"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.