fortunately one is not called upon to sacrifice either. Trees and
shrubs yield welcome shade, but, quite apart from this, they help to
throw up, and provide suitable backgrounds for, the dwarfer plants
which make up the majority of our garden contents. We have been too
fond of cutting down trees, and many a suburb has reason to regret the
revision of the old forest law of King William: "Gif the forestier or
wiridier finds anie man without the principall wode, but sit within the
pale, heueand dune ane aik tree, he sould attack him."
According to our soil and site, must we select the shrubs and trees
which will be happiest under the conditions we can offer them. When we
have ample space, no trees can surpass in beauty our native deciduous
trees, such as the oak and hornbeam; but it is from the smaller trees
and larger shrubs that owners of more moderately-sized gardens must
chiefly look for shade and backgrounds. Japan has given us many things
of infinite value, but few more precious than the white-flowering
species of Styrax. The dense, bright foliage, the sweetly-scented,
snow-white bells, and the general habit of the tree render Styrax
obassia one of the most valuable constituents of a garden. Japan,
too, has given us a number of Maples which afford a feast of colour
unrivalled by any other group of trees in the world. They are worth
trying in any mild or protected situation, though they should be
planted on a small, experimental scale at first as they do not thrive
everywhere. They seem to like partial shade and a north aspect. Those
who have mild and weather-favoured situations may glory in the fragrant
and--when well grown--handsome Magnolias, though with these again
success is not to be fore-counted a certainty. But few are so badly
placed but they may grow the Lilacs, Laburnums, Hawthorns, Guelder
Roses, Spiræas, Dogwoods, Weeping Birches, Weeping Willows, and
Flowering Currants. As decorative as most, however, and more useful
than any, of the shrubs and trees worth growing in a garden, are the
apples and pears, medlars and quinces, plums and cherries whose flowers
and fruits have always impressed the traveller as a beautiful feature
of English landscape.
Beneath the shade of deciduous trees there are many plants which
will live healthy and flowery lives. In the spring we have for such
situations the great array of bulbs, together with many of the
Primroses, Sweet Woodruff, Hepaticas, Hellebores, Fair maids of France,
Doronicums, and other early bloomers; and, even when the trees are in
full leaf, we may enjoy, if the soil be but properly prepared, such
pleasant flowers as those of the Martagon Lily and Lilium speciosum,
Campanulas, both dwarf and tall, Foxgloves, Knotweeds, and Columbines;
whilst ferns of many kinds, together with several of the Saxifrages
and Megaseas, and such plants as Acanthus mollis and the herbaceous
Geranium, all help to produce the pleasant effect which is yielded by
the draping of the floor of coppice or of forest. When the shade is
so dense and the soil so poor that even these plants will not thrive,
we may fall back on Ivy, Creeping Jenny, and Periwinkle; though, where
the soil is enriched with old leafmould and manure and properly dug, no
shade of trees is too dense for many of the ferns, both deciduous and
evergreen.
SOILS AND THEIR PREPARATION
Many people imagine that in some mysterious fashion plants eat soil
much as we eat beef-steak; and that, all soil being just "soil," one
has but to make a hole in the ground and thrust the roots of a plant
into it, in order to make the desert bloom as the rose. This idea is
incorrect, just as was the idea of a Devonshire farmer whom I once saw
feeding his month-old baby with cheese and cider. "Feed 'un on milk?"
said he. "I'd zooner gee 'un zope-zuds. Let 'un 'ave summat wi' zum
strength in't."
Soil is to plants not a source of food alone, but is a suit of clothes,
a blanket and coverlet, a cooking-range and a drawing-room fire. It
is a _pied-à-terre_ in its most literal sense, and it is a cellar and
tankard combined. To all the great and beautiful world of flowers, the
soil is indeed mother earth, giving them warmth and nourishment in
their infancy, affording them a root-hold throughout their life, and
offering them sanctuary for their bodies when their earthly life is
done.
