In My Garden
I gave some warning last week of impending disaster in the soft-fruit garden. The worst of my fears has been realised. The dreaded goose- berry mildew, having got a firm hold during my week's absence, has proved to be, incurable with any spray, such as lime-sulphur. So the abundance of fungus growth has its sinister as well as its fanciful side for me this summer. All the well-set 'bushes, some five years old and in full bearing, have had to be torn up and burned ; and I am assured by the expert from Wye College that the ground under them will be infected for eight years to come. However, we salvaged what we could from the harvest, carefully hand-picking the unspotted fruit and carrying it to the kitchen, where it has since been made into that delicious muscat jelly, flavoured with elder flowers, about which I wrote here two years ago. I intend to light a few bonfires on that tormented soil, and then to set another bed of strawberries there. Change and change about is a good maxim for the fruit garden,. as well as for the vegetable beds.
RICHARD CHURCH.
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