Before leaving the subject of group planting sphagnum moss should be mentioned as a possible plunging material. Moss of this kind has many advantages, not least the fact that it is light, clean and easy to handle, and that difficult plants seem to do particularly well when plunged in it. Recalling my personal. experience with the success of a difficult plant may help to emphasise the advantages of this material.
The arguments as to the season for planting rage perennially in gardening circles but aiven the choice I prefer mid-March. Once planted make sure the shrubs do not dry out and if necessary water twice a day. A thick mulch of peat ensures that the soil retains a comfortable amount of moisture, having first made sure that the rootS were well soaked before they went under ground. Mbst hedges grow at a rate which permits the roots to balance and support the top growth, unless very large specimens are used and this practice is fraught with all sorts of perils.
People fortunate enough to inherit a garden which includes mature specimens of this genus should be thankful at being so singularly blessed, for the yew is an ornamental evergreen of great worth. In the woodland near my home they seed themselves under oak and birch, seeming to like the shade which few trees do. in the open they make a dark background for the gaily flowered deciduous shrubs. As a hedge its value has already been noted in the chapter on hedges.
The mild or sweet peppers (C. annuum) are eaten either raw or cooked and can hardly be termed a spice. They are also pickled. They are usually harvested fully grown, but while they are still green.
Not all gardens can support the bulk of forest trees, yet it is still feasible to achieve a very satisfactory winter landscape in miniature. Various forms of Japanese Maple, Acer palmatum, even grown in pots will soon develop the mushroom-like, slightly windswept outline which makes them excellent plants for the heather or rock garden.
Most gardeners, especially those with a well-stocked garden do not want an endless series of young plants cluttering up the limited garden space. So far as most plants are concerned, layering is the easiest, surest and most labour-saving way of all to get vigorous young stock. So readily do some plants respond that wherever w’branch touches the ground it roots.
The rootstocks of roses are lined out the previous autumn. When selecting bud sticks look first at the shoots that have already flowered. The buds near the centre will usually prove ripe for insertion. Keep the sticks fresh after they are cut in moist sphagnum or a jar of water; first removing the leaves but leaving a small piece of stalk as a handle to hold the bud while it is being inserted into the T cut.
Whatever the conditions, however, no shrub will succeed unless planted in a well-prepared soil. There is no short cut to soil fertility, no chemical magic to change overnight a sterile desert into a Garden of Eden, no matter how hard the manufacturers advertise their individual wares.
A great deal of money is spent each year on fertilisers, some of which I am sure would be better invested in buying compost bins. I use a balanced feed as a complement to the organic mulch, not as a substitute for it.
Much of the joy I find in gardening is linked to brief moments of a beauty so all pervading that the recollection of it is sufficient to lift the dreariest days of bitter winter. Another picture. which is still fresh in my memory, is of Rhododendron Sir Charles Lemon.