The Phloxes. - Some chosen varieties of tall border Phloxes afforded us much pleasure this golden month of July. In spite of the fact that these splendid plants grew from two to four feet high, they must be kept, we found, towards the front of the border. Here, indeed, is an example of the folly of arranging regular tiers of border plants, dwarf in front, medium in the centre, tall at the back. Height is not everything, spread of branches is as much, or more. In spite of its height, the Phlox is essentially a "small" plant - in the same sense as a Tomato is. It flowers on upright, slender stems. To put it at the back of a mixed border is to put it almost out of sight. The colours are very winning. Where shall we find anything softer than the finer shades, or more brilliant than the brighter ones?

The Vegetable Garden. - Pea foliage is very liable to lose its freshness during a spell of hot weather in July, one finds, and loss of colour in the leaves affects the pods, which go off very quickly. If full the seeds harden; if empty, the seeds do not swell. We found a way to check this loss of tone, and that was to pour a good soaking of liquid manure along the rows, and instantly cover with dry earth or short manure, to check evaporation. [This never fails, so long as it is done directly the faintest trace of greyness is seen in the leaves. It is useless, however, if the foliage once gets mildewed badly.]

Dwarfing Scarlet Runners. - A gardening friend led us on, by specious arguments, to keep some of our Scarlet Runners dwarf. Most of the market growers did it, and was not that good enough for us? Think of the saving of poles, time of training, and the like! Well, we thought of it. We obliged by dwarfing half a row. We made the "saving of poles" with a cheerful heart, but were not so much impressed with "time of training." It does not take long to train a Scarlet Runner. Give it a pole, and it will do its own training, with, at the most, one bit of coaxing. Then, you can't keep a row of Scarlet Runners dwarf without cutting back the twiners, and that takes time, if only a little. It is results that tell, after all, and our pole Runners are promising best. [They not only "promised" but performed best. Dwarfed Runners form a semi-bush, and fail to yield the splendid clusters of large pods got from good pole rows. Besides, may we not consider beauty? The trained Runner may be utilised as an ornamental object with considerable effect.]

Vegetables for Winter and Spring. - It is pleasant to look ahead in gardening during the winter and the spring, because one can then invoke visions of blue skies and gay gardens; but it is not so cheerful to follow the process in the summer. Why look ahead, when the act brings thoughts of blizzards and bare ground? Why not be satisfied with the present, with its sunshine and its perfume? Avaunt, insidious suggestion! We dare not dally with temptation. The future must be thought of. If we cannot at first do it cheerfully, let us reconcile ourselves to it by thinking of the weak spots in our garden of the present, and glorying in the added charm which it will have when they are remedied. Winter has got to come, whether we welcome it or no, so let us put on a cheerful face, and pretend that looking forward is pleasant. It may help us if we can think of our dinners. Do we want dinners in winter? In truth we do. And what more agreeable an adjunct than tender Brussels Sprouts, or delicious Broccoli, or mellow, melting Savoy? All these things we may have by planting in early summer, from seed sown in spring. The plants get hold best if put in just after a shower.

And Cabbages for the Spring. - Does not, too, the prospect of a young, marrowy Cabbage, fresh and crisp from the garden on the first day of spring, whet one's appetite? If it does not now, with green Peas abundant, it will when the time comes. So, at the end of July, we sow seeds of Cabbage for the spring.

Disease in the Potatoes. - Insects and diseases are the bane of the gardener. One kind or another worries nearly every crop he grows. If he were to evolve an entirely new plant, in the course of a year or two some particular pest would appear whose one mission in life was to eat up or otherwise dispose of it. Wilkins took a special interest in diseases - so much so, in fact, that he rather enjoyed finding them and explaining their structure and operations to Eunice. Now, mid-July brought with it some heavy sea fogs (the garden of the Garden Year is only four miles from the sea), and almost immediately the Potato foliage became affected with brown blotches. Jubilantly depressed, Wilkins produced specimens of affected leaves, and reminded us of a prophecy of his (which nobody remembered hearing before), (1) that we should have sea fogs, (2) that Potato disease would accompany them. But let us do Wilkins justice; if he took pleasure in seeing the disease come, he equally enjoyed getting rid of it again. We got blue-stone, lime, and soft soap, mixed a pound of each in ten gallons of water, and sprayed the stuff on within twenty-four hours of the disease appearing. The spread ceased, and a second spraying a fortnight after saw the end of the trouble.

The Fruit Garden. - We were in high feather over our first Strawberries. Like the early salad, they were not distinguished for abundance, but who wants to eat home grown Strawberries by the ton? Is it not quality which appeals, and not quantity? We assured ourselves that it was, but feeling that another year we could do with just a few more (for we contemplated inviting our friends to a Strawberry feast), we pegged down the little plantlets that formed on the runners into small pots.

An Early Apple. - One of our Apples, named Gladstone, proved to be a very precocious variety, and there were nice eatable fruits of it before July was quite out. Not big, of course! Oh, no! Bulk makes no appeal to us.