24 AUGUST 1951, Page 18

In the Garden

The breaking of the weather has been like an electric shock to the kitchen garden. To stand in it is to hear and see and smell the process of growth. And at last-my melons have burst into flower! You expect a bloom after the golden trumpet style of the vegetable marrow, whose foliage resembles the melon's. But as a fact the latter's flowers are insignificant yellow stars with a distaste for publicity.

H. J. MASSINNHAM.