Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-10-12
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES f. TRACEF ELL.

| the seed pods lefs. whereas several
| specimens across the alley are still in
| full leaf.
Madeira vines over the arch proved
a dismal failure. They were late in
! sprouting, and never gave enough
foliage to cover the timbers. One flower
was the total floral reward from half
a dozen tubers! Our experience with
this vine shows 1t to be worthleSS-or
maybe better way to put 1t would
be to say that the tubers used we're
worthless
At any rate, there will be no Ma
deira vines planted there next year. The
common morning glory would have
done much better. although it has the
| fault of starting very late. This. how
ever. is common to most vines. When
| they once start growing they seem to
be able to make up for lost time.
The morning glory, despite It's COM
monness, is one OF the most satisfactory
of vines. The prettiest spot In the
yard is a fence covered with it. below
which nestle marigolds. zinnia and
ageratum. All of these have bloomed
| for weeks and are still doing very
nicely
This section of the fence is toward
the house at the north. so that none
of the plants has received any sun for
the past month. Those interested in
flowers that do we'll in the shade, or
partial shade. please take note.
X x
The personal belief of the writer here
is that garden of the average home
type should be given thorough clean
ing In November Some make a prsc-
tice of deferring this until Spring. when,
they say. they feel more in the mood
for 1t. We have seen 1t stated that
the snow looks so pretty on withered
zinnia bushes!
The plain truth of the matter is that
any yard in which floral vegetation has
been at all luXurisnt takes on a de-
cidedly messy appearance by the end of
Autumn. The vines are Straggly. the
ANIMALS withered beyond hope, the
grass hopelessly faded.
Something ought to be done about it
but let it be said that this does not mean
pruning Pruning in most cases. is a
legitimate Spring task. Long canes of
rosebushes may be topped" at this sea =
son, but such topping simply means cut
ting off the ends, not actually pruning
the bushes, by which term is meant
cutting the bushes back TO foot or a
/ foot and half for all the canes. If
this latter Is done at this time, it will
result in the death of the bushes Nor
should any of the shrubs be pruned now.
Such plants must be cut back, If it is
to be done at ALL after the flowers have
Withered Ia the Spring.
Garden cleaning consists largely in
pulling up ANIMALS by the roots and
tearing out the vine growths from
fences and antennA poles Radio fans
know that sometimes a vine can ground
an antenna, cutting down signal strength
to a certain extent. The general clean
ing may be done at one time by putting
it off until after all the leaves have
fallen from the trees. Then these may
be removed with the old plants. Per-
haps certain picturesque effect may be
cleared away, too. but such a loss is
small, after all, compared to the total
effect of neatness which such clean
up brings small place. This trim
neatness Is the essential characteristic
in small plot such as the average city
or suburban holding The Winter land
scape at the best Is rather bare: there is
no particular gain in adding to 1t by a
cluttered-up look Of place. Nor must
1t be forgotten that the Autumn clean
ing will leave the amateur gardener with
less to do In the Spring, when there
seems to be so much to do