88 
CHILDREN'S GARDENS 
IV 
care must be taken to leave no weeds, and an 
occasional weeding in hot sultry weather will 
have to be faced ; and do not be afraid to use a 
hoe, keeping the earth nice and loose between 
the plants. But the hardest work of all, as a 
rule, is the watering. Except in an unusually 
wet year, it will exhaust both your time and 
energy, and yet it must be done. Luckily, the 
best time to water is the evening, when it is 
getting cool, otherwise the hot sun dries up the 
moisture as quickly as it is supplied to the 
plant. The watering must also be done regularly, 
not a great lot given one day, and then the 
poor plants left for days without a drink. In 
fact, they are even worse off than if they had 
had none, for the sun dries the soil that has 
been watered, and it forms into cakes as hard 
as bricks on the surface. 
It is very easy to make work in a garden, 
and if the ordinary routine is over, the way to 
find fresh occupation is to look round among 
the flowers and see what can be done. For in¬ 
stance, if you have a carnation or pink and want 
to have more, now is the time to increase them. 
When the plants have made nice growth about 
July, select some of the good strong young 
shoots and layer them. That is, to clear them 
away from the parent plant, but leaving them 
still attached to it, peg them down to the 
