14 
LADIES’ FLO WEE GARDENER. 
* 
sion of handsome flowers. The ground should be well dug the 
latter end of September or October, or even in November, and if 
the soil is not sufficiently fine, let it be dug over a second or third 
time, and neatly raked with a very fine-toothed rake. 
Stony ground requires riddling well, and great care must be 
taken to keep if neat by picking up the little stones which con¬ 
stantly force themselves to the surface after rains. Nothing is so 
unbecoming as weeds and stones in parterres, where the eye seeks 
flowers and neatness. 
Almost every plant loves sand; and if that can be procured, it 
enriches and nourishes the soil, especially for bulbs, pinks, carna¬ 
tions, auriculas, hyacinths, &c. Let it be mixed in the proportion 
of a third part to the whole. 
If the dead leaves are swept into a mound every autumn, and 
the soap suds, brine, &c., of the house be thrown upon it, the 
mass will quickly decompose, and become available the following 
year. It makes an admirable compost for auriculas, &c., mixed 
with garden or other mould. 
If the ground be a gravelly soil, the flower-garden should not 
slope, for stony ground requires all the moisture you can give it, 
while the sloping situation would increase the heat and dryness. 
A moist earth, on the contrary, would be improved by being 
sloped towards the east or west. 
The south is not so proper for flowers, as a glaring sun withers 
the tender flowers ; but the north must be carefully avoided, and 
shut out by a laurel hedge, a wall, or any rural fence garnished 
with hardy creepers, or monthly roses, which make a gay and 
agreeable defense. Monthly roses are invaluable as auxiliaries of 
all kinds. They will grow in any soil, and bloom through the 
winter months, always giving a delicate fragrance, and smiling 
even in the snow. Monthly roses will ever be the florist’s de • 
light: they are the hardiest, most delicate-looking, and greenest- 
