September 1, 1987. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
177 
1 
TH 
Newcastle Show (last day). Paisley Show. 
o 
F 
Fruit and Dahlia Show. Crystal Palace (two days). 
3 
S 
4 
Sun 
13th Sunday after Trinity. 
5 
M 
Tu 
7 
w 
Sale at Stevens’ Rooms. 
.- i, BLOTS IN GARDENS. 
PERHAPS there are few gardens in which 
something cannot be found that fails to 
meet the approval of the critical spectator, 
who is at the same time a practical culti¬ 
vator and a man of taste. It is beyond the 
^ power of any gardener to have everything j ust as 
cFc it should be at a given time, simply because the con- 
^ trolling elements are uninfluenced by his will. And 
if a manager of admitted ability and with ample re¬ 
sources at his command cannot pleasehimself in that respect 
it is not to be expected that one less favourably circum¬ 
stanced can please others, and a blot more or less 
prominent will be apparent. But when the blots that 
mar the generally fair escutcheon are so few and obscure 
that they cannot be seen without a search, they only 
show in greater relief the prevailing excellence. 
No doubt the impression conveyed of a garden is 
influenced by, so to say, the nature of the vision of the 
observer. Everything looks blue to the wearer of blue 
spectacles, and if a predisposition exists to find fault an 
object always seems to be created for the occasion. 
Whether it is singular or natural that such should be 
the case matters not; it is enough, and more than enough, 
to know that the proposition is true. Say something or 
do something that is not approved, or, to put the case 
stronger, resented, and what is done after that, however 
right and good in itself, is not always seen in its true 
and real colour and character. When the mind is made 
up to And fault, fault will be found, and whatever the 
intended victim may do to avert it will be vain. A 
person can find fault with anything, no matter what, if 
he desires to do so, and find blots at every step and 
turn. Nor is it difficult to magnify the smallest specks 
into almost hideous monstrosities. The existence of what 
may be termed those psychological iieculiarities cannot 
be ignored, and no harm can be done in recognising 
them. On the other hand it is just possible that a 
measure of good may result, for it is conceivable, if not 
certain, that the mind may be unconscious of the pos¬ 
sibility of error, even if that which is fair be made foul 
by the nature of the glass through which it is seen. 
Gardens for the purpose of these notes will not be 
inspected under glasses that distort, nor is it necessary to 
make a minute search for a blot that exists in so many of 
them; it is absent from some, but apparent in most and 
flagrant in not a few. “ What,” may be asked, “ is this 
terrible and almost ubiquitous blot that has been allowed 
to remain so long without a protest against it.” The reply 
is, Protests have been many, but have not perhaps been so 
forcible, nor have had the prominence accorded to them 
that the subject demands. The blot in question is the 
habit—the time-honoured, bad, thoughtless, and slovenly 
habit—of permitting worthless crops and useless growths 
to occupy space and ground for weeks, and in some cases 
months, after they ought to have been cleared away. 
In gardens innumerable stately rows of Lettuces may 
be seen with stems 3 or 4 feet high, that are worse than 
worthless there, for it will be safe to say not one out of a 
hundred of them will ripen seed that will be gathered and 
applied to a profitable purpose; and if the saving of seed 
were the object, half a dozen plants would furnish more 
than enough for the whole of the demands of next year. 
That, however, is not the object of the cultivator of bolted 
Lettuces, and, as a rule, the utmost expected from them 
are a few crisp stems for pickling or preserving, and six 
plants would give these as ■well as six hundred. This 
crowding of gardens with useless growth not only seriously 
mars their appearance, but prevents the growth of some¬ 
thing else that might be serviceable, at the same time 
draining the earth of its virtues in the most needless 
manner. 
Again, it is not uncommon to see large spreading 
Cauliflower plants, some from which the heads h we not 
been cut, hence assuming shrub-like proportions, while 
the leaves of others of the plants that have been cut ex¬ 
pand in consequence to unusual dimensions, and there 
remain. What is the result ? Unsightliness. It is that, 
and a great deal more, for it is not too much to say that 
in many cases the growth that is thus allowed and which 
is quite useless takes more virtue from the soil than was 
extracted in perfecting the heads that were cut and used. 
Such blots as those, with the attendant waste, ought not 
to be seen in gardens. 
This is written in the full knowledge that scores of 
men whose duty it is to cultivate gardens and keep them 
in order are seriously overworked. Such men may justly 
plead they “cannot do everything.” But if they have 
time to cut Lettuces and Cauliflowers they have time to 
pull the plants up. Then why cannot they be pulled as 
they are wanted, and the unsightliness and needless soil 
exhaustion prevented ? It is a question of habit and 
nothing more. As to the surplus plants that are not cut, 
surely they can be.more easily and quickly pulled and 
wheeled away when they are comparatively small than 
when as large again, and consequently make twice as 
many barrowloads, the land in the meantime being seri¬ 
ously impoverished. With a better system and more 
promptitude in action many an overworked gardener might 
save himself some labour, and at the same time conserve 
the resources of the soil, and contribute to the neatness 
that makes gardens so agreeable. 
How many rows of dwarf Kidney Beans are there in 
gardens now that have ceased yielding crisp, fleshy pods 
for weeks past? No one can say how many, but a few 
readers will not have occasion to travel far to find some. 
Why are the rows left ? For seed? Nothing of the kind. 
A few Beans may be saved, but the vast majority of the 
plants, more or less laden with ripening seed, will some day 
he cleared away to the rubbish heap, and with them at 
least ten times as much potash as was appropriated up to 
and during the time the pods were gathered for use. That 
was perhaps not thought about; all the more reason, then, 
that the fact should be mentioned. 
Nor is the loss indicated the only result of leaving 
the useless plants to exhaust the soil and themselves. 
They become the host and the happy hunting ground of one 
of the most insidious and destructive garden pests— 
the red spider. Millions of these have been nurtured 
No. 375. —Yol. XV., Third Series. 
No. 2031.—Voi. LXXVII., Old Secies. 
