Chapter I: Preface

THIS book was suggested by the questions of a boy of twelve who lived in Germany and sent for an English book that would teach him the elements of gardening. One of the authors asked the editor of a well-known gardening journal to recommend her a suitable book, and found that he knew of none written from a child’s point of view, and supplying the instruction a child could understand and use. Yet in these days, when so many children have a garden, such a book must be needed. The aim in this one has been to tell the juvenile reader how to make his garden grow, and the authors have not allowed themselves to wander in the pleasant byways of description, reflection, or amusement. They wished to help the budding gardener rather than to entertain the child, and they have tried to keep within the limits of what a child can do.

But as children vary in age and strength as well as in circumstances, they will not all be able to follow the whole of the advice here given. Cyril, for instance, could dig his own little plot of ground, but Betty could not for many a year to come; and though Cyril may not have the patience to sow his sweet peas in the best of all possible ways, Betty will read in this book how it should be done, and then get one of her father’s gardeners to do it for her. As for Barbara, she is a traveller, and can have no garden of her own; but she sets daffodils in her friends’ gardens, and is content to see them, with her inward eye, dancing in the breeze for their delight. So all children, according to their strength and means, may love a garden, whether it is contained in a few flower-pots on a city window-sill, or encouraged to expand and grow in the wide spaces of the country.

Gardening, like other bents, will find a way; but it will run more smoothly if it has a little help at the beginning.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE SITUATION AND SOIL 1

II. ANNUALS 16

III. HARDY PERENNIALS 43

IV. BULBS, CORMS, AND TUBERS 70

V. BIENNIALS 91

VI. BEDDING PLANTS 107

VII. ROSES 116

VIII. CARNATIONS AND PINKS 131

IX. LILIES 142

X. ROCK AND WALL GARDENS 152

XI. DIFFICULT AND SHADY GARDENS 166

XII. SOME HARDY CLIMBERS 172

XIII. FRUIT AND VEGETABLES 181

XIV. WINDOW, ROOM, AND JAPANESE GARDENS 194

XV. A CALENDAR OF WORK 212

INDEX 233

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

BY MRS. CAYLEY-ROBINSON

A HERBACEOUS BORDER _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE

THE TIDY GARDENER 8

JANUARY 17

POPPIES 32

LARKSPURS AND PINKS 65

DAFFODILS 80

IRISES 97

A CORNISH COTTAGE 112

LILIES AND ROSES 145

‘THE ROAD TO ROME’ 160

A WINDOW GARDEN 193

A ROOM GARDEN IN SPRING 208

THE CHILDREN’S BOOK OF GARDENING