Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

The following receipt for bottling green Gooseberries I think you will find useful. The great point is to pick them just at the right moment, when neither too large nor too small. And much depends on waxing the corks well ; so I add the receipt for that. Bottled Green Gooseberries. — Pick off noses and stalks, but be careful not to burst the berries. Then fill some wide-mouthed bottles quite full, tie over the mouths paper with pricked holes, stand the bottles in boiling water, and just let the fruit turn colour (no sugar or any- thing with the fruit). Take the bottles out, and cork and seal them. The old way was to bury them head downwards in a garden border ; but if well sealed, to keep out all air, I do not believe that is necessary. Green Currants are excellent done the same way, and Morella Cherries, small Plums, and Damsons ; only these must be ripe. Wax for Bottles.— 2 parts of beeswax, 1 part of resin, 1 part powdered colour (Venetian red). Melt the beeswax and resin in an old iron saucepan. (Only melt, do not boil.) Then stir in the colour and let it cool a little, both no POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN to avoid the pungent vapours and to thicken slightly. Dip the corked tops of the bottles while holding them horizontally over the pot, and turn them round, so as to run the extra stuff into the joint ; they are the better for a second dip. Leave the remains of the wax to harden in the pot, which should be used for this purpose only. It can be melted again at any time, and more added as wanted. May 3Qth. — A good deal of real gardening pleasure and satisfactory ornamental effect is to be had from growing plants in pots and tubs, vases and vessels of all kinds, both in small and big gardens. I use large Sea- kale pots, when they are no longer wanted for the Sea-kale, by turning them upside down, putting two bits of slate in the bottom of the pot, some drainage and a few lumps of turf, and filling it up with really good soil. As a variety a Rhubarb-pot is useful. If you live near a pottery, they will turn you out pots to any shape you fancy. Flat ones, like those used by house-painters, make a pleasant change, especially for small bulbs ; also petroleum casks cut in two, burnt inside, then tarred and painted. It must never, of course, be in any case for- gotten to have holes large enough to make good drainage. I use butter casks treated in the same way, and have some little oak tubs in which bullion came from America. These are very strong ; and some water-loving plants do much better in wood, since the evaporation in summer is not nearly so rapid as from the earthenware. That is an important thing to remember, both as regards sun and wind. If the plants are at all delicate, and brought out of a greenhouse, the pots, when standing out, ought to be either quite sunk into the earth or shaded. This cannot, of course, be done in the case of pots placed on a wall or terrace, or on a stand ; constant care about watering is, therefore, essential. Even in wet weather they often want more water if the sun comes out, as the rain MAY in