THE GARDEN.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 September 1921, Page 6

THE GARDEN.

A GREAT ASSET TO THE HOME. A TEACHER OF NATURE STUDY SUGGEST ED. In the course of her address to the Victoria League on Monday evening, Mrs. C. H. Burgess dealt with gardens as well as with homes. Speaking o-f gardens, she said: — For some of us the garden is already an established possession, with lawns and flower beds only waiting the warmth of spring days to be clothed again with foliage and blossoms. Others, whose homes have only been built recently, have the joy of developing an entirely new garden. The main ideal should be an arrangement of vines and flowers, grass and shrubbery that brings an atmosphere of rest and harmony about the home. We ought to strive to make it the sort of place where one can relax and play, where one can work, take one’s meais when the weather permits, and spend happy hours with children or with friends. The garden ought really to be so attractive that a peep at it through door and window will coax us out just to have a look when duty says we must not. The difficulty with many gardens is that too much is attempted. Too many varieties of plants are used, too many colors are expected to blend. The soft pinks, blues, lilacs and whites seldom clash with each other. Yellow, to be seen at its best, should be placed where there is plenty of green, as in a dell a bit dark and shady, or in masses, with purple. The tendency is to plant annuals here and there in the garden. Try a patch of stocks and snapdragons in a sunny position, and see what a joy they will be all through the mid of summer. Let some of your Virginian stocks go to seed, and when ripe open its layers and scatter the seed along a wall or at the base of your house. done in March they will be a mass of bloom in July, and make the winter garden bright and gay-

I find it a good plan to do the annual tidying of my beds earlier than most folk, the end of March and during April being the best time. Put something back into the soil in the way <»r leaf mould, and scatter your seeds and leave the rest to Nature. Keep the soil well covered with plant life, and you will keep down the weeds.

There is not time to go into the many delightful possibilities of a garden, such as arbors and arches, box gardens, wall gardens, and the attractiveness of floral decorations hanging over walls, instead of climbing up from their base. This arrangement has so enchanted visitors to the Mediterranean that they have endeavored to produce similar effects in other parts of the world, even to the extent of placing along the top of their walls boxes filled with earth in which plants might be grown. Many of our own t cobble stone walls in New Plymouth, which are how the fashion, could be utilised in the same way, and greatly add to the . town-plan - ning scheme. 1 know some folk will argue against this on account of tho children destroying the plants and pull ing the flowers, but my experience has been that habit is second nature, and the novelty soon wears off. I would like to see a teacher of nnt ure study appointed in this town to teach children how to dig and delve in their own home gardens. It could be run on a business basis, the children supplying the home with fresh vegetables and flowers to brighten the rooms, as well as keeping the child healthily occupied while out of school. Thon I think our children would have learned to love Nature sufficiently not to destrov our walls.