Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-18
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

Gardening in q daze-many people
do it. as strange as it may seem. They
have no clear idea Of what they are
attempting to do, nor of what they
want to do.
Plant names, plant habits, plant re-
ouirements, all run away from them Of
seem to whirl in terrific circles, leav'
ing them resting heavily on their hoe.
Yet such a state of mind should never
exist in the oldest and most pleasant o.
occupations, and perhaps this time Of
the year, before Spring arrives, is the
best of all to consider this matter.
The cropping attitude In garden work
if one may so call it, comes about, first
of all, because the would-be gardener
does not get his nomenclature straight
He muffs his words, to put 1t plainly
He never takes the time to read care
fully the names of the various plants
so that he stumbles over mere pro-
nunciations.
He is half afraid to speak the name
of plant, fearful lest he say it wrong
", which he most often does. The fact
that many of the plant names are
Latin. with some named from their dis
coverers, adds to his confusion.
We would say, then, that the first
step toward enjoyable gardening is tc
use ones head when reading flower
catalogues.
The plain A, B and c of names is
necessary If one is to feel at home with
the plants. The inevitable discussion
with other enthusiasts demands that
one know more or less what he is talk
ing about
In this respect there seems to have
grown up most lamentable indiffer-
ence, as if any old name would do fol
any old plant Perhaps it is based or
the very ancient heritage of horticul-
ture. Since men first we're they have
been interested in plants.
So, as familiarity does breed con-
tempt in many instances, mankind has
come to regard agriculture as some
thing which every one ought by divine
right to be entirely familiar with.
How. one may ask, can a city man
whose ancestors have been city men
expect to have any understanding OF
horticulture unless he put some real
work into it?
In this day in the cities many per-
sons live without ever having a plot of
ground which they can call their own.
When one of these apartment-bred
families finally moves into house with
yard attached, the members often
succumb to the call of the soil.
They do not, however, intend to
bother themselves much with the mat
ter. They will invest in a few seed,
and theya will throw them into the
ground. and if they grow, well and
good. and If they do not. well, garden
ing is a nuisance, after all!
X = X
Those who take up gardening. in no
matter how informal way, ought for
their own sake to study the proposition
a little, and get out of it all they legiti-
mately can, which will depend, in the
last analysis, upon how much they put
into it..
Not one of the careless gardeners
would think of purchasing and driving
an automobile without first making a
careful study of various makes, and
then studying the driving and care of
car, and finally making a careful
study of the traffic regulations. The
last two are compulsory.
Yet scores of these innocents go
forth every Spring to manhandle the
soil without one second of preparation,
as if it were beneath them to put a
minutes time on the prior study OF the
whole plant creation.