_ January 5, 1905 
wanted, we should cork up the hole in, the 
flower pot. Instead of which the aim is to 
hasten tha water away as soon as possible ; 
For this reason we use plenty of drainage. 
A plant will generally be the healthiest, 
¥herefore, which wants water the oftenest, 
showing that there are plenty of air spaces, 
ana that the roots are making good use of 
them. Ifa plant does not require water 
often it is in a bad wary, and more will 
amake it worse. How often to water will 
Ye according to how easily the water 
passes away. If, when you pour water on 
the earth, it disappears almost in- 
stantaneously, it would be safe to water 
such plants every day. 
There are several methods by which 
to judge when plants require water. By 
weneral appearance of the soil or feeling 
‘with the fingers. By tapping the pot with 
the knuckles, the pot has a sharp, hollow 
sound when the earth it contains is dry, 
and a dull, heavy sound when moist. This 
zan easily be practised by taking a dry 
pot and one recently soaked with water. 
‘Another plant is by lifting and testing 
their weight. When a plant is sodden: it 
is like a lump of lead; practice will soon 
tell the difference. Never use cold water 
for plants in a room; always use it the 
same temperature in which the plant is 
growing. Never water a plant that is 
web; but when dry give it a good soaking 
to thoroughly moisten the ball. If a 
plant gets very dry plunge it into a bucket 
of water; let it remain until the air 
hubbles cease rising to the surface. 
Tf a plant doese not dry quickly, and ap- 
pears to be in a stagnant condition, turn ib 
out at once and examine the drainage and 
ze-pot in a fresh pot. ; 
GARDEN MANAGEMENT. 
_fuhis book upon “The Principles of Garden- 
fang for Australia” Mr. Bogue Luffmann has some 
wery instructive ane trenchant remarks upon 
warden management which should be of much 
ase to those who like to see their gardens as they 
should be. THe says :— 
All-round gardeners, full of resource and 
possessed of great taste, are extremely rare 
in Australia, he cause is to be found in 
the absence of any systematic training 
grounds, for not one of our State botanical 
or other public gardens goes so far as to 
train its own employés, much less prepare 
gardeners for the benefit of the general 
public, and those who come from other 
jands are so convinced of the merits of what 
they already know that they fail to recognise 
and work in accord with the demands of 
jocal climate. Here and there one gees a 
garden well managed as the result of an 
aintelligeut gardener, but asa general rule 
the men employed may be designated 
arden robbers, This ig not said unkindly, 
ut so long as it remsins unsaid we shall be 
begging and waiting for a more rational 
and better garden. We see no attempts to 
stay the robbing hand of our summer 
«limate or any intelligent appreciation of the 
significance of the Australian garden. 
Broom and barrow men they are for the 
most part, regularly reducing the garden 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
area to unshapeliness and poverty Their 
principal work is sweeping up aud carting 
off the vital foodstuffs and moistnre-holding 
properties of the soil. To the eternal em- 
ployment of the broom and barrow we may 
attribute no small loss of our soil and 
wasted efforts in other diretions, The in- 
dustrious broom and barrow man is ever- 
lastingly looking for the opportunity to 
wheel something out of the garden. He 
~has nothing like a corresponding inclination 
to bring stuff in unless it be manure. He 
calls certain stuff ‘litter’ and “rubbish,” 
as if all loose matter on the earth’s surface 
were not manure, or soil-dressing, or a 
moisture-holding property, or a soil-deep- 
ener, or a shape-giver, or something else 
equally benefiting to our domain. Remem- 
ber that every soluble and decayable item 
within your garden area has a perpetual 
right to remain there. We must have no 
actual clearing out; there may be occe- 
sional burning of disease-infected matter, 
but all else must be no more than trans- 
ferred to a rotting and decomposing quar- 
ter, whence it may be brought back as 
soon as it is fit for use. 
We have an extraordinary large propor- 
tion of one-man places, and this is an im- 
portant reason why real skill and thorough- 
ness are not more commonly displayed. The 
single-handed gardener is expected to be 
much more, and there will be no marked 
improvement in the character of local pro- 
fessional labor till the gardener is relieved 
from the multifarious duties of a domestic, 
and employed solely in the cultivation of 
plants and the beautification of house sur- 
roundings. 
