We Made a Garden by Margery Fish Page B

laid out like a lot of dead rats. It became some thing like a game. If I knew I had an ailing child I was trying to bring round I’d do my utmost to steer him away from that spot. It didn’t often work and now I realize that he was right in his contention that a plant that had begun to grow badly could never be made into a decent citizen and the only thing to do was to scrap it. Sweet Williams were my greatest trial until I learned to cheat. Mine had an awful way of becoming leggy and untidy, and instead of sitting up straight and sturdily they flopped about and lolled about in a way most unpleasing to my lord and master. I should have saved myself a lot of anguish if I had discovered earlier that a lot can be done by putting the unseemly legginess under the soil, and making it so firm that each spike is supported. I have even used this unorthodox treat ment for pinks that straggled, to make them temporarily presentable. Of course, the real answer is to grow and plant them properly.
    Another thing I was taught was to get plants into the soil at the first possible moment. It really hurt my husband when people bought or were given plants and delayed planting them. Sometimes we’d see a border being remade and heaps of plants left lying about with their roots exposed to the air. It is so easy to cover the roots with sacks if one hasn’t time to heel them in, and it makes all the difference to the life of the plant.
    Planting came first in our lives and whatever job was on hand it had to be abandoned if plants arrived. I remember one weekend when we had some rather special visitors, to whom we were showing the countryside. A parcel of flowering shrubs was delivered by the railway. The visitors just had to amuse themselves while we dealt with those shrubs. First we put their roots in a bucket of water while we dug the holes, then Walter planted them feverishly and I watered them copiously while our visitors looked on and thought we were slightly mad.
    Sometimes, with the best intentions in the world, it isn’t possible to plant immediately, but one can always dig a hole and heel the plants in the earth, or with trees or shrubs that are too big to plant like that, one can see that the roots are covered with straw or sacking. I have given plants to people—and kind people at that— and seen those same plants weeks later huddled together in a corner just as I had taken them from my basket, without a crumb of soil or a handful of leaves. When I give away plants I like to pack them in damp moss so that they come to no harm if neglected. One can do that with a few small treasures but it takes too long when giving away large quantities, and the only thing to do is to choose the people to whom you give them.
    One mistake nearly all beginners make is to plant too close together. I heard a lot about this when I first started gardening, jokes on the subject were read out to me, and I came to the conclusion that most humorists were male, because it was always the wife who made this silly mistake. It is extremely difficult to visualize how big your plants will grow, and it is quite natural to want to cover that expanse of bare earth as quickly as possible. In fact if you planted the things as far apart as they ought to be the effect would be very bare and bleak for a long time, but it is the only thing to do. Most people plant shrubs far too close together and the effect is com pletely ruined when they grow up. It is far, far better to plant them
    at the right distances and fill the gaps in the early stages with temporary plantings. It is sometimes worth while to put in more shrubs than you will eventually want if quick results are needed. I did this with Euphorbia Wulfenii in a place where I wanted a quick screen. Three plants were put in fairly close together and I had my effect in the first year. The strongest of the three overlaid the other two, and I removed them. The beginnings of a garden need not be painfully bare if you plant