Small Gardens, and How to Make the Most of Them

hed and Su

e-The indispensable thermometer-Well-made tool

ired; it is not everyone, for instance, who possesses a lawn-mower, but if the owner of a garden is ambitious enough to wish to do without a gardener altogether, a lawn-mower will be one of the first things he will wish to possess himself of. In that case he cannot do better than invest is one of Ransome's or Green's machines. Their work is always of a high standard and the firms are constantly making improvements in them. Th

sture, but also because otherwise it is ruinous to our soles. To preserve the latter, a spade with a sharp edge should never be chosen, but one which has a flat piece of iron welded on to the body of it. Digging is good because it breaks up the earth, and exposes it to

is required. After a few showers of rain the hoe runs along very easily, and the good it does is so

ight or ten teeth, their cost is from two to three shillings. One of the most necessary implements is a trowel, in p

sh make, strong and durable, is the kind of thing required, and costs about 2s. or 2s. 6d. Wall-nails, one inch long (the most useful size), are 2d. a pound, and may be had at any ironmongers. The shreds o

hould be made to take off as a rule, and a special place assigned to them on the shelf of the tool-shed, as they readily get lost. Syringes, much used for washing off insects, are rather expensive,

ling one as they do exactly the degree of frost experienced during the preceding night. They may be bought at a chemist's for

e stalks of Michaelmas daisies, for instance. Galvanised iron stakes last practically for ever, and if they are of the twisted kind, no tying is required, greatly lessening labour. It is a curious fact that though arches made of iron set up electrical disturbance and injure the climbers, these stakes seem to have no bad e

really these home-made ones answer almost as well as those that are bought. Good frames can somet

ng that, however few tools you may have

he spare hours of the carpenter of the family. There is one advantage in these home-made summer-houses, tha

eeper. Messrs. Barr, of Long Ditton, Surrey, told me it grew 25 feet in one season. It can be had from them in pots, about the first week in May, for 3s. 6d. a dozen. Then there are the nasturtiums, always so effective when trained up lengths of string, with the dark back-ground of the summer-house to show up their beaut

visitors. Reliable seeds of all three can be had from Messrs. Barr, at 6d. a packet. The cobea bears pale purple bell-shaped flowers, and is a quick grower. Mina lobata is generally admired, and though of a different family bears a slight resemblance to an eccremocarpus, both in the shape of its flowers and in the way they are arranged on the stem. It is only half hardy. Clematis

is a splendid plant for covering summer-houses, as it is a rapid climber. It is wise to plant some of the decorative ivies as well, so that, if the flowering plants fail, it will not be of so

ere all the pleasanter. There are lavender, rosemary, thyme, bay, sweet peas, stocks, and mignonette, besides the oak-leaved geranium, t

it should generally face west. It is delightful on a fine evening to sit and watch the clouds change fr