He who would grow beautiful flowers must therefore first study the soil
from which he would raise them. He must get to know it, to learn its
wants, and learn also how he may best satisfy them. In time, if he be
indeed a lover of flowers, he will grow also to love the earth and to
understand it. He will become one of those true and happy gardeners so
beloved of the gods that every flower they lovingly plant is made to
flourish and multiply.
First, then, let us think of what this soil is made, and of how it came
into being. Look at the surface of any old stone-built church or house
and you will see how every stone is partly covered by moss or lichen or
other lowly plant. These plants are growing in soil--formed by the slow
action of rain and air on the surface of the walls. Similarly, in the
gradual pulverisation and decomposition of rocks, has all soil taken
its origin. Similarly also, as a rule, have lowly plants been its first
offspring, the bodies of which have been afterwards incorporated with
their mother soil. By the further action of the weather, coupled with
the action of the accompaniments of the decomposition of these early
plants, the soil becomes deeper, and becomes also furnished with dead
vegetable matter, or humus, without which none of the higher and more
developed plants are able to live.
According to the nature of the original rock, and according also to
the sort of natural "weathering" or "watering" to which it has been
subjected, so will the resultant soil be mainly sand or mainly clay, or
an equal mixture of the two. Mixed with these will usually be found a
certain amount of little stones or gravel, and a certain amount of dark
coloured humus. In a soil which is nearly all sand, or in one which is
nearly all clay, few flowers will thrive, but in what is called a loamy
soil--that is, one in which clay and sand are nearly equal--nearly all
plants will grow and prosper if other conditions be favourable. The
presence of humus in the soil is important in many ways, for not only
does it contain much that is essential food for plant growth, but also
it assists the earth in retaining that moisture without which life is
impossible. By its chemical activity, also, it produces useful heat
and liberates stores of food from the mineral soil itself. Therefore
it is that we add dead leaves, farmyard manure, sea-weed and the like
to our garden soil. But, though moisture is essential to the health
of plants, the presence of stagnant water is little less fatal than
drought. If we find that a hole dug in our gardens to the depth of two
feet soon contains water not obtained from above, we may usually assume
that drainage is required.
If our soil be too light (_i.e._ sandy) we may improve it by the
addition of dried and powdered clay, meal and organic manure, from
cowshed or stable; if it be too heavy (_i.e._ containing an excess of
clay) we may make it more suitable for our garden use by mixing with it
sand, ashes, lime, gritty road-scrapings, or old mortar.
We all know how very much hotter in summer and colder in winter is a
starched linen shirt than is one made of flannel or of some cellular
open-woven fabric. This is of course due to the fact that the former
is the better conductor of heat. In like manner, a loose, cellular,
"open-woven," porous soil is a much worse conductor of heat than the
caked and baked soil which we often see in ill-kept gardens.
The roots of plants like coolness in summer, but in winter they desire
all the warmth that they can obtain. Hence the desirability of always
maintaining the surface of the ground to the depth of an inch or two in
a loose open condition by means of the hoe. This is of value also in
checking evaporation, for, by keeping the surface inch of soil loose
and fine, the capillary connection between the air and the deeper
layers of soil is broken. Surface mulchings of litter, moss, leaves or
manure act in the same way as does the simpler mulch of hoed soil. Of
course the process of top-dressing with leaves or farm-manure, in order
to add to the soil the food elements which they contain, is quite a
different matter, and cannot be replaced.
[Illustration: FOXGLOVES]
Very few gardeners can be said to make anything approaching
adequate use of the soil which they cultivate. The majority of amateur
gardeners, and not a few professional ones, never get their spade
more than a foot or, at the outside, more than eighteen inches below
the surface. As a matter of fact, all garden soil should be dug to
a minimum depth of two feet, or preferably to a depth of three feet
when possible. In preparing a piece of ground for planting, it should,
therefore, be trenched as deeply as possible, preferably to a depth of
three feet.
