Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-09
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

must not be supposed that the pro-
fessional horticulturist treats them
roughly He only Is not afraid CT
them, that Is all. Many a gnarled
hand sets out plants with a loving
touch. almost tender. 1t is a pleasure
always to the discriminating amateur
to watch one of these old fellows work,
and to recognize the dizziness with
which he plants and transplantS.
Time alone, and perhaps natural
bent, as we Say, will give gardener
this free and easy way with plants,
but the rest of us may initiate II by
doing the best we can. In setting out
plants of any sort we may display the
professional touch, as 1t were, by
pouring plenty of water around the
roots after we have packed plenty Oh
earth around them.
Usually this will settle the dirt and
bare some of the roots again. More
earth and still more water are the
remedies. NV We may go ahead 10
fill in the hole until We have arrived
at the surface.
A final watering will settle this a
bit, and a fresh layer OF dry eartn
should be placed over all and permitted
to remain to break up the capillary
attraction of the water in the air Tor
the water beneath the earth.
Here q word of warning is necessary.
Do not succumb to the temptation
to trample all down now with the
feet.
The underlying moist earth is too
squashy to stand such treatment, which
is unnecessary, since the water has
mingled the particles of dirt far better
than any sheer pressure can do.
mo can do" rs the Chinese say.
Once planted, there are few shrubs
which benefit by a constant paving OF
the earth about their roots. NOR 90
they seem to be hurt by grass growing
up To their main stalk or stalks
There has been a great deal OF pother-
perhaps it should be spelled bother
written about keeping shrubs. especial
ly rosebushes, free from grass at close
hand. We have never been able to
see, after some seven years observa-
ton. that it hurts them particularly.
We are not sure that a rosebush
sitting in grass is not as good BUSH
and better looking, everything taken
into consideration, than one which
has had a neat. circle of earth kept
open around 1t.
There is little to be said for bare
earth In the garden from the stand
point of beauty. If one has phlloSo-
phizing disposition, the flower beds,
and borders, and the vegetable gar
den, in their first stages, will have
certain attraction, largely based on
anticipation.
He who is interested in natural
forces will find harmony in the naked
earth, and even some degree of beauty,
perhaps, but the latter will be based
mostly on a mental appreciation OF
what is occurring in the ground there,
and why it is occurring, as far as the
human mind is given to know it.
In the great scar which bare dirt
inflicts in an otherwise green scene
there is and can be little beauty. We
are all too glad when grass grows up
and blcts out the red clay.
Roots are among the most interest
ing provisions of Nature, wing with
bulbs and the like, which they greatly
resemble in appearance, and somewhat
in function.
Still one cannot go into ecstasy
over the loneliness of roots, except in
this figurative sense. The gardener Is
glad when they are put into the
ground, where they belong, and where
they must be happy, he likes to think.
A root out Of ground is like fish
out of water. The sensitive planter
will imagine the roots of his plants
being transplanted are gaSping, not
for air, but for the fresh contact of
earth, which is food and air to them.