SOME GARDENING DIFFICULTIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 90, 13 October 1938, Page 29

SOME GARDENING DIFFICULTIES

Most enthusiastic gardeners are liable to undertake more than they can manage. Unless undertaken as a business the care of a garden should be full of pleasure. As soon as it becomes a.drudgery-it is time to take stock and see where one is attempting too much.

The following extracts from a gardening magazine, published some time ago, seem apropos:—"Every fresh development suggests another too exciting to resist. Enthusiasm overruns discretion, and then one day we find that by going forward in one place we are slipping back in another. The way which had been so pleasant becomes haunted by a shadow \of perplexity so menacing that we must, call a halt and ask ourselves what is going to be done about it. Now it is quite futile to warn gardeners of the penalties which await an unbridled ambition. They listen politely, carry on, and commit further extravagances. We did.

Needless to say we very quickly realised that the only real bogy in our path was that of labour. . .....The herbaceous borders and beds were transformed into mixed borders and every year these have made a steadily-de-creasing demand upon vs —and given us a wider interest. Thus most of the herbaceous and bedding things which claimed the biggest share of attention were substituted by plants which, while being equally beautiful, would carry ,on for years with a.minimum of care. These broad borders were brought further under control by the introduction of clumps of choice flowering shrubs which, while being a constant delight, practically take care of themselves. Incidentally the spaces between the groups gave shelter from sun, wind, and frost for lilies, paeonies, early bulbs, and the like.

"Beds which had cost us unending labour were also planted with shrubs, such as the dwarfer rhododendrons and heaths, or they were made into rockbeds for the accommodation of the more easy-going alpines, etc., with the result that they v/ere very soon so amply and-permanently furnished that they yielded rich dividends of pleasure for a trifling investment in material and maintenance.

"In all these cases the plans occupied their allotted space so closely that weeds had little chance of survival, and the same principle applied to paths has been equally successful. That is to say, we do not only encourage the lowly edge plants to spill over on to the paths, but many of the latter are covered, all but. the tread, by a lawn of such creeping things as the

cotulas, thymes, veronicas, etc. These are such hearty growers and clothe the margins of the Walk with* a mat of foliage so dense, yet always neat and well-groomed, that no weed can compete against them. ' "Even in beds among such shrubs as

roses, carpeting plants which cover the soil save much labour by checking the growth of weeds. They give us an undercrop of colour and at the same time keep the roots of the shrubs cool and moist, thus doing away with the necessity for mulching, hoeing, watering, and what hot. "It is not suggested that such a policy will entirely dispose of the 'too-much-to-do' complaint, but it may help some through that fog of dismay which comes at timps to most gardeners and allow us to get along without being shadowed fey the constant urge of necessity."