
were then. In one of his plays he says this of 
weeds in the spring :— 
Now ’tis the spring, and weeds are shallow rooted ; 
Suffer them now, and they’ll o’ergrow the garden 
And choke the herbs for want of husbandry. 
2 Henry VI, Act III., Scene i. 
Take warning, and with your own hands pull 
up by the roots every weed you see. The 
reason it is so bad to let them remain is that 
every day they are in the garden they are 
taking nourishment out of the soil, and making 
it poorer for the flowers. Their roots, too, are 
often long, and if left they will twine in among 
the better plants, crushing and pushing the 
more tender ones, and robbing them of their 
