Evening star., 1930-12-01

No matter how cold it gets, garden.
| erS never lose their enthusiasm
When they cannot garden actively
they like to read about it..
Recently we presented here an article
! giving the six common mistakes made
! by the amateur.
In the next mail we received letter
from a keen-eyed reader, as follows:
Dear Sir: read with interest your
| article about the six mistakes of new
| comerS to the garden world, but as far
as could discover you only mentioned
five. What is the magic sixth, and why
Is its light hid beneath the bushel oi
lack Of mention? I made all five mis-
takes, and would like to know If
made the sixth, too. Your constant
reader. E. L."
\ X X
Well, E. L., and sundry, the sixth mis-
take Is great deal like the fifth. You
will recall perhaps, that we said the
fifth was the forgetting by the anna
teur Of garden lines, especially those of
width and height.
The sixth common mistake of the
amateur is to forget the factor of
growth. Nothing is surer, in garden,
than that a small lilac bush will grow
tremendously in five or six years, but
almost never does the amateur take
this natural fact into consideration.
He puts two of his lilacs where one
should go, without once stopping tc
realize that in few years he will be
forced to move one of them.
Or he fails to remember that q
shrub 2 feet high, although at the time
Of planting it does not block the vision,
will do so when it grows to be feet
in height.
One may always prune?
Yes, one may always prune, true
enough, but any one who has had ex-
perience in amateur gardening, which
always must be differentiated from the
commercial, knows full we'll that if there
is any garden task feared by the anna
teur it is this.
Most garden neophytes will not use
the pruning shears, no matter how
necessary their application becomes.
Mostly they are ignorant of how to go
about the task.
They have not read the various
Pruning Manuals" on the market, and,
If they have, they do not understand
them, or are not able to bridge the gap
between the theory and the practice
1t is one thing to read how to do a
thing, and quite another to go out into
the garden and do it. 1t seems easy
enough, this pruning business, when one
reads in little book, but let him take
Ills IfuSCy kIlIe OF Shippers III MS HdnQ,
and venture toward yonder Spirea, he
will realize instantly that there are
more things in the philosophy of prun-
ing than are taught in your fine book,
Prof. Bailey.
X \ X \
Better than pruning, even, is to re-
member, when one plants, that shrubs
and evergreens and perennials will grow,
and in time will be both wide and tall,
and will necessitate a revamping of the
garden, unless their latter state is con-
sidered when the garden is new.
One may always transplant?
Yes, one may transplant, but only
with fear and trembling. The amateur,
no matter how carefully he digs up a
full-grown shrub, never knows If it
is going to do we'll in its new home.
We believe that the professional, who
views his task only as means of gain,
has happier psychology in transplant
ing than the amateur, who may have
worked up sentimental attachment to
a certain bush or some other such
foolishness.
The professional does what he does
with sure hand, in no wise afraid
that his digging will hurt the bush.