THE PRIVATE GARDEN The present forms of the private garden have been evolved from many greatly differing styles. Very formal gardening with its neat beds and trimmed hedges and trees, landscape gardening which re moved walls and boundary fences and took gardening into the parks and fields, wild gardening, the Victorian gardens of geranium beds in green smooth lawns all surrounded with laurel hedges,—all have held sway in their time, and parts of each are embodied in the gardening of the twentieth century. Changes have occurred in that laurels and evergreen shrubs have largely given way to flower ing shrubs; the lawn is still kept but often is in part set with groups of daffodils, crocuses and snowdrops; trees and hedges are no longer cut and trimmed to weird shapes ; the geraniums have given way to herbaceous plants and often a rock garden finds place. Sometimes provision is made for semi-aquatic plants.
In creating a good effect, the appearance of the lawn is all im portant. The lawn should be well drained to remove surplus water, and constantly rolled and mown and kept free of daisies and plantains. Grass may be encouraged to grow by repeated applica tions of small quantities of sulphate of ammonia. The best time of the year to prepare for making a new lawn in England is directly after the hot summer weather ceases, about the middle of August, to ensure a sowing of grass seeds at the end of the month. The soil is then warm, and heavy dews may be expected to help the germ ination of the seed. The young grass will have plenty of time to develop roots, and become properly established before frosts come. It is advisable to sow between one and two ounces of seed to the square yard, so that the amount for a lawn the size of a tennis court—forty yards by twenty yards—would be one hundred pounds. Patches of snowdrops, crocuses, daffodils and scillas planted in the lawn make a delightful spring effect, but the grass in these patches cannot be cut till June or the bulbs become weakened.
Bulbs are exceedingly popular, especially those of the narcissi and daffodils ; of these new and improved kinds are introduced annually. Golden Spur, Emperor and King Alfred are really good yellow daffodils, whilst Orantus, Horace, Sunrise, Lucifer, Flame, Croesus are good narcissi. Crocus breeding has developed kinds that flower throughout the autumn, winter and spring.
These desirable shrubs need protection from severe frosts during exceptionally cold winters, and very occasional dressings with dung or leaf mould. Some need careful pruning, others trimming; particulars can be obtained from any national horticultural society. Rock Gardening.—In modern rock gardens Alpine plants pre dominate ; in fact the gardens are constructed to make suitable sheltered spots and crevices, dry patches and wet places for these plants, for Alpines only grow well if given just the right places, soil and shelter. Some need peaty soil, others leaf mould and loam, while others need just scree or limestone rubble. The aim of the rock gardener must be to give each its natural environment. Some of the most charming Alpine plants for a rock garden are Alyssum saxatile citrinum (sheet of sulphur yellow), Androsace (rock jas mine, should be planted on gritty soil), Anemone angulosa (blue) and A. Pulsatilla (purple), Aubrietia Dr. Mules (purple), Cam panula Allionii, C. Alba and C. Miss Wilmott, Cotyledon simpli ci f olius, Cyclamen europaeum and C. neapolitanum, Daphne Cneorum, Dianthus alpinus, Gaultheria procumbens (miniature shrub with white blossoms), Gentian acaulis, G. Sino-ornata, and G. verna, Lberis sempervirens, Snowflake, Iris pumila, Oxalis en neaphylla, Phlox stellaria, Primula auricula Bulleyana (splendid bog species), P. a. Juliae and Ramondia pyrenaica, Saxifraga Cotyledon, S. Myra, S. burseriana, Sedum acre, S. murale, Sem pervivum arachnoideum, Silene acaulis, Thymus nitidus, Veronica, Viola Bertoloni.
Of dwarf trees and shrubs the following are good, Berberis Thunbergii purpurea, Cotoneaster horizontalis, Cupressus Fletch eri, Cytisus Kewensis, Daphne album, Erica carnea.
The seeds of Alpine rock plants should be sown in pots in the autumn and exposed to the winter's frosts and snows and then in the spring put in cold frames. They may be pricked out as soon as large enough to handle and planted in their permanent quarters.
Some of the best climbing roses are American pillar (pink), Paul's scarlet climber (scarlet), Tausendschoen (pink), Corona tion (crimson), Blush rambler, Dorothy Perkins (pink), Minne haha (deep rose). These climbing roses need tying to the poles on which they climb, and each year the old wood needs cutting leaving only the new growths.
As bush roses the following kinds are noteworthy : Polyantha varieties (very dwarf) : Crimson Orleans (crimson), Kirsten Poull sen (scarlet), Nurse Cavell (red), Coral Cluster (coral pink), Else Poullsen (rose pink). Bush roses, semi-double and doubles: Betty Uprichard (pink and carmine), Christine (yellow), Halmark crim son (crimson), Independence day (yellow), Lady Pirrie (salmon pink), Mme. Butterfly (pale pink), Mrs. Herbert Stevens (white), Red Letter day (crimson-scarlet) . Singles: Pink Delight (pink) , Ethel James (bright pink), Irish Elegance (bright apricot), Irish Fireflame (orange pink). Good Roses for Standards are Mrs. Henry Morse, Frau Karl Druschki, Lady Pierre, Mme. Herriot, Ophelia, General McArthur, Hugh Dickson, Golden Emblem, Lady Hillingdon, Los Angeles, Caroline Testout, Mme. Abel Chatenay.
Young shoots give the best blooms, and these are encouraged by liberal manuring and by cutting well back in late spring when danger of frost has disappeared.
Roses are propagated on many different types of stocks, the briar, the manetti, the rugosa, and the Seedling Polyanthus rose, but beyond doubt those on the briar give the best results and last the longest.
Roses need careful pruning, though each kind of rose needs different treatment. The rambler roses should be autumn pruned by cutting out the old shoots and leaving the young growth. The Wichuraianas (Dorothy Perkins, Minnehaha, etc.) may be sim ilarly treated as soon as flowering has finished. The Noisettes (William Allen Richardson, Marechal Niel, etc.) should be cut hard back in April. Bush roses should be left alone or just thinned when necessary. The perpetual roses, the rugosas, should be trimmed into shape during February. The hybrid perpetuals are cut back moderately in late March. The hybrid teas (Mrs. W. T. Grant, etc.) may be pruned in mid-March. Never prune roses until the kind has been ascertained.
Vegetable purpose of the vegetable garden is to supply the larder with fresh vegetables throughout the year as far as possible. In temperate climates it is possible to secure a full twelve months' supply, but where the winter and summer temperature vary greatly, the supply falls short. To secure suc cessful crops there must be thorough and deep cultivation, intensi fied manuring, and a proper rotation of crops. The soil at all times needs digging a good spade deep, and if done two spades deep or even three the results are much better for soil drainage and aera tion is then better and roots penetrate deeper. The manuring should be liberal, of the right kinds and properly balanced. No doubt farmyard dung or green manure should form the basis, for when incorporated into the soil these work down to humus, and improve the physical properties of all soils. If sufficient dung is not available, it can be supplemented with artificials in much more generous quantities than is used generally. A good annual dressing for the garden would be 5 cwt. of dung per perch before digging and then an application of 3 lb. sulphate of ammonia, 9 lb. of superphosphate and 2 lb. of sulphate of potash, all scattered on the top of the soil as a spring dressing before planting or seeding is done. All gardens need lime as the soil becomes acid. Seedlings fare badly in soil short of lime and grow badly, especially when the drought comes. Peas and beans are very sensitive and grow indifferently on acid soils. On the other hand, potatoes and beets are resistant. Burnt lime, chalk or limestone should be applied in the spring just before the garden soil is dug. For the cultiva tion of the different garden crops see the articles on the various vegetables.
Fruit in the Garden.—However small the garden, there should be room for a few fruits such as strawberries, gooseberries, currants, plums, apples and pears. One hundred plants of straw berries of the Royal Sovereign variety should yield sufficient for a small household. Lancer is the best gooseberry where only one kind is grown. It is good to eat or cook and a regular cropper of large berries. The Br 1 win is the best garden currant, for its bushes are small and the crop large.
The tree fruits should be propagated on the dwarfing stocks, for only small trees are needed. For pears the quince stocks should be used and for apples the Jaune de Metz stock. If these stocks are used the trees never grow very large and begin early to give good crops of high quality fruits.
Gardening in the Public Parks.—The public parks of this generation are something more than public playgrounds of green fields, for in their management the horticulturist has secured a footing. Trees that bear beautiful flowering blossoms, such as the chestnut, acacia, tulip tree, catalpa and the beams now take the place of some of the commoner non-flowering trees. Banks of flowering shrubs have been planted and in addition beds of flowers are now quite common.
The London parks (Hyde park and St. James' park) have excel lent trials each year of dahlias and tulips in which the public takes great interest. The Japanese flowering cherry trees in Washington park, U.S.A., are another striking example of the advance of horti culture in public parks. The public parks of Edinburgh, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Ottawa, Montreal, Sydney and Melbourne are similarly made attractive. Each group of plants bears its name on a label. The park horticulturist in some instances has gone further, as for example in Hyde park and St. James' park, London, where notice boards displayed alongside the beds of trial dahlias and tulips set out the history of these particular flowers and the methods adopted for their classification.
Horticultural Instruction.—Horticulture has now become a recognised subject for a degree course at many of the universities. In England, for example, horticultural courses for degrees are given at the universities of Leeds, London (South Eastern Agri cultural college, Wye), Cambridge and Reading. At the colleges, horticultural instruction courses are given at the Midland Agricul tural college, East Anglian institute, Chelmsford, and at the farm schools of many county councils. The Royal Horticultural Society have a horticultural school at their gardens at Wisley, where a two year course of instruction is given for male students. The society holds annually examinations in horticulture for the award of the national diploma in horticulture (N.D.H.). Women horti culturalists have special colleges for their instruction. The Horti cultural college for Women, Swanley, Kent, can accommodate 8o resident students. The Studley college, Warwickshire, also a residential horticultural college for women, has 34o acres. Each English county council employs one or more skilled horticul turalists to teach in the villages.
In France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Europe generally the land and agricultural schools also give special horticultural courses, though no special degree for horticulture is made.
A recent development has been made in New Zealand, where official recognition has now been given to the awarding of a national diploma in horticulture. In the United States progress in the development of horticultural courses and instruction has been very rapid, for many universities not only award degrees specially for horticultural subjects but some have on their staff professors of horticulture, floriculture, pomology and vegetable crops.