WINTER IN THE GARDEN.

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 15313, 14 August 1923, Page 2

WINTER IN THE GARDEN.

PLEASURES AND DISAPPOINTMENT

(By A.W.M.)

Patter, patter go the raindrops as vou gaze out on your beloved garden. Something seems to look different, since the last time you carefully examined your flower-beds. In reality things do look different, but not the difference that is appreciated. The ■ground is wot and sodden, "the trees arc looking bare, and the plants hang then- heads as though tired of living, and ashamed of their appearance Their spring and summer beauty is gone. Some lonely bushes raise gaunt stems, with rusty brown leaves still hanging on them. The trees arc bending low with the weight of numerous raindrops, and little pools form on the ground at their feet, gradually becoming rivulets, and then developing into a fair-sized brooklet, which flows merrily down your path, washing down gravel with it—where, no one knows. All you do know is that your patli becomes a mud-bed and not gravel. You look out at a distance and watch the mist whirling and chasing in clouds up the gully, blotting out trees and familiar objects on the landscape. AIL that is left is a mass of tea-tree, on the edge of a ridge bravely showing its white blossoms, each one so perfect when looked at —an everyday proof of the proverb, 1 Familiarity breeds contempt.” _ If the broom wore only rare wo might admire its beautiful flowers —yellow, always lovely. Now and again we find someone who admires, but the most of us pass it by beneath our notice. The oaks, willows, and the tall gums are standing up shivering, with the wind in the raw air. Bare branches reach the sky, not a leaf upon them. Even the willow is losing its leaves, and it generally holds on to the last. The fruit trees are also very bare, and the trees, most of them, in your garden are asleep. The rain is over and you walk out to sec what ruin has been made to [he plants. You look at the different rows of sweet peas, sovvn in the late summer in a vain anticipation of early blooms. But, alas! no such luck, the wind has flattened them to tfle ground, and others have provided a breakfast, dinner and supper for slugs and snails. The sparrows and fantails are in splendid condition; there is plenty of food for them. The birds finish off the peas, as they pull them up bv the roots, they arc in such a hurry; they really must have heard you coming. The gardener has much need for patience! Sometimes ycu manage to kill the invaders with lime and traps.

Then, what joy you have as you watch your tiny seedlings grow big.gcr and bigger, taller and taller. How you hoe and rake round them, weed round them, and apply a little fertiliser as you have read in a book the enterprising seedsman has sent you You then make up your mind to be patient until spring. • Attention with the pruning-knife and secatucrs is needed among th< roses. . Here and there you find a (lower which is put to adorn your table. You have to he contented with the leaves at present. On inspecting the bulb-bed you see several are in bud. The bulb flowers very early, so it is a pleasure to recover from seeing leaves to seeing flowers at last. Violets are flowering here and there. You are attracted by their beautiful perfume. Is there any flower we bail with such delight as the first violets? We all love to wear buttonholes of the modest blue flowers. It Is a unlversa 1 favourite. You only have to look Id a seedsman’s window to see that.

The sun is getting stronger, and the mist and rain has passed. You transplant or plant some seedlings. llowevef, something is found to do in the garden even in the winter. Now is the lime to begin to plant ferns in your garden. There are so few pco plo that grow ferns. I often won* dor why. It would do for us all to have some bush in the garden. But, alas! it is raining again; the raindrops come down faster ana fast er, Wc retreat indoors hurriedly.