$2 Download. How to Keep a Window Garden. 1885 – 74p

How to Keep a Window

Garden.

INTRODUCTORY.

As my little book has been written chiefly for the indus trial

classes, the plainness of language aimed at required no

apology from me; but in speaking of flowers, one can hardly

help rising to a somewhat higher level. As we gaze on their

exquisite beauties, purer thoughts arise as we contemplate

them in the quiet lanes and woods, and fain would have them

to dwell with us at home. The "wee modest daisy" called

forth a lay, and the analogy which the poet drew remains,

life-like, in our me.nory to the present day, and will continue

to do so as long as that "crimson-tipped flower" bedecks

the mead.

fc God made the first garden, and in looking upon the hum blest

weed that grows, we see in it the handiwork of the Great

Architect; and although the exact site of the Garden of Eden

be obscure, yet Paradise is everywhere, and waiteth while

man willeth. Beautiful flowers are spread out in a boundless

field for our pure enjoyment, and their localities are as varied

as their hues. The corn-cockle and the poppy delight to

revel in the sun: but the fern loves the solitude of the grove,

in the twilight of the forest ;he moss is its sweet companion.

Childhood is the type of innocence, and it is always childhood

with the flowers. Let us wander back to the haunts of early

youth; when we list we find the blue-bell and the daffodil, as

in days of yore— divine monitors teaching in silence. Who

can behold them without delight ? By what mind are they

counted as a mere daub-ihow, blooming and fading, for no

end ? Man has done much for man in giving him enjoyable

recreations, but a*ll his efforts fall short of the holy recreation

which the Almighty has placed within reach of the humblest

individual.

In addressing my fellow working-men, I would first ask

have you a love for flowers ? If you have, I think that lean

help you to increase your enjoyment from such love. Should

it happen that your love of flowers has been extinguished by

a thousand drawbacks, I will do my best to rekindle the old

Jlame. Perhaps it will burn brighter than ever. On the

•ther hand, if you hare no love for flowers— no love for those

innocent companions which are never tired of waiting upon

us— this blindness must result from sheer ignorance. I

w»uld t ask you to reflect. An hour spent in sweet communion

is worth hundreds spent in dissipation. Most earnestly do I

entreat you to enter this beautiful department of nature, not

merely as spectators, but as possessors.

It is no dreamy pleasure that I would infuse into your

minds such as we receire when reading of the gorgeous

splendor of Eastern cities, where festoons of beautiful flowere

creep along the quaint balconies, and shoot up ronnd the

doors and curious windows; where luscious fruit, hanging in

the rosy sunshinn, wantonly crush their delicacies on the lips

of the dark-eyed Eastern beauties. The atmosphere of our

smoky habitations forbids the existence of such enjoyments;

but reasonable hope may be held out for the embellishment of

windows of all dwellings, however situated, to be decorated

with some form of vegetation. In crowded cities where the

dwellers may nearly shake hands with one another across the

narrow street that divides their habitations, where the genial

rays of the sun never penetrate, and where the impurities of the

air offend the dullest sense, a few plants in the windows help

to neutralize these facts; and we have only to search the in exhaustible

treaiure with which the Creator has clothed the

universe to fnrnish us with something beautiful for our windows.

What a health-giving pleasure lies before us, free for

the participation of all; a cup forever overflowing with all

that is lovely is held toward us by untiring hands, and how ever

freely we may drink of it, no grudge awaits our draught,

for the love of our Creator for us is infinite.

In advocating the culture of window-plants as a source

from which no little enjoyment can be received, I am fully

aware that all those who live in large towns labor under

too many disadvantages, to enter with any spirit on this inno cent

and instructive recreation. To many the greatest

obstacle is knowledge how to grow window-plants, and the

want of convenient windows for their cultivation. If these

obstacles could not be overcome, I might give up the task

of leading you forward to Flora's temple; but when thousands

are known in the most unlikely localities, under the most

adverse circumstances, to cull no little pleasure from her

bounteous gifts, it gives me the greatest assurance to place

before you a practical method for acquiring a cultural knowl

edge of plants, and especially to adapt convenient windows

for their cultivation.

FOR TOWN AND COUNTRY.

If I did not know that certain plants, with a little care and

attention, might be made to grow in windows where the

straggling rays of light from the blue vault of heaven are

toned down to a dingy hue, as well as in mansions where fair

lawns stretch undulatingly away to the far-off hills, and um brageous

trees wave in the open sunshine, depend upon it I

would never have undertaken this task. The greatest doubt

with which my mind is possessed, is to be able to persuade

some who are very dubious on the subject to begin the culti vation

of window-plants— those who can see no beauty in the

quiet enjoyment of a pipe and a glass of home-brewed by

their own window-side, but leave ail for the tinsel happiness

of the noisy tavern. But, after all, I am solaced with the

thought that my little book may be of some service to those

who have already joined the pursuit of floriculture as a recreation.

Under present circumstances, the artisan, or humble

florist, however much he may have the love of flowers at

heart, is much restrained in his ambition to grow a few

plants, from the fact that his window affords little scope for

their cultivation. At the best the cultivators of window plants

have but room for two or three specimens, which are

either placed on the window sill, or on brackets higher up

the window, circumstances which almost bid defiance to any

training of a plant except a one-sided specimen. Then,

again, the plants are continually receiving the dust of the

household, which, combined with the full glare of gas by

night, very soon brings the plants to assume a sickly appear ance,

entailing considerable care and attention on the part

of the cultivator to keep them in a healthy condition. That

being the case, it is not to be wondered at why the cultivators

of window-plants proceed with the pursuit in a blow hot, blow

cold sort of way. When the markets are teeming with the

attributes of spring, they are induced to purchase a plant or

two. Exultingly the plants are carried home, assigned the

sunniest place in the window, and duly killed with kindness,

the window remaining for the rest of the season without a

semblance of vegetation.

Therefore, the horticulturist who would cater to spread a

taste for window gardening, ought to have his attention

arrested by these existing circumstances, and beside giving

the household florist a knowledge how to grow the plants he

seeks to cultivate, it would be well at the same time to

show him some construction of the window which would