8 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
June I, 1903. 
NEATNESS IN THE GARDEN. 
[“The Gardener.”] 
Beautiful plants in the greenhouse, bril- 
liant borders in the flower garden, and fine 
crops of vegetables are all marred if sur- 
rounding them there are untidy spots. 
There are persons who cannot pot a 
plant without littering the floor of the shed 
with crocks and soil. In all cases there 
ig labor - expended 
material and using it, but there need not 
be so,much litter made as there often ‘is 
and then the labor of “cleaning up’? would 
not be so great. 
Being quite familiar with the surround- 
ings of a place sometimes blinds the gar- 
dener to its defects—defects in the matter 
of tidiness, I mean; but a stranger at once 
notices them. After “bedding out’ has 
“been completed, empty pots and boxes 
should not only be put aside tidily, but 
carefully. Wooden boxes soon rot if they 
in procuring the- 
_ are exposed to the weather day and night; 
they should be placed in a shed. 
Pots, too, require properly grading ; the 
smaller ones ought to be put inside those 
just a trifle larger, and not the latter oc- 
casionally in the former; moreover, fewer 
should be telescoped together—twenty 3- 
inch, twelve 6-inch, three 9-inch, and so on 
according to size, are sufficient. The 
placing of long armfuls of pots, the one in 
the other, and then carrying them crescent 
shaped from place to place, is a most fruit- 
ful cause of cracked and broken pots. 
Then there are heaps of old potting soil, 
and crocks, stakes, and pegs, some decayed 
and some still useful. Pick out the best, 
tie them up into bundles, and keep them 
in adry place. Sift the soil, extracting 
the rubbish, which will be found useful 
for making up holes, and put aside the re- 
mainder for such purposes as top-dressing 
herbaceous borders and for covering vege- 
table seeds with. i 
Ashes should be sifted, the cinders pre- 
served for the winter stoking, and the fine 
ashes placed on back paths or spread out 
and made into a firm bed for standing 
flower potson. The cut lawn grass shoul 
be relegated to the manure heap or used 4 
2 lining (outside) to’Cucumber and Melo? 
beds. Weeds and stones which have bee? 
taken from the vegetable quarters are bes 
burned and used for filling up holes respe™ 
tively. Old Pea sticks and flower stakes 
may be shortened and again made use © 
Leaves of vegetables and old stalks must 
never be allowed to lie about untidily, but 
should be gathered up regularly and burn 
with other rubbish or dug into the spat? 
quarters at once. 
The tidiness or otherwise of the conse! 
vatory or greenhouse has much to do with 
the general appearance. Empty pots 
stakes, old watering cans, and dead plant 
are often found lying about under stage 
Besides being untidy, these things harbo 
insects, and the cherished pets in the hous? 
suffer through their depredations. rol 
Every part of the house must be cleat— 
floor, stages, and plants; then the latte? 
will look bright and comfortable, ; 
Gro. GARNER: — 
jee 
BALLARAT GARDENS.— Showing Statues ‘‘Pomona,” ‘‘Flora,’’ and “ Bacchante,”’ and the Flower Bed in Autumn. q 
This is a view looking East, showing the 
statues of ‘ Pomona,” ‘Flora,’ and 
“ Bacchante,” and some fine specimens of 
“Condylinus Australis,” which were 
planted some 35 years ago. Some few years 
ago there was a fine avenue of these trees” 
here, but they have died.one by one down 
to the present number. The hedge is 
‘Pittosporum. 
The further beds consist of Cactus and 
dwarf white Dahlias, the borders on two 
sides of the large bed consists of Geraniums 
(several varieties) intermixed with variegated 
Abutilous. 
The nearer border is of Phlox Drummondi. 
At the base of the statue of “ Flora” (the one 
on the left) is a beautiful design of variegated 
foliage and flowering plants. The pines™ 
the distance are on the shore of. the lake a 
The nearer trees—‘ Quercus suber” 2% — 
“Quercus Hodgkinsoni” (the evergree® 
oak)—form a portion of the avenue which 
runs between the lake frontage and the £* 
dens. The photo. was taken in the Autum? 
