Mowing machine. This will depend upon the amount of grass; but in a garden of any considerable size two will be required, one large one for the lawns, and a small one, 10 in. or 12 in. wide, for borders and edges. For the first, the American make is light, cheap, and simple in construction, but as they have no back roller, they will not work on narrow borders. The “Pennsylvania,” to be worked by a man and a boy, and a small “Green,” will probably be the most suitable.
It must be seen that the tools are kept in first rate order. A grindstone, one worked with a treadle, will be necessary. If good tools are bought and kept clean, well oiled, and sharp, they will last a long time; and those that have been used are the easiest to work with. They are broken in, as it were.
It will be advisable, upon the first opportunity, to clear out every hole and corner, and get rid of the rubbish. Old tools, however, should never be thrown away, as wooden handles will turn into dibbers and measuring pegs. Short handles will do for trowels, etc. Old spades can be cut down, re-sharpened, and used for digging amongst shrubs and in herbaceous borders. When they are past work, they can be put into the ground, blade upwards, as foot scrapers. Old forks can have their prongs shortened and turned down at right angles, or nearly so, to the helve. They are then useful as drag hoes for loosening soil among young crops.
It is a good plan, in a garden where extra labour is employed, and when neat and tidy habits cannot always be expected from the labouring men, to have receptacles for different kinds of refuse. There should be one for crocks, another for glass, a third for paper, and one for bits of wood. It should be seen each night that tools are carefully put away clean.
No pains should be spared to master thoroughly the mechanism of mowing machines. The lady-gardener must also know how to stoke a greenhouse furnace, and repair broken glass in frames. If these matters have been learned in student days there will be no difficulty for her in directing men. Should she be unable herself to put a piece of glass into a frame, she must not be angry with her workman if he fixes it insecurely. As thorough master of her trade, she will make herself respected.
Care, too, should be taken from the first to look ahead, as regards what has to be purchased, such as pots, soil, manure, peat, nails, raffia. It is provoking in finishing a job to be delayed because, at the right moment, some necessary article was not ordered.
“Thinking ahead” in this way is a habit, and can be acquired.
It is well never to be without a pocket-book and pencil, to jot down at once any things that may be required or jobs which need attention.
MISS HESTER PERRIN AT WORK IN HER BROTHER’S GARDEN AT FORTFIELD HOUSE, TERENURE, CO. DUBLIN