In brief, the working gardeuer cannot 
improve his position (which really means do 
better work) until his employer takes a 
more intelligent view of the situation, and, 
in association with the garden architect, 
provides a ground plan and body of material 
which will preserve fine effects without the 
employment of over much thought on the 
part of those doing the manual work. 
The situation demands closer contact with 
the subject, and more skill in directing on 
the part of owners. 
Where the garden is small and the work- 
ing strength likewise, the owner should 
know as much as will ensure the necessary 
attractions at all seasons. Where the gar- 
dener is found to be interested in his work, 
able to recognise the possibility of every 
part, and can produce distinctly graceful 
dignified effects, leave him alone. 
Where the domain is too smal! to fully 
employ a skilled gardenor, and regular male 
assistance is required, it may be found ad- 
vantageous to keep a youth for general 
work and briog ina capable man so many 
days a week as the garden demands. 
The amateur who- desizes a neat and 
pretty garden at the expense of from 10s. 
to 30s, per week, should first of all, through 
the medium of a garden architect or profes- 
sional gardener, secure a thoroughly appro- 
priate plan, and then get this carried ont. 
It must be evident that nothing fanciful or 
difficult to manage must be attempted where 
the labor will be rough and untutored. All 
the world over we should be able to say, 
‘My garden is in accord with my means 
and my gardenor’s knowledge. It is appro- 
5 
priate to the situation, we understand all it 
contains, and therefore;manage it well,” 
Australian garden work is notoriously 
lacking in ‘‘ finish,’”’ and it is as often pain- 
fully cheap. Hence the employer has con- 
stantly to see that the garden is not 
vulgarised by the employment of petty 
devices and weak method of planting and 
grouping. 
Plants in themselves are never realiy 
common, but we may group or shape them 
with greatly varying effect. This is the real 
difficulty with the untrained mind and hand 
~—that even where it thinks, it thinks dif- 
ferently. It thinks from cut a cottage or 
hideous mass of matchboard boxes forming 
a back street. Genius is sportive ; but it is 
easy to decide whether we may expect most 
taste and effect in gardening from those 
who are bred amid the refinements of good 
homes and receive the general benefits of 
education, or from those who understand 
taste to be a sense confined to the human 
mouth. 
Don’t take your gardener on trust; don’t 
think him wise and competent because he 
knows the name of every plant in the gar- 
den, but rather employ and encourage ail 
you can the man who has unmistakably an 
eye and an inborn faculty for the work. 
We have now to consider the ordinary 
demands of the different styles of garden. 
Those architecturally perfect houses of 
the classical orders have gardens so pre- 
cisely and permanently laid as to call for 
little more than the preservation of the ori- 
ginal form.. Special work in the way of 
renewing the soil occurs more or less often, 
that is, if the annual work does not regu- 
larly repair all deficiencies. The routine 
work in such gardens consists in keeping 
them full of soil and plants, and imparting 
as much additional “character” and dignity 
as the form and age of the entire estate 
admit of. 
In managing the gardens assigned to 
houses of the Gothic, Dutch, Queen Anne, 
and many less definite styles of building, 
and which call for no severe and rigid style 
of garden, the routine work ‘should provide 
a steady change of form and expression. It 
is true that many features may be regarded 
as permanently attractive and suitable, and 
that they will gather strength and beauty 
with the years; but there must from the. 
very nature of the ‘free’ or landscape 
style of gardening material (since all is. 
alive), be rapid change of form and value, 
necessitating frequent alteration and im- 
provement. There is always the danger of 
monotony where the scene does not reveal 
grand architectural effects or a-.variety of 
new forms and colors. In brief; as trees 
alter their shape and size, and as they in- 
terfere with views of each other, as they 
demand more or less room or soil,-as we 
want new features about them, as_ they. 
overawe and spoil grass, or make paths too 
dark or damp, or dirty, we must alter and 
improve them and their surroundings, 
Moreover, as we gain experience, we venture 
more; and again, our financial resources 
may be increased or curtailed, or we may 
require to use the garden for a slightly 
different purpose We discover wet, sour, 
thin, and over-exposed soil, badly lighted 
and extra rich spots; also plants encroach: 
