GROUNDWORK AND PLANTING. 
223 
GROUNDWORK AND PLANTING. 
The season is at hand in which the gardener is likely to be 
engaged in alterations of established gardens or founding new 
ones ; the period for groundw ork has arrived, and planting will 
be the order of the day for the next six weeks in most places, a 
little time given to the consideration of how it may best be done, 
may therefore be regarded as a saving of much that is valuable 
when the work is in hand. The person who, previous to com¬ 
mencing a lengthened operation of any kind, thoroughly settles 
not only the leading features of what he is going about, but also 
arranges the detail, will invariably accomplish more, and in the 
most satisfactory manner, than he who plunges without con¬ 
sideration probably into the midst of what is required, and whose 
after efforts are often unavailing to extricate him from the con¬ 
fusion his own precipitancy and want of method has caused. 
Let all who contemplate work of this kind, whether it be little or 
much, first fully and determinately settle how it shall be done, 
and then set about it in earnest. I greatly prefer autumn for 
planting all sorts of trees and shrubs, providing it can be done 
before the expiration of the present month ; the reason I prefer 
October is, that I believe the downward passage of the sap is 
most favorable to the formation of rootlets; this touches on a 
physiological question, about which I am aware there are divers 
opposite opinions, to enter on which is not my present purpose, 
and shall therefore let what I have said rest as only the expression 
of what experience leads me to suppose is correct. The practical 
part of the business is what is intended to be conveyed, and the 
first thing requiring attention is the preparation of the ground. 
To say this should be properly trenched and drained is easy 
on paper, but often insuperable obstacles prevent the latter being 
carried out in practice, and without it the former is but a 
temporary measure; there are often spots, even on estates of 
moderate size, that are of a character to defy cultivation—complete 
eyesores, that will thrust themselves forward to the annoyance of 
any proprietor who cares for the improvement of his property; 
what can be done with such places, but plant them out of sight ? 
This at least is the usual remedy, and then comes the operator s 
