Part 6

Veronica prostrata. Veronica saxatilis. Veronica rupestris. Silene Schafta. Silene acaulis. Silene alpestris. Campanula isophylla. Campanula pulla. Campanula turbinata. Anemone apennina. Anemone blanda. Anemone coronaria. Anemone fulgens. Anemone nemorosa. Dianthus alpina. Dianthus deltoides. Dianthus plumarius. Gentiana acaulis. Gentiana verna. Iberis coriaefolia. Iberis sempervirens. Phlox amœna. Phlox subulata. Auricula (alpine varieties). Cyclamen (various). Viola pedata. Campanula carpatica. Campanula pumila. Campanula pelviformis. Hepatica (various). Aubrietia (various). Primula rosea. Primula vulgaris. Primula Sieboldi. Primula nivalis. Viola (various, violas and pansies). Papaver nudicaule. Cistus (various). Helianthenum (various). Alyssum " Fritillaria " Crocus " Galanthus " Narcissus " Tulipa " Scilla " Iris " Leucojum " Chionodoxa " Eranthis hyemalis.

SHELTER AND SHADE

There are many ways of growing hardy flowering plants, and of growing them to advantage, but all these different methods have certain fundamental conditions in common. Of these conditions the most important are the possession of a suitable site and the provision of suitable soil. Children are raised in slums and hovels, and even in besieged and famine-stricken towns; and, in like manner, there is no site so bad, no aspect so dull, no air so vile, no soil so poor and shallow but plants may be found which will there exist. But in order that we may grow any considerable variety of beautiful flowers we must screen our garden from bitter winds, and so prepare our soil that it shall be adapted for vigorous plant growth. Wind-resisting screens may consist either of walls or of suitable trees and shrubs. Which of these forms of protection should be selected depends on circumstances which vary with different gardens. In any event, it will be generally agreed that a garden should be so enclosed (Hortus--an enclosed space) as to afford not only shelter to plants from the more strenuous forces of Nature, but also that privacy from the vulgar gaze which we call seclusion. If the garden is to be enclosed by walls, let these be of a fair height--not less than ten feet; and let them be clothed with a variety of the lovely climbing plants now at the disposal of the gardener. There is considerable room for choice both among deciduous and evergreen climbers. Among the best of the former section are the self-clinging Ampelopsis Veitchii, the blue and the white Passion-flowers, numerous varieties of Clematis, the winter-blooming Jasminum nudiflorum, Wistaria, Honeysuckles, Bignonia radicans, and many of the Roses and Vines; whilst against walls facing north we may grow Tropæolum speciosum, Clematis flammula, the Evergreen and Boursault Roses and the Virginian Creeper. The Evergreens mostly prosper with any aspect. Among the best are the various Ivies and Cotoneasters and Crataegus pyracantha.

The trees and shrubs which may be used are numerous; but for dense hedges perhaps the most useful are Holly, White Thorn, Privet, Barberry, Laurel, Box and Yew. Where possible, the straight line of a long clipped hedge may be broken by groups of shrubs planted within, unless a formal garden effect be desired. It is well to distinguish between the use of shrubs or trees as bounding fences or screens and their use as beautiful individual plants; and, when a dense screen is required, to obtain it by means of suitable trees and a properly made and properly shorn hedge rather than by a thickly-planted and therefore overcrowded "shrubbery." Whether it be trees or shrubs or climbing plants that we propose to plant, the ground should be deeply trenched and well manured, so that annual meddling about the roots may not be required. Whilst a certain proportion of evergreen shrubs, such as the beautiful hollies and barberries, should be used, it is undesirable to make too free a use of non-deciduous plants. The ordinary overcrowded laurel and privet shrubbery is hideous and depressing.

Trees and shrubs, however, are useful not only for the shelter and seclusion which they yield, but also for their delightful summer shade. In one of his essays, Emerson quotes an Arabian poet's description of his hero:--

"Sunshine was he In the winter day; And in the midsummer Coolness and shade."

That is a beautiful description of a perfect friend, but it might serve equally as a description of a perfect garden. The flowers of July are infinite in their number and exquisite in their beauty, yet, if they are grown in a large, tidy, treeless, shrubless garden, they will yield but little pleasure. A garden is not a place merely for the exhibition of floral wonders, but a place wherein to rest, to talk, to read or to dream. With the blazing sun of July beating on one's unshaded head, dreaming, resting, and reading are equally uncomfortable and unprofitable.

A shade-giving tree is worth all the flowers of midsummer, though 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.

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.

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.