[Illustration: Diagram]
This operation may be performed as follows:--
Let _A B C D_ represent the piece of ground to be trenched. Measure
off _A E_, _E G_, _G M_, _D F_, _F H_, and _N H_, each the distance of
one foot. Stretch a line from _E_ to _F_ and notch the surface with a
spade along this line. Proceed in the same way from _G_ to _H_. Next
dig the piece _A E F D_ to a depth of one foot, wheeling this surface
soil to form a heap at _B_. Also dig to the same depth the piece _E
G H F_ and add this soil to the heap at _B_. Next remove the subsoil
from the piece _A E F D_ to the depth of another foot, and wheel it to
_C_. The deeper subsoil in the piece _A E F D_ should then be dug to a
depth of another foot and left in its old position. The subsoil from
_E G H F_ to the depth of a foot should now be placed with the spade
on _A E F D_, and the deep subsoil below it dug and left _in situ_. A
layer of farm-yard manure may next be placed on the _A E F D_, and on
this should be placed the top foot of soil from _G M N H_. The subsoil
from _G M N H_ should next be placed on _E G H F_, on this being placed
a layer of manure covered in turn by fresh top soil. In this the work
should be proceeded with until the last two feet of the patch are
reached. The subsoil from _I B C J_ is to be placed on the deep subsoil
of _K I J L_, on this a layer of manure covered by one half of the
surface soil in the heap at _B_. The heap of subsoil at _C_ and the
remainder of the surface soil at _B_ are to be placed in the space _I B
C L_.
This proceeding may strike the novice much as a problem of Euclid
strikes the mentally lazy, but the importance of deep cultivation
is so great that everyone who would be a successful gardener should
thoroughly understand its practice. By the method of trenching above
described, the three layers of earth called here soil, subsoil and
deep subsoil are maintained in their respective orders of depth, for
nothing is more fatal than to bury the "living earth" of the surface
below the reach of the roots of our plants, bringing to the surface
in its place the barren subsoil devoid of humus and devoid of those
living bacteria so essential to the fertility of the soil. By proper
and continuous cultivation, the actual living soil attains an ever
increasing thickness, so that in time the top two feet may be correctly
described as surface soil and become freely interchangeable throughout
its thickness.
MANURES
The idyll of manures has been written by the Dean of Rochester, who has
placed on eternal record his devotion to Sterculus, the son of Faunus,
whom he imaged as riding proudly, pitch-fork ("agricultural trident")
in hand, in his family chariot, the _currus Stercorosus_ (_Anglice_,
muck-cart). As I can confess to no such love, I will merely state the
few facts which all plant-growers must bear in memory.
The great and safe manure for hardy flower culture is that of the
stable or farm-yard, which is so valuable, not only for the actual
food elements which itself contains, but also for the mass of straw
and other organic material which by its fermentation sets up chemical
activity in the soil, and so liberates a small continuous supply of the
plant-foods therein contained. This latter property is what gives much
of its manurial value to the mixed "rubbish" of the ash-pit--containing
as it generally does such waste organic matter as cabbage leaves,
potato-peelings, and "bits" of all kinds. Buried weeds, leaves and
"garden refuse" act in a precisely similar way. These organic manures
are, moreover, of the greatest service in keeping the soil open,
porous and friable, in retaining water and so retaining also mineral
plant-foods dissolved therein, and in adding to the warmth of the
soil both by engendering heat in the process of fermentation and by
mechanically rendering the soil a worse conductor.
In the preliminary preparation of borders or beds, provided the soil
be well dug to a depth of two or three feet, a really heavy dressing
of farm-yard manure should be well incorporated--say about a ton to
every two hundred square yards. The manure should not be buried, but
should be intimately mixed with the whole depth of soil. A light sandy
soil will take a heavier, and a heavy soil a lighter dressing than
the average one suggested. The beds should be manured and otherwise
prepared sometime before the planting is to take place, as many plants
and especially many bulbous plants cannot stand the proximity of fresh
and rank manure.
When the ground is thus properly prepared at the start, little more
actual cultivation is needed in the case of most hardy herbaceous
plants beyond annual top dressing with manure, occasional loosening
of the surface soil where not covered by dwarf plants, weeding, and
occasional thinning or division of big clumps. Whenever a plant is
taken up, the opportunity should be seized to add a fork-load of rotten
manure to the spot vacated. Top dressings should as far as possible be
placed round plants in early spring, just before new growth starts, as
the manure is then soon covered and concealed by foliage.
