Lift all flowering plants which will suffer from frost. Finish planting beds of bulbs and other spring flowers. Complete the planting of trees and shrubs. Pay special attention to the watering, protection and ventilation of bedding plants, taking care to exclude frost and damp, and remove insects and decaying matter. Collect and dig in falling leaves and other garden refuse. Mulch between standing plants, especially around the stems, and secure a quantity of dry bracken or similar material for general covering and protecting purposes.
December.—Continue the efforts of last month in making preparations for the ensuing spring—clearing, digging, repairing, &c. Earth-up beans and celery, and provide a little covering for the latter. Give endive every protection. Put a hand frame over outdoor parsley or have some in a frame. Earth-up peas, and hand pick them free from drifted dead leaves. Prepare a warm border for early spring work, making it as light and rich as possible.
Carry on trenching and leaf-gathering, and roll lawns and paths. The draining of lawns and flower-beds can now be executed. Let spring flowering plants have the same attention as in January, and bedding plants the same as in November. Do not omit to help the branches of delicate trees to withstand the effects of snow and wind by tying them up with rope yarn (tarred twine).
Supplementary Literature.
Robert Thompson: ‘The Gardener’s Assistant; Practical and Scientific.’ London. Latest edition. 35s.
See also p. 1012.
[DOMESTIC MOTORS.]
It is an acknowledged fact that when an establishment has developed sufficiently to necessitate the employment of a considerable amount of manual labour to meet its various requirements, it is more economical and satisfactory in results to introduce mechanical labour in one or more of its many forms; this especially applies to country residences, where wood cutting, chaff and root cutting, pumping, &c., has to be done, and the machines of the dairy, laundry, &c., need propelling, and the same engine can be also utilised for electric lighting, as the light is only needed when the other machines are at rest. The superiority of mechanical over manual labour is obvious and the economy is now fully acknowledged. An engine has the advantage of executing the work with perfect regularity, the last hour’s work being executed as well and as rapidly as the first, and it works all day, and every day and, if desired, all night; and the one motor, if of sufficient power, is capable of being adapted to so many different purposes, together or independently.