Medlar

I am thinking now of the medlar, Mespilus germanica, an easily grown fruit of unusual taste and appearance borne on a tree with a quaint gnarled ‘old man’ look about it. With bright green foliage and white or pinkish tinged flowers, it is a considerable asset to the olde worlde garden. If one is a purist about these things, it can be treated as an apple in all respects, although I prefer to leave it alone except for the removal of untidy branches. The fruits form during summer and should be allowed to hang on the tree until late autumn, after which they can be spread out in a cool airy place until bletted. This really means that the fruits are starting to decay, and it is at this time that they are ready for eating or converting into wine or jelly. The taste for medlars is an acquired one, but if you are really interested in producing fruit rather than considering the tree purely as decorative, then get the cultivar ‘The Nottingham’. This is often available as a standard or half standard grafted on to a pear, hawthorn or quince rootstock.

Quince

The quince, Cydonia oblonga, and the med­lar are closely related and desire similar garden conditions, except that the fruits of the quince are used when ripe and should not be picked until they are fully mature. A number of kinds are in cultivation, all excel­lent decorative trees, but not always easy to come by. The Portugal quince is the most likely to be encountered and is the best sort for cooking and preserving. The apple and pear-shaped cultivars differ only in shape and keeping quality, while ‘Bereczki’ is well thought of by those with a delicate palate. The quince is a handsome spreading tree with broad green leaves, white spring blos­som, and lovely grey bark. An easy going character for which I have a strong affec­tion.

Peaches, apricots and nectarines

I also like to see a peach or apricot in the cottage garden. Usually a hit and miss affair outdoors when it comes to fruit, they are very much a part of old cottage gardens where they can still be seen clothing south­erly or westerly walls. Fruit is anyway a secondary consideration when they are grown outside, it is for the sparkling pink blossoms that bedeck their naked branches in early spring that most cottagers grow them. If a peach or two can be secured this is an added bonus, but not a major consider­ation.

The number of cultivars available that have any prospect of flourishing outside are somewhat limited, especially amongst the apricots. ‘Moorpark’ is the easiest to get hold of, a large rounded, yellowish fruit with one side a reddish-brown colour. It is seldom ripe before early autumn, so if you hope for something earlier then try ‘Early Moorpark’. Peach cultivars are more abun­dant, the American ‘Amsden June’ being the earliest while the handsome large fruited ‘Duke of York’ runs it a close second. The best known of all though, is ‘Peregrine’, a late summer kind with medium-sized fruit of excellent quality. We must not forget nectarines, a sort of smooth skinned peach amongst which ‘Early Rivers’ and ‘Lord Napier’ are the most common.

The cultivation of peaches, nectarines and apricots in the cottage garden is very similar. Remember that if you seek fruit, and indeed flower, that apricots bear fruit on spurs as well as on young wood. This means that when pruning apricots, unwanted laterals should be cut back to two buds instead of being removed altogether. All three kinds enjoy life on a sunny wall in an alkaline soil.

Of course it would be easy to justify the inclusion of apples, pears, cherries, plums and other top fruits here because they often form an integral part of the cottage garden and have been traditionally planted in the ornamental part. However, I think that I have probably gone down the road as far as I can with fruits of culinary value, that is unless you include the nuts. There are in­numerable nuts that can be grown in the garden, but the most appropriate are the cobs and filberts.

Cob nuts and hazel nuts

The cob nut is the type in which the outer husk is very short, while the filbert has a longer outer husk which totally enfolds it. Several cultivars are available, amongst them ‘Cannon Ball’, ‘Cosford’ and ‘Kentish Cob’. Nuts will grow in almost any soil, but a free-draining loam is ideal. They grow well in the shade and can be interplanted with other shrubs in a border, but at least two different varieties should be grown to ensure adequate pollination. Nuts are rather different from other fruiting plants in that they produce both male and female catkins which are pollinated by the wind. These appear before the foliage, and onee their work is done, the bushes can be pruned so that just enough nut-bearing wood remains to give an acceptable crop.

The bushes should be encouraged to develop an urn-shaped framework, the lead­ing growths being shortened and thinned. Wood that carried a crop the previous year must be spurred back. Occasionally wands or suckers spring up from the roots and these should be torn away. Nuts are ready to harvest during early autumn, just as the foliage is turning a lovely butter-yellow. After picking, spread them out in trays in a cool, well-ventilated building. They will be ready for use during the winter.

The nuts also have amongst their number several varieties that are grown exclusively for foliage colour. The golden-leafed hazel nut, Corylus avellana ‘Aurea’ has golden leaves throughout the year, but I am afraid that I cannot get too excited about this as it needs very careful placing in partial shade if leaf scorch is to be avoided. This does not happen with C. maxima ‘Purpurea’ which sports handsome purplish leaves on an upright shrub of stately aspect. This is lovely next to the pendulous willow-leafed pear, Pyrus salicifolia ‘Pendula’ which forms a round topped small tree clothed in a tumbling cascade of silver-grey foliage. One of the best of the silver or grey-leaved sub­jects for the cottage garden and one of the few that is reliably hardy.

Further Readings:

• HOW TO REVIEW THE SITE IN COTTAGE GARDENING
• HOW TO ATTRACT FRIENDLY INSECTS TO YOUR GARDEN

Larkspurs prefer an open, sunny situa­tion, but because of their stature benefit from a little shelter from the wind and should in any event be provided with some twiggy support material while the plants are quite young. It is perfectly adequate to sow larkspurs during early spring in order to procure a summer display, but until recent times it was fashionable in the milder parts of the country to sow larkspur during early autumn for an early show.