Bone meal, finely-broken bones, small quantities of guano, and even
carefully-applied nitrate of soda (half-an-ounce to the square yard)
have their respective values, but the novice will be wise in placing
reliance on farm-yard manure for the bulk of his plants.
SEED-SOWING AND TRANSPLANTING
The gardening beginner will be well advised to obtain the greater
number of his perennials as plants; but there are some which are easily
grown from seeds, and seed-sowing is the method by which all the
hardy annuals and biennials are to be raised. In the case of annual
and biennial plants, such as sweet-peas, mignonette, nasturtiums,
convolvuluses, nigellas, and the rest, the seed may well be sown in the
open borders or beds, if the soil be but well dug and finely divided.
It is advisable, however, to mix a little sand and leafmould with the
soil, and to give the seed-bed a good watering on the night previous
to sowing the seeds, if the soil be otherwise dry. At the same time
it is necessary to avoid sowing when the ground is sticky after or
during heavy rain. The seed having been sown in finely-pulverised soil
which is neither too wet nor too dry, it is a good practice to press
the seed-bed, either by the use of a roller, or by patting it with the
flat of a spade. This tends to promote the flow of a continuous supply
of moisture from the deeper parts to the surface of the soil by means
of capillary attraction. As, however, this proceeding also promotes a
continuous loss of soil-moisture by evaporation, the surface should be
loosened by hoe or rake as soon as the young plants appear--indeed,
in the case of the more deeply-buried seeds, such as sweet-peas, the
surface should be slightly disturbed as soon as the sowing and pressing
have been performed. In dry weather, evaporation from the seed-bed may
be checked by shading it with a screen placed about two feet above the
surface.
As to the depth at which seed should be sown, much depends on the
variety, as also on the nature of the soil and the season of the year;
but it may be taken as a general rule that small seeds should be
covered by a depth of soil about equal to their thickness, whilst seeds
such as sweet peas should be sown two inches deep. The soil must not be
allowed to become quite dry, but great care is to be taken in watering,
which should be done, when necessary, with a watering-pot provided with
a very fine rose. Those perennials, such as the columbines, campanulas,
poppies, and primroses, which are easily to be raised from seed, may
be sown in open beds, but, as they are somewhat slower in germinating,
it will usually be found more satisfactory to sow them in shallow
earthenware pans containing a mixture of loam, sand and leaf-mould. The
soil in the pans can best be kept moist by occasionally dipping the
seed-pan in a vessel of water, being very careful not to lower it so
that the surface of the soil is below the surface of the water. A sheet
of glass may be placed as a cover to the seed-pan until germination
takes place; but, in order to check evaporation from the surface, care
should be taken not to "damp off" the young seedlings through excessive
moisture and insufficient air.
There is one great rule to be borne in mind in sowing all kinds
of seed, and that rule, printed in largest type, should be placed
wherever gardeners are to be found:--SOW THINLY. Do not rely too much
on subsequent thinning out, but allow space for development from the
first, for at no stage of its career should a young plant be pressed
upon by its neighbour. A knowledge of the size and habit of the mature
plant is therefore necessary in order to estimate the requisite space
between the seeds. It must, however, be remembered that a certain
proportion of seeds will fail to germinate, and that a certain
proportion of seedlings will fall victims to disease and snails. In
the case of plants which are intended to be transplanted from the
seed-bed or seed-pan, it is of course the size of the seedlings at the
transplanting stage which has to be borne in mind in judging of the
correct distance between the seeds. But it is a point which cannot
be too often drubbed into young gardeners--and old ones too for that
matter--that one well-grown plant is better than twenty badly grown
ones. Also it should ever be remembered that a plant starved in infancy
suffers for it throughout its career.
Seeds of hardy plants may be sown at almost any time during spring,
summer, or autumn, provided that due attention be given in the
matter of watering, preparation of the soil and the like. Most of
the biennials and perennials may with advantage be sown in June and
transplanted to their flowering quarters in September. Annuals intended
to bloom in the summer or autumn should be sown in March, April and
May; whilst those intended to flower in the following year should be
sown in August and September.
Most plants may be transplanted at any season of the year if the
operation be properly performed. A dull day or an evening should be
selected, and a ball of earth should if possible be removed attached
to the roots. The ground into which the plant is to be removed, should
be well and deeply dug, and a deep and capacious hole be made with a
trowel or dibbler. Into this the plant is to be carefully placed, its
roots being well spread out and well settled by means of water. For a
day or two after being moved, it should be shaded from the hot sun, and
for the first few evenings should be liberally watered.
[Illustration: SHIRLEY POPPIES]
LAYERS AND CUTTINGS
The division of the rootstock is a method of propagation applicable to
the majority of perennial plants. In the case of most corms and bulbs,
it is necessary, in order to increase the supply, to separate the
young bulbels or cormels and to plant them out in a nursery bed until
they develop to a useful flowering size. But in the division of the
rootstocks of herbaceous plants a certain amount of violence is usually
required, and a strong knife, a cold chisel and a mallet will be found
useful tools. Each plant, if it is to develop into a new plant, must
include at least one eye or bud and must usually also be provided with
a supply of rootlets.
Many plants may be propagated by the process known as layering, which
essentially consists in pegging down a shoot to the ground by means of
a little crotchet stick, having notched with a sharp knife half way
through a joint at the point where the shoot touches the soil, and
covering the pegged down part of the shoot with a few inches of good
gritty loam. In a little while, roots will form at the point of section
and the shoot can be separated from its parent as an independent plant.
The Carnation is usually propagated in this way, the layering being
performed in July and the young plants being separated a few months
later. Roses may be pegged down and layered in a somewhat similar way,
but in their case it is the middle of a branch and not its base which
is cut and pegged beneath the soil.
Another method by which many plants can be increased is that
of cuttage. This is the method usually employed by growers of
chrysanthemums, pansies, and certain other plants. To effect this,
a cut should be made in a slanting direction through the stem to be
severed, just below a joint. As a rule cuttings of herbaceous plants
should be made in the spring. Some cuttings will root readily in light
soil in the open air if a shady position be selected, but usually it
will be found to be desirable to plant the cuttings in pots of sandy
loam and to place in a hot bed, shading from the sun until they are
rooted.
WEEDS
"Let the painfull Gardiner expresse never so much care and diligent
endeavour; yet among the very fairest, sweetest, and freshest Flowers,
as also Plants of most precious Vertue; ill savouring and stinking
Weeds, fit for no use but the fire or mucke-hill, will spring and
sprout up." So wrote Boccaccio nearly six hundred years ago, and the
truth of his observation has not lost its savour in spite of the
centuries--though I, for one, should be sorry to apply to any plant of
my acquaintance the adjectives of abuse which Boccaccio so naturally
uses.
Of course one tries, and must ever try, to keep the garden free from
weeds, but it is a matter for congratulation that we can never entirely
succeed. Probably the earliest gardening memories of most of us are
associated either with weeds, or with that branch of gardening usually
first delegated to children--the operation of weeding. A great deal of
the pleasure of growing flowers is undoubtedly due to the difficulties
which one has to combat, and gardening with no weeds to worry us, with
no snails, slugs, or green fly for us to fight, would be about as
insipid an occupation as that known among the provincial middle-class
as "paying calls." What beauty there is in these much despised weeds!
Few wall plants, for instance, surpass in general "usefulness" the
little Ivy-leaved Toad-flax (_Linaria Cymbalaria_), which bears its
dainty purple snapdragon-like flowers nearly the year through. It
is a tidy little plant, too, for, as soon as its flowers have been
fertilised and are beginning to fade, it bends them aside so that
the seed vessels may rest in some suitable crevice where the ripened
seed may safely be born. The flowers which stand out from the plant,
therefore, always look fresh and attractive.