s must be watered gently and often. If you notice how
quickly the sun dries the surface of the ground, you will see how
necessary it is to keep the ground moist until the roots get bigger
and go down deep into the earth.

Weeds and Seedlings

It is most important to know what the baby-plants will look like when
they come up, because one has to weed hard in the warm showery
weather, and if one is not careful, mignonette, sweet-peas, and
poppies may go on the rubbish heap, and chickweed and purseley be left
on the flower-bed; which, although it is what the birds like, will,
later, be very disheartening to you. Of course, if your seeds are well
marked, there will be less difficulty, but even then weeds will come
up amongst them. The only safe way is to get to know the appearance of
all the seedlings, and to help you to remember it is a good thing to
make little drawings of them in your garden note-book.

Autumn Sowing

Some seeds, such as cornflowers, godetias, and poppies, can be sown in
the autumn. They will stand the winter as a rule and will make finer
plants and blossom earlier than if sown in spring. They should be sown
thinly in open ground.

Any good catalogue will give you a list of annuals suitable for your
purposes and with a little advice from an older gardener you will have
no difficulty in selecting wisely.

Biennials

These are best sown in May. If the garden is full they may be sown in
an ordinary wooden box filled with several inches of good earth.
Transplant them to their permanent places later on.

Remember that all plants will flower for a much longer time if the
flowers are kept cut and any faded ones taken off.

Saving Seed

The best seed is saved from plants set apart for that purpose; for
good seed comes from the first and finest flowers and not from those
left over at the end of the flowering season. These plants should be
sown in a little patch by themselves, should be allowed to run to
seed, and carefully tended until the seed-pods are ripe enough to be
gathered. If, therefore, you have not a large garden, it is best to
buy most of your seed each year, using a little of your own, from
which, however, you must not always expect the finest flowers. If you
have no wish to keep any of your flowers merely for seeding purposes
but still want, while getting flowers from them, also to save a few
seeds, the thing to do is to mark one or two of the finest blossoms
with a tiny piece of