Evening star., 1935-01-16
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL,
Winter does not stop the earnest

Winter does not stop the earnest
home gardener.
Consider this month of January.
Most of the days to date have been
ones on which something could be
done in the yard, If no more than q
planning tour.
This jaunt around the boundaries
often reveals defects impossible to see
during the growing season.
Bare spots in shrubbery borders, for
instance, stand out glaringly.
Glaringly, that is, If one is sensi-
tive to such things.
Many are not, and for them the
yard boundary tour may be for an
entirely different purpose. There are
as many angles to likes and dislikes
in the yard as elsewhere. There Is
no statute of limitation here. The
preference of one gardener may not
interest the next at all.
It is this diversity, after all, which
largely helps make gardening on the
small scale what 1t is today with so
many.
This Is not wheat farming, on
thousands Of acres, nor raising corn,
potatoes, real crops.
Home gardening Is not raising flow
ers for the market, either. Mostly it
is simply doing what one pleases to
do with certain natural materials.
When one stops to think that often
this is the only place where many a
person enjoys this opportunity, the
place Of the home garden must in
senSibly loom large in such life.
Many an ardent gardener does not
altogether realize this He knows he
enjoys the simple tasks of the out
doors, as the seasons bring them
around. but he does not put his mental
finger squarely upon the single fact
that the garden, of all the places he
works, permits him to do just exactly
as he pleases, without limitations
other than his own purse or taste.
X
Shrubs and plants and even trees
that ought to come up-these may be
seen better in January than in June.
This may be the hour of decision.
The determination to take some
thing out is always a hard one for
certain natures.
They want to hold on. and we are
not sure but that they are right. in
the main. A famous Washingtonian
is noted among his friends for never
giving away anything that ever comes
into his possession. He says he never
knnUS uhQn ha nnad
In the garden this same attitude
may result in much Overcrowding. II
one dislikes too much the giving up of
lilac, for instance, it may be trans
planted to another part Of the garden,
Not at this time, of course. The best
time for that will be late February or
early March. Then the bush will
scarcely know it has been moved and
will be all ready to take advantage of
the first continued warmth and rain
x
From time to time during even the
coldest weather there will be fine days
on which the gardener may make a
tour of inspection.
He will be able to tell at this time,
better than after leaves appear wheth-
or a tree ought to come down. This
is always a sad task, hOrticulturally
speaking, because tree is Of such SLOW
growth. Its noble proportions are not
the work of day, but of years. Hence
the decision to take it down ought to
cost much thought.
There will always be times, although
perhaps they will not occur as often
as some think, when good tree must
! be removed. Many factors enter into
| the decision. There is the question
of suitability, of view, of relationship
to the house, of too much shade for
plants, when the plants are what the
gardener wants, in the main. These