May 15—The gardening activities of many of us who who live East of the Railway are restricted to the care of an area of about one mow and this area is generally surrounded on three sides by trees, the north side being occupied by the house. We try to make the plot of land beautiful, but after a long struggle against what appear to be insurmountable difficulties, many of us give up the task as a bad job and are content with a line of shrubs along the boundary and an apology for a lawn in the centre. However, there are some people who refuse to become disheartened and despite unfavourable surroundings, they are able to enjoy of the pleasures of gardening. We were in a small garden today: it is on Avenue Haig and it does not cover more than one mow of land but t is a charming place. The lady who spent hours planning the colour schemes and planting the various flower beds is not here to enjoy the results of her endeavours. She would probably have been very disappointed if she had seen her garden after the heavy rain we have recently experienced, but most of the plants have recovered already. Trees over 40 feet hig are growing around the garden and this results in many of the plants becoming "drawn" and higher than customary despite the fact that the beds have been widened. There are two beds on each side of the garden divided by a patch of turf that extends up to a narrow bed of daisies growing in front of a creeper-covered bamboo fence. All the beds are planted in herbaceous border style and the following colour schemes were noticed:—Below the verandah, two beds were full of wallflowers, cheiranthus and Swan River daisy: the latter is a graceful blue-flowered annual and it looks well against a background of marguerites in pots. A blue glazed pot full of lobelia on the lawn was also attractive. In the first bed on the East side, malva has been used as a background and although the foliage of this is useful, its flowers do not show up so well: Carnations have been planted as dot plants amongst a group of None, but too strong for the latter. There wes a fine group of forget-me-not in the bed as
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.