“Now make the hole in the ground with the dibber just where you wish.  A motion, like that of a revolving top, is the one to use in working the dibber.  Water the hole.  Drop a little soil in the bottom of the hole.  You see the dibber leaves an awkward little peak there at the bottom of the hole.  Water lodges there and stays.  The tiny rootlets do not quite reach into the bottom of the hole, and perhaps dangle in the water and begin to decay.  A little soil dropped in prevents all this.  Now a little plant goes in.  Do not place it too low, nor too high in the hole.  Have the roots uncramped.  Drop soil in gently and finally firm it all with both hands.

“The sun must not shine too hotly for the first few days on these little plants in their new home.  They are not yet used to their surroundings and must be coddled a bit if they are to do well.

“The remaining garden operations are weeding and constant cultivation.  A part of the work in the flower garden is close picking, if constant bloom is wished.

“I have said nothing about how to plant different seeds because each of you had tables to cover all of that.

“The object of this talk is to impress upon you the necessity for careful preparation.  Well-prepared soil, carefully handled tools and plants are ways to success.

“Good tools, good seed, good hard work make for results such as will satisfy your highest hopes.  But it is not the result only that is worth the struggle; the knowledge and the power are the greater glories.”

VII

COMMON WEEDS

What a delight it would be if we could garden without weeds.  But that is well-nigh impossible.  For these rascals, the weeds, are such persistent fellows, so clever in their devices for getting over the surface of the earth, so able to live where nothing else in the plant world can live, that it is a discouraging matter to attempt to exterminate them.  They always seem to me like pushing sort of people trying to live among those who do not want them.  Then, too, they crowd the better class of inhabitants out.

“There are a certain number of plants which we always looked upon as weeds, such as burdock and wild carrot, for example.  But if a beautiful garden plant should persist in living and spreading itself over our vegetable garden, then that, too, would become a weed.  Over across the sea in England the poppy grows wild in the fields.  It looks very beautiful to the traveler, because it makes lovely red splashes of colour through the field.  But I doubt very much if it looks really attractive to the farmer.  These things depend largely, do they not, upon one’s point of view?