GARDEN WORK IN NOVEMBER 
By Ernest Hemming 
T F the weather permits, no better time can he 
selected than the present for making per¬ 
manent improvements in the garden and grounds. 
Alterations in roadways, fences, grading, draining, 
pruning and doctoring old trees, cleaning up wood¬ 
land and such like work should have careful atten¬ 
tion. If attended to at this time, when there is 
apparently little to do, it will make a vast difference 
in the busy season of next summer. 
In connection with the clearing of woodland 
it should be noticed that many country homes 
are being built among the trees with the native 
growth coming almost up to the door. However 
desirous the owner may be of retaining the natural 
growth, there is always a certain amount of clear¬ 
ing up to be done 
and this usually 
creates placeswhere 
it is necessary to 
plant something in 
keeping with the 
surroundings. The 
native rhododen¬ 
dron and mountain 
laurel are used 
largely for this pur¬ 
pose, and there is 
nothing better. 
They get the con¬ 
ditions they require 
in such positions; 
that is, partial 
shade, moisture 
with good drainage, 
and woodland soil 
or leaf mould. 
The accompanying illustration shows a loca¬ 
tion that a year ago was absolutely without under¬ 
growth—nothing but the naked trunks of trees 
and a scant herbage. The additional plantings 
have been so arranged as to give a natural effect, 
and the reader will agree that the planter has suc¬ 
ceeded admirably. 
The principal thing to be done in routine work 
is the mulching or covering over of plants to pro¬ 
tect them during the winter. This work is often 
carried to extremes, entailing much unnecessary 
labor which is barren of good results. The prin¬ 
cipal mistake is usually made in the covering of 
the turf on lawns. It is hard to understand how 
this practice became so general when it has so 
many objectionable features with doubtful corre¬ 
sponding beneficial results. It is not at all uncom¬ 
mon to see a lawn that has been a delight all the 
summer, looking like a farm yard, because it 
has been covered with half-rotted stable manure. 
Should the weather he dry and frosty without 
snow, this covering dries and fills the atmosphere 
with small particles of straw and offensive dust, 
which is blown into the dwelling. It is also one 
of the main sources of introducing objectionable 
weeds and strangest of all, it does hut little good. 
Grass does not need protection from the cold and 
any plant food the manure might contain has 
either evaporated into the atmosphere or been 
washed away by the rain before the grass can 
begin to use it. 
An application of wood ashes or bone-meal 
applied in April 
when the grass is 
beginning to grow 
will be found an 
excellent fertilizer 
or, what would be 
better still, mix the 
ashes or meal with 
screened soil and 
spread them evenly 
overthelawn. Then 
rake and roll. 
When the snow 
lies deep on the 
ground the rabbits 
and field-mice get 
hungry and very 
often girdle young 
or newly planted 
trees by chewing 
the hark at the 
surface of the ground or snow. When there is 
danger from this source the trees should receive 
a coat of paint from the ground eighteen inches 
up the stem, a mixture of white lead and boiled 
linseed oil being used. 
Winter is an excellent time to thoroughly clean 
the specimen evergreen trees on the lawn. It a 
good sized spruce, an abor-vitie or Retinospora 
he examined, it will he found that all the green 
portion of the tree is on the end of the branches, 
while the inner portion of the tree towards the 
trunk is filled with dead twigs and rubbish which 
harbors all kinds of insects. This should he thor¬ 
oughly cleaned out. It will he found rather a 
long job but it pays to do it well. Alter the interior 
of the trees has been cleaned out, give them a heavy 
dressing of cow manure, extending out from the 
RHODODENDRONS USED AS UNDERGROWTH 
237 
