12 DECEMBER 1941, Page 14

In the Garden

Those who have risked the sowing of broad beans have the pleasure —rare in December—of seeing the green points pricking the soil. These will have a better chance of surviving the assaults of winter if some protection is given them. There are many sorts of protec- tion for these and tenderer plants in the flower garden. One of the best is bracken, a fern that is as valuable when withered as it is destructive when green. For the beans the continuous glass cloche may be used when, but not till then, the weather grows severe. Vegetable seeds may be dear and sparse, and the moral is to buy early and thereafter to sow thinly, and this latter troublesome art is one of