12 JUNE 1941, Page 13

In the Garden

The campaign for digging up lawns is renewed. There never seems to be a corresponding campaign for paths. The general Edwardian lay-out seems to have been a path of three or four feet running entirely round the plot. A single central path, except in very large gardens, is entirely adequate. The space saved will be found to be surprising. Such changes, together with a little intensive inter- cropping, fewer vegetable marrows (great space-wasters), and certainly in small gardens fewer potatoes, will yield far better results at this season than lawn-digging. Tomatoes, as often pointed out here, should now be planted in liberal quantities. They may follow early lettuces, and in turn be intercropped with later sowings of lettuce, a dwarf-variety being chosen and left untrimmed. Nurserymen often stop outdoor tomatoes at three trusses of fruit, carefully bend the plant to an almost horizontal position and then ripen under cloches. In any case, stop at four trusses and feed with liquid manure, good vintage. A path fifty feet by three feet would comfortably accom- modate, if dug up, fifty tomato-plants. Cost about ten or twelve shillings, yield probably not less than 15o pounds of fruit: a good