The Flower Garden. 
The exceptionally warm weather during 
ie early part of May, following so closely 
ie heavy fall of snow, has caused plants 
id trees to grow rapidly. The soil is 
arm, almost as warm as a hotbed, and 
-edlings of hardy annuals, and vegetable 
■eds and young plants haw all germin- ’ 
;ed and grown as satisfactorily as if they 
ere in a frame. Weeds have not lagged 
■hind; they grow amazingly fast and seem 
i ibe the first to lay hold of the manure 
i the soil with their strong roots. The 
ipid progress of vegetation makes work, 
nd this we must attend to in due season 
i order to achieve success in the garden. 
ox Edgings. 
There are scores of miles of these in our 
ardens, and, notwithstanding the fact that 
ley form excellent hiding-places for slugs, 
iterpillars and other plant pests, they are 
ieat favourites as edgings. Any that are 
ot, as yet, cut, should be attended to at 
nee, and gaps in the edgings made up with 
doing plants. 
Fig. i shows some young plants placed m 
gap in the edging. Of course the old edg- 
ig plants are already trimmed, so you 
nould lay down a garden line A, A, in 
roper position, so that when the tops of 
ie young plants B are cut off the gap will 
ppear well made up. 
Fig. 2 shows how to open the trench both 
dr the purpose of making up gaps and also 
■hen planting new edgings entirely. One 
ide of the trench—the one next to the path¬ 
way—should be perpendicular, and against 
ris side the plants should be placed. Un- 
Ass this be done you cannot obtain a per- 
sctly straight edging. 
oses. 
In exposed positions the Rose trees have 
een .somewhat badly torn by the strong 
finds, and the advanced shoots on climbers, 
och as Crimson Rambler and Dorothy Per¬ 
ms, in partially sheltered places, received 
serious check. But the shoots are, on the 
hole, very strong, and a watch should be 
ept upon them in order to check the ravages 
f caterpillars. Aphides must also be han- 
;hed; onlj'- can perfect blooms be obtained 
rom quite healthy, clean plants. Apply a 
ood mulch of well-rotted farmyard manure 
,t once, and if the plants are growing in a 
orous soil, keep it moist and apply weekly 
r aterin.gs of diluted manure water taken 
rom tanks, or made by immersing a peck of 
lanure in a bag in a tub containing 20 
allons of water. 
Wallflowers. 
Towards the end of the week make a sow- 
ig of Wallflower seeds. This work ; s often 
ut off until late in the summer, and then 
ie resultant seedlings are never quite satis- 
tetory. To be successful with these plants, 
ememb;r the following points, namely, 
ir-ly sowing, hardy treatment, and timely 
ransplantiing of seedlings. You may sow 
ie seeds now in an open border, nicely 
repared. Sow thinly, and, in due course, 
rangplant the seedlings in very firm soil, 
ot too rich, thus obtaining sturdy stock for 
banting out in the autumn. 
’olyanthuses and Primroses. 
Seedlings raised in boxes under glass 
hould ibe duly transplanted in a cool, shady 
order outside; and seeds may now be sown 
Figs 1 and 2.—How to make up gaps in Box 
edging. 
in open borders. An ideal border is one 
facing due north, north-east or north-w©9t. 
Bedding- Plants. 
Get as many of these as possible outside, 
so that they will be duly hardened. Such 
plants as Zonal Geraniums should be quite 
exposed now, the covering material must 
be removed. 
Fig. j .—To obtain fine Gooseberries you 
must thin out some of the berries. 
The Fruit Garden. 
The berries on Gooseberry, Currant and 
Raspberry bushes are swelling up rapidly 
now, and do not appear to be much damaged 
Fig. 4.—A good method of staking Runner 
Beans. 
351 
by the recent fall of snow,, except in some 
instances branches have been broken off. 
Feeding the Bushes. 
We always feed Vines when the Grapes 
are commencing to swell, and so we should 
pay the same attention to our bush fruit 
trees. There would be a vast difference m 
the weight of fruit, and also the quality, if 
we did feed as in the case of Vines. 
Give diluted farmyard manure water 
every, week, and an application of 2 ozs. of 
superphosphate and 1 oz. of sulphate of 
ammonia per bush once a fortnight until 
the berries %urn soft for ripening. 
Thinning Out the Berries. 
If very large berries are wanted for ex¬ 
hibition or any other special purpose, some 
of the smaller ones should be thinned out, as 
shown in Fig. 3. Those berries with the 
dark lines across the stems are the ones to 
remove. There are two reasons why the 
berries near the end of the shoot should be 
removed, namely, because the wood is not as 
mature there as lower down, and the berries 
are naturally smaller. 
Soil for Strawberries. 
The season for the layering of Straw¬ 
berries will soon come, but we ought to be 
prepared for it. So it is a good plan to get 
in a stock of good loam so that it will be 
nice and mellow for putting into the pots. 
The very best loam should be used for layer¬ 
ing purposes. 
The Kitchen Garden. 
Staking Runner Beans. 
It :s really wonderful how quickly these 
plants grow when once the runners form, 
and if the weather ‘be warm. Runner Beans, 
Peas and all kinds of plants that cling to 
stakes- for support, always grow more 
quickly after the stakes are placed in posi¬ 
tion. There are various methods of stak¬ 
ing Runner Beans; some growers use the 
tallest of ordinary Pea sticks, others put in 
single rows of plants and one row of up¬ 
right stakes ; while others, again, grow two 
rows of plants in parallel lines and then 
stake them as shown in Fig. 4. One stake 
is placed to each plant and they are crossed 
near the top, then a row of stakes are laid 
in the openings formed -by the crossing of 
the sticks, made secure -by twine, B, to 
the stakes, C. A row so treated is -practi¬ 
cally storm-proof. 
Outdoor Tomatos. 
There is not anything gained by putting 
ou-t Tomato plants too soon. If they are 
taken from a warm structure and directly 
exposed to the outside air, a check is given 
and -time—valuable time—-is lost. Gradually 
harden the -plants before putting them in 
the open borders. 
Hoeing. 
Keep the Dutch hoe -p-lded on all favour¬ 
able occasions between growing crops and 
on vacant ground. 
Thinning Out Seedlings. 
Take advantage of rainy weather to get 
growing crops thinned, the young plants are 
then easily pulled up without any harm re¬ 
sulting to those left. 
Weeding Wet Paths. 
If you have never pulled up weeds on 
paths while the latter are wet with rains, do 
so and you will be charmed with the suc¬ 
cess met with. Foxglove. 
The Amateur’s Greenhouse. 
General Work. 
The work o-f propagating half-hardy sub¬ 
jects, and the raising of seedlings foT summer 
bedding -purposes, is now completed, and all 
such will by this time -be out of doors, and 
