December 12, 1908. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
767 
The Flower Garden 
The Bulb Borders. 
In some gardens, rats, rooks, and other 
pests are troublesome, and where they 
notice newly-dug soil they often search in 
it for food. So it would be advisable to 
carefully examine your bulb borders, and 
where the soil has been scratched away from 
the bulbs replace it, but first make sure that 
'he bulbs are not damaged in any way, if 
they are replace them with sound bulbs, 
using, of course, the same variety. 
Climbers. 
Old plants trained on walls and fences 
should be thoroughly examined and all de¬ 
cayed branches cut out. The stunted speci¬ 
mens ought-to be uprooted and young ones 
planted to take their place. Take advan¬ 
tage of fine, dry weather to get ail bits of 
sticks and dead leaves cleared away, as these 
always accumulate among the branches and 
lodge in the stems at the base. If left they 
look very unsightly, and also harbour in¬ 
sect pests. Collect all rubbish of this kind 
and lose no time in having it burned. 
Some Suitable Climbers are 
Ampelopsis Veitchii, A. muralis, A. 
Hoggii. The latter has large leaves and is 
useful for covering old buildings quickly. 
Ceanothuses, Jasminums, Honeysuckles, 
Muehlenbeckia complexa (a beautiful 
climber for a sheltered position), Roses, 
especially the pillar varieties, Bridgesia 
spicata, Wistarias, Ivies and Clematises, are 
all useful for a variety of purposes. For 
north, sunless walls, Ivies, Ampelopsis, 
Bridgesia spicata, Periploca graeca, Honey¬ 
suckles and Jasminum nudiflorum, are very 
suitable. 
How to F.ant Climbers. 
Fig. 1 shows how a climber should be 
planted either for training on a wall or a 
pillar. In the latter case the end of the 
post A, which is buried in the soil, should 
be thoroughly charred to preserve it, and 
pievent the growth of fungi. Then take 
out some of the original soil and replace 
it with good compost as shown at B. The 
roots of the plant must be well covered, as 
the new soil D will settle down considerably 
before the commencement of next summer. 
Bare Banks. 
There are many banks on which grass and 
flowering plants will not grow; especially 
those under trees, and they never appear 
more unsightly than at the present time 
when the leaves have fallen from all the 
deciduous trees and shrubs. BuRyou should, 
at once, make all such banks more beautiful 
by training Ivy over them. If you prepare 
\ a narrow border at the bottom of the bank, 
and mix some old mortar rubble with the 
soil, and plant good branching specimens of 
Ivy, pegging down all the main shoots, you 
will be pleased with the results of your 
labour next summer. 
The Shrubberies. 
It is wonderful how quickly leaves ap¬ 
pear, from nowhere in particular, as it 
seems, after a few dry, sunny days. But 
: this is a fact, they do come, and must be 
collected. While the leaves are moist they 
adhere to the soil but directly they become 
i dry, they are blown to and fro by the wind, 
I 
and many of them collect in the shrubbery. 
So it will be advisable, for the sake of 
neatness, to hastily gather them up and 
lodge them in their proper quarters—the 
leaf-yard. 
The Hardy Flower Border. 
As the old, faded stems of herbaceous 
plants are cut down and wheeled away, 
clear of£ weeds and lightly turn over the 
surface soil for the present. 
The Fruit Garden. 
Planting: Wall Trees. 
Brick and stone walls are expensive to 
build, and where they already exist every 
effort should be made to reap all the benefit 
possible from them by keeping, practically, 
every square foot of their surface well fur¬ 
nished with health}' fruit trees, where the 
walls are devoted to fruit culture. Old 
specimens, or trees of varieties that are ob¬ 
solete, should be taken away, and young 
trees of up-to-date varieties of favoured 
kinds planted in their place 
Only one side of the wall can be devoted 
Fig. 3 shows the method of planting and 
training a Peach tree on a wall. 
to the tree roots, and this being so some 
Rouble should be taken to secure a 
thoroughly good rooting medium. Fig. 2 
shows how to i plant and train a young 
Fig. 3. Celery may he protected by laying 
dry straw or bracken over the foliage. 
Peach tree. All other kinds of fan-trained 
fruit trees should be planted in a similar 
way. The hole A must be made deep enough 
and wide enough to accommodate the roots 
without in any way cramping them. 
The branches should be so arranged that 
the centre of the tree B, is kept well open, 
and the lower branches C C, low on the 
wall. The centre of a tree is always quickly 
filled up, but the lower part does not so soon 
fill up. 
The Strawberry Plants. 
No time should be lost now in getting a 
good surface mulch of littery manure put on 
the beds around the plants. Slight frosts 
will not injure the plants, but it is best to 
keep them quite secure from it. Long, 
ccarse straw is the best material for putting 
on the beds late in spring so that it will be 
serviceable when the fruit is ripening ; but 
at the present time shorter litter will do, as 
it will lie closer and keep out frost better. 
The Kitchen Garden. 
Protect Celery. 
After nearly a whole year’s labour in 
rearing and growing Celery plants it is verv 
unwise to neglect the crop now. The soil 
which is used in the earthing-up of the 
sticks protects the latter from very severe 
frosts, but if the tops are quite exposed to 
the weather and get badly frozen several 
times, decay will set in from the top, and 
when the young stalks in the centre are 
affected the -whole plant is quickly ruined. 
But it is a very easy matter to ward off 
frosts, by simply scattering dry straw, or 
Bracken Fern on the rows as shown in Fig. 
3. During the mild weather the covering 
material should be taken off as it is im¬ 
portant that the leaves of the plants be kept 
Digging-in Manure. 
It would be well to have regard to the 
quality and character of the soil when en¬ 
gaged in putting in manure. Naturally 
light soils are improved by the addition of 
cow manure; and clayey, retentive ground 
is benefited by stable manure. It is a very 
good time now to bury a lot of strawy 
manure from stables in clayey soils. 
Winter Greens. 
After the first frosts there are many 
rotting leaves usually found on the plants. 
These should be removed, as if left they 
become offensive and, mcieover, your kitchen 
garden should be maintained in a clean, 
neat condition, just .the same as your flower 
garden is. 
Foxglove. 
