In the Garden
As I write this I break `off from time to time to observe a yaffle (green woodpecker), who for the past hour has been putting in some heavy mechanical drill work on the lawn below the yaws. He uses head and bill -almost as a separate tool, precision-graded, striking vertically from above, and at lightning speed, into the turf. What a foreigner he seems, even in the hectic scenery of our English autumn. When I wrote recently about setting bulbs, I ought to have added that I always dress the surface of the soil above them with a sprinkle of sand enlivened with a little basic slag. They love this, if the soil be heavy. Lawns, too, thrive on basic slag. It not only thickens the grass, but gives it a deeper colour, especially if later in the winter, or even in early spring, a dressing of sand again be given, but this time stung gently with a mixture of sulphate of ammonia and iron phosphate, a shovel-full of each to-a barrow-load of sand.
I have had many letters of advice about preserving walnuts for Christmas. The general counsel is to bury them in • biscuit-tins until needed. I had no idea that biscuit-tins were procurable. I thought they disappeared in 1939. This matter- must be investigated. Mean- while, the nuts (a further supply having been left by the generous neigh- bour) are being storedin sand and topped with an inch of damp leaves.
RICHAR6 CHURcli.
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