Cottage Gardens.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume I, Issue 31, 6 December 1879, Page 4

Cottage Gardens.

A very interesting competition has juat taken place and been decided in Rangiora. , , It was for the best kept and best cultivated cottage garden; and the prizes w 4|3pt~ offered by the Hon. H. B. at the Rangiora Horticultural Society; The tone of the Christchurch papers, in speaking of the gardens entered for qompetition, .is very complimentary; and . though Rangiora’s history is a good deal more “{ancient ” than that ,of Ashburton, - and her cottage gardens have had a longer time to develop into the “things of . beauty” and the “joys for ever thatflower gardens are, our township is not by any means to bo set down as a township with no taste for the beauties of Flora. But we would like to see moreattcntion still paid to the many little gar- , dens within the borough boundaries. We , know there are many hard working, men in the place who bestow both: time and , , labor in their spare moments to their , flower and vegetable beds ; and. all that is wanted is some healthy emulation to be started, to show a marked ; difference by. next summer on the appearance ,of ,our cottage plots. It is perhaps .too early .in the , day . ,to talk of a ' Horticultural ' Society ".that could hold a creditable Shownextyear butitistiot too. early to speak of the formation, of such' a Society, with a view to, future displays 1 as a result of the impetus to garden cqltivation the institution of such society would be sure to. give. At present, there are many cottages standing in'the midst of a wilderness of tussock, pf havdng for sur-; roundings the bar© remnants of what was the productive garden of some previous occupant, who had a higher ‘or more thrifty taste that his successor. It wants but some Stimulant to action to set stick occupiers tigPing. ' And if some energetic men were to set" about the formation; of a .{Horticultural Society—no matter how Humble its first , pretensions—we may possibly find latent, gardening talent .suddenly deyelopingwith' a most happy effect upon the' appearance of the town. It is one of the character- • istics of John Bull that he doesn’t like to he out-done, and when Jones, Smith’s neighbor, gets a-digging, and finally has a blooming garden worth looking at, Smith ( doesn’t say very much, but by-and-bye 3 r ou see his sleeves up, and a new spade flourished about. Some Ashburtonians, complain that there is not very much' to interest or amuse in our rising township; ; but it is amazing how much to interest there may be found in the turning over the proper way of only a clod.”