Tools
For simple gardening the following tools are needed:—spade, trowel, hoe, rake, watering-can with a fine rose, syringe. They should all be strong and good. Besides these tools you will need either wooden labels or other home-made means of marking seeds, some strong sticks to use as supports for tall-growing plants, and tape to tie them up with. A pair of gloves—any old ones will do—is very necessary.
Watering
Plants should never be watered when the sun is shining on them. Early morning in spring, and late afternoon or early evening in summer, is the best time. It is best to water with water which has had the chill taken from it by standing in the sun or in the house. In watering seedlings and tiny plants, keep the rose on your watering-can; but with big plants it is better to take off the rose and pour the water gently, waiting every now and then for it to sink in round their roots. If the ground is very dry and baked, break up the surface of it round the plants with a rake, or push a fork carefully into the earth. This will help the water to sink in.
Water very regularly during hot and dry weather. It is very hard on your plants to give them a splendid drink one day and to forget all about them for a week.
Ferns should have a gentle spray bath every afternoon if you want to keep them fresh and green, and all leaves look the brighter for a shower from your watering-can.
Perennial plants, annuals, and rose-trees will greatly benefit if watered with slop-water while they are flowering.
Wall Pockets
If your garden is very small, but is against a sunny wall, the growing room can be increased by fixing a number of pockets, made of wood or of flower-pots, against the wall. These should be filled with good soil, and in them wallflowers, pinks, bulbs of different kinds, Wandering Jew, and some varieties of wild-flowers, etc., can be planted.