6 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER 
October 
Nine-tenths of the half hardy plants which grow 
out in the beds and borders during the summer could 
be kept alive there during the winter also, but the 
trouble and expense would be a great deal more than 
they are worth. Nevertheless, when one has a fine 
favourite plant, but no better means of keeping it 
through the winter than a make-shift of this sort, 
even that is better than losing it altogether. Very 
dry materials, sufficient to secure the earth from 
freezing, and a waterproof covering to throw oft' rain 
and melting snow water, with an ordinary share of 
patience, are all that is needed for conducting such 
experiments. 
1 have said already that when plants are lifted, to 
be saved in jiots, they should not lie placed at first in 
any confinement, unless, indeed, the frost is at our 
heels, and then only in the night time. A sheltered 
place out of doors and away from the sun is the safest 
way to inure them to the change. We do a great deal 
of this kind of work here, and of all the plans I have 
heard or read of this is the most successful. We 
often do not lose half a dozen leaves off a plant just 
potted from the borders, so large that two men can 
hardly move the pot or box in which it is placed; but, 
like other large places which are carried on at a great 
expense, we have regular contrivances for carrying 
out our own plans. We have a skeleton shed behind 
a row of store-houses, without thatch of any kind : 
merely rafters, and long strips of wood to tie them 
from end to end. Into this skeleton shed we remove 
all our new potted plants from the borders, and run 
mats along the front of it, leaving the top wide open; 
the mats just break the force of the wind, and no 
more. If the weather is dry, we pour water along 
among the pots, to keep the place damp; and a slight 
shower is given once a day. If a sudden cold or 
frost sets in during this probation, the skeleton rcof 
is ready for a covering of mats. From ten days to a 
fortnight in this place is sufficient for most plants to 
make new roots in the fresh soil, and then they can 
stand the sun; and, by-and-by, they are put upon the 
stages of the greenhouse without losing any leaves 
worth speaking of. I never could set a large newly- 
potted plant from the borders into a house at once 
without losing more or less of its bottom leaves. 
D. Beaton. 
Routine Work. Leaves collecting. — Our cottage 
friends, we trust, have not forgotten our earnest request 
last year, to collect all the fallen leaves they possibly 
can. We must now reiterate that request. Decayed 
leaves make the best of all soils for potting purposes; 
properly prepared they also make the finest of all 
manures for the flower bed or border, and for the 
vegetable garden, more especially for manure for early 
potatoes. Independent of all those valuable purposes, 
leaves are pre-eminently useful as a fermenting arti¬ 
cle, of which to form hotbeds. Iu this respect, they 
are far more useful and better suited for the pur¬ 
pose than tanner’s bark, horsedung, or any other 
substance whatever. Happy is the cottager that can 
procure a good store of them. Yet, in passing 
through the country, how often have we had to la¬ 
ment the utter waste we have witnessed of this aux¬ 
iliary to good cottage gardening. Even amateurs 
and gardeners themselves do not seem to care for, 
and collect, and place in a proper situation to decay, 
this abundantly-supplied (at least, in the country,) 
article. As we directed last autumn to our cottage 
friends, so we do now. Set your children to work in 
lanes and bye-ways with their rakes and wheelbar¬ 
row, or bag, or basket, and collect all the leaves you 
possibly can. If wanted to make hotbeds with, lay 
them on a heap in the shape of the roof of a house. 
This will prevent them from becoming too wet, even 
in the wettest weather. Turn them over with a fork 
every three or four weeks. If they are very dry, 
throw a few buckets of water upon them as you are 
turning them over. You may also mix any newly- 
gathered ones amongst those first collected. By this 
method duly carried on, the leaves will be well-pre¬ 
pared to make a hotbed of lasting temperature, yet 
moderate heat. Should the leaves not be required 
for the purpose of yielding heat, let them be spread, 
as fast as they are gathered, in some covenient place, 
and all the slops of the house, and the refuse of the 
kitchen, as well as any liquid-manure, be poured 
upon them. If a little gypsum or plaster of Paris 
is procurable, it would be useful to cast it thinly 
over the heap from time to time. Road scrapings, 
also, may be used to spread upon this heap of riches, 
for so, indeed, it truly is. Plenty of this mixture 
laid upon, and immediately dug into, the ground, will 
increase the following crop tenfold. Some part of 
the leaves may be wanted for potting purposes. Lay 
a heap apart, turn it more frequently, beating and 
chopping the leaves with a spade or fork, and lay this 
heap flat, in order to receive all the rains that fall, 
for they will materially assist decomposition. Avoid 
all mixtures with the leaves for making vegetable 
mould, intended ultimately, when rotted into a state 
to pass through a sieve, to mix with pure loam or 
peat earth, to be used for the more delicate plants, 
such, for instance, as auriculas and carnations. Lime, 
coarse sand, or road scrapings, would render this 
vegetable mould not so desirable for these finer 
rooted and more valuable plants. 
Shelters. —We trust our advice to have all shel¬ 
tering places for plants through winter in readiness 
have been attended to. Already have we had a taste 
of frost. The heliotropes are first attacked, next the 
geraniums and dahlias , and lastly the hardy chrysan¬ 
themums. All these may be protected by shelters of 
mats, and the blooming season considerably pro¬ 
longed. The frost often leaves us for a month or 
two, or longer, after giving us a foretaste, as it were, 
of what he intends to do between this and Christmas, 
and we should be much to blame if we neglected our 
favourite flowers, and did not protect them from the 
first frosts, in order to retain their beauty with us as 
long as, with moderate care, we could preserve them. 
Remember the frames and brick or turf pits, and have 
them all in order to receive the plants they have to 
shelter through the winter. 
FLORISTS’ FLOWERS. 
Bulbs.— Look over the stores of hardy bulbs, and 
prepare for planting them. Sort them over, selecting 
those likely, from their size or shape, to flower from 
the offsets. The offsets of tulips, as well as others, 
had better be planted immediately in a nursery bed, 
each kind, of course, by itself. This nursery bed 
ought to be made rich, in order to encourage the 
small bulbs to grow freely. They should not be 
planted too thickly, or that purpose will be defeated. 
Such small bulbs, as crocuses, snowdrops, jonquils, 
some narcissi, &c., intended to be planted in patches 
amongst shrubs, or the mixed flower border, should 
have the places, previously to planting where they 
are to be grown, enriched with some very rotten 
dung. Dig out the earth first, put in the dung, 