The same was done with the cornflower, Centaurea cyanus, especially when early flowers were required for cutting. Like lark­spur, the cornflower is a very hardy and amenable character well able to flourish in all but the driest and shadiest of situations. I really like the traditional blue cornflower, but have to admit that some of the mixed strains like ‘Polka Dot’ are really quite charming and would not in any way offend a cottage garden. All have stiff flower stems crowned with colourful ruffs of petals, and tough bluish-green foliage with a mealy bloom. This is absent from the slightly different, but closely related sweet sultan, C. moschatus, in which the foliage is brighter green and more refined. Its flower heads are equally distinctive, appearing quite fluffy and embracing a colour range that extends beyond the blues, whites and pinks of the cornflower to embrace yellow and deep wine as well. Only mixed strains are available from seedsmen, but these are first class, producing long lasting flowers on good strong stems.

The plain green-leaved ivies are equally attractive and I would encourage their use in many situations in the cottage garden rather than some of the more brash and outlandish kinds. The common Irish ivy, H. hibernica, differing very little in general as­pect from our common H. helix, and the Himalayan ivy H. nepalensis which, in its adult non-clinging form, yields red or yel­low decorative fruits. It is interesting to note that all ivies have three stages of growth, starting off as non-clinging scram­bling plants which with age begin to ascend and cling by means of tiny suction roots to any nearby wall or substantial tree. Once established bushy adult foliage is produced which eventually yields relatively incon­spicuous greenish-white flowers in crowded heads. These are followed by fruits of vary­ing colours. If material is propagated from this arboreal growth, then so called tree ivies or arborescent ivies will be produced. These have all the characteristics of the adult ivy, but yield a neat rounded bush.

Ivies are traditionally climbers for north­erly and easterly aspects, but it is not their prerogative alone, for the climbing hydran­gea, Hydrangea petiolaris, also enjoys these conditions. A vigorous fellow capable of attaining enormous dimensions in its natural habitat, it is ideal for covering a wall. Entirely self-supporting, it produces bold white flowers amongst bright green foliage and although rather slow to start flowering is well worth waiting for. The same can be said of the wisteria, for this spectacular climber of the pea family needs several years before becoming properly established. Once flowering well it continues without falter­ing, producing richly scented chains of lilac-purple blossoms from late spring until mid­summer. The usual kind is Wisteria sinensis which is available in a white form too, but there is also W. floribunda and this has yielded lavender and rose coloured forms of merit. To the casual observer both species look the same, but the flowers of W. flori­bunda open from the base of the raceme downwards, while in W. sinensis they open simultaneously.

However, for the majority of gardeners it is the large flowered cultivars that hold the greatest attraction. Bold starry blossoms in almost every colour imaginable and in varie­ties that will start flowering during early spring and carry on until late summer. There are two of these that are widely grown and loved by all gardeners, ‘Jack-manii Superba’ and ‘Nelly Moser’. The first named flowers during mid-summer with deep purple flowers, while ‘Nelly Moser’ is more refined with a somewhat extended flowering season during which it produces beautifully sculptured blossoms of rich mauve with a conspicuous lilac bar. ‘Ville de Lyon’ is carmine red and ‘Duchess of Edin­burgh’ has double flowers of milky-white, while ‘Ernest Markham’ is rich magenta. ‘Lincoln Star’ has raspberry-pink flowers, ‘Richard Pennell’ blossoms of deepest lavender, whereas those of ‘Proteus’ are lilac-rose and fully double, like an old-fashioned paeony.

The spring-blooming C. montana is the most popular of the species and the one with the greatest cottage garden appeal. An easy­going plant of vigorous habit with myriad small creamy-white blossoms. There are several forms and cultivars, including the pink-flowered rubens, rich rose-pink ‘Tetra-rose’ and fragrant, soft pink ‘Elizabeth’. These are all boisterous climbers that ben­efit from having their main stems tied to their host for support to prevent them being blown down in high winds. Unlike the large flowered hybrids that require a strict prun­ing regime, C. montana and its progeny are merely tidied up each year and kept within bounds.

The pruning of clematis is a much dis­cussed subject, but in very general terms can be simplified. With large flowered hybrids, it is a question of pruning early flowering cultivars down to the ground after flowering. This enables them to produce wood during the summer that will then yield blossoms the following year. Those that do not come into bloom until well into the summer flower on the current season’s growth. Therefore these need cutting to the ground during early spring.

Most species, although being given a defi­nite pruning sequence in gardening books, in practice are left to their own devices. Just keep them within bounds and remove dead, dying or weak growths. As the majority of gardeners grow their species clematis amongst shrubs, this is an easy and natural way of doing things. The only exception that I would make is the lemon peel clema­tis, C. orientalis. This is really much better if cut to the ground each spring. For the late summer this clematis is exceptional, pro­ducing its strange yellow flowers until the first sharp autumn frosts and following them with attractive silky seed heads that often persist into the winter creating a stark but beautiful sight when covered with hoar­frost or a dusting of snow. Clematis tangu-tica is another yellow-flowered species, but one which scarcely looks like a clematis. Its nodding blossoms are produced in abun­dance during mid-summer and are followed by beautiful spidery seed heads which are as soft as silk.

Innumerable other clematis deserve a place in the cottage garden, but none more so than C. cirrhosa. Given a sheltered corner facing west or south this splendid evergreen will produce its creamy-green flowers dur­ing early spring. It is a shy blooming plant in its formative life, but once established in a situation to its liking will cheer the gardener every spring with its delicate blossoms.

While there are exceptions, most clematis are equally at home on