Deutzia crenata is a charming shrub, and flowering
well this year. Unless the garden is very small, anyone
who lives in the country in spring ought to have it.
There is so little room for shrubs in a very small plot of
ground, and no garden can be beautiful except when the
lie of the ground and the surrounding circumstances are
beautiful. The only ambition that can be indulged in
with a small flat ground is to grow the greatest number
of healthy plants possible in the least amount of space,
and so secure continuous and varied flowers for nine
months of the year.
The planning and laying-out of a small garden without
great natural advantages ought to be as practical and
simple as possible, a mere improvement on the cottage
garden : — A small, straight path of brick or paving- stone,
or grass or gravel, though that is the least desirable of
all to my mind. Let beds be on either side. If you have
shrubs round the edge of the garden to hide the paling,
have a grass path in front of the shrubs, and then square
or long beds in the middle. Never have a small lawn
with beds cut in that ; nothing gives so much labour and
so little satisfaction as beds cut out of grass, and what
makes them uglier still is bordering them again with
some plant. The flowers are much better out in the
open, away from the moisture-devouring shrubs. In
gardening, as in many things in life, let your wits improve
on what is rather below you ; never look at the squire's big
garden in your neighbourhood, and then try and imitate it
in small. Nothing makes a more charming edging for
beds, if you have gravel paths, than large flat stones ;
MAY 107
they retain the moisture, and many small, low-growing
things feather over the stones and look very well indeed.
May %8th. — After a great deal of practice I really
think I have evolved a way of packing cut flowers
which is both economical and satisfactory. I collect all
the linen-draper's and milliner's cardboard boxes that I
possibly can ; while these remain good, my friends send
them back to me by parcel post. The flowers are picked
over-night, and put into large pans of water, keeping each
kind in separate bunches. In the morning they are dried,
and the different bunches are rolled up, fairly tightly, in
newspaper — the great point being to exclude the air
entirely both from the stalks and flowers. These
bundles are then laid flat in the boxes ; the tighter they
are packed, without actually crushing them, the better
they travel. The lid is then put on, the box tied up
with string, and sent to the station in time for an early
train.
When friends themselves take away the flowers, a box
is unnecessary, as the separate bundles can be tied up
together in some large sheets of newspaper.
May 29^. — An excellent fish sauce is to beat some
cream, and drop into it a little anchovy sauce from a
quite recently opened bottle. It is served cold, in a little
deep dish, not in a sauce-boat.
Page 64
Presented as published in 1898. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
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Deutzia crenata is a charming shrub, and flowering
well this year. Unless the garden is very small, anyone
who lives in the country in spring ought to have it.
There is so little room for shrubs in a very small plot of
ground, and no garden can be beautiful except when the
lie of the ground and the surrounding circumstances are
beautiful. The only ambition that can be indulged in
with a small flat ground is to grow the greatest number
of healthy plants possible in the least amount of space,
and so secure continuous and varied flowers for nine
months of the year.
The planning and laying-out of a small garden without
great natural advantages ought to be as practical and
simple as possible, a mere improvement on the cottage
garden : — A small, straight path of brick or paving- stone,
or grass or gravel, though that is the least desirable of
all to my mind. Let beds be on either side. If you have
shrubs round the edge of the garden to hide the paling,
have a grass path in front of the shrubs, and then square
or long beds in the middle. Never have a small lawn
with beds cut in that ; nothing gives so much labour and
so little satisfaction as beds cut out of grass, and what
makes them uglier still is bordering them again with
some plant. The flowers are much better out in the
open, away from the moisture-devouring shrubs. In
gardening, as in many things in life, let your wits improve
on what is rather below you ; never look at the squire's big
garden in your neighbourhood, and then try and imitate it
in small. Nothing makes a more charming edging for
beds, if you have gravel paths, than large flat stones ;
MAY 107
they retain the moisture, and many small, low-growing
things feather over the stones and look very well indeed.
May %8th. — After a great deal of practice I really
think I have evolved a way of packing cut flowers
which is both economical and satisfactory. I collect all
the linen-draper's and milliner's cardboard boxes that I
possibly can ; while these remain good, my friends send
them back to me by parcel post. The flowers are picked
over-night, and put into large pans of water, keeping each
kind in separate bunches. In the morning they are dried,
and the different bunches are rolled up, fairly tightly, in
newspaper — the great point being to exclude the air
entirely both from the stalks and flowers. These
bundles are then laid flat in the boxes ; the tighter they
are packed, without actually crushing them, the better
they travel. The lid is then put on, the box tied up
with string, and sent to the station in time for an early
train.
When friends themselves take away the flowers, a box
is unnecessary, as the separate bundles can be tied up
together in some large sheets of newspaper.
May 29^. — An excellent fish sauce is to beat some
cream, and drop into it a little anchovy sauce from a
quite recently opened bottle. It is served cold, in a little
deep dish, not in a sauce-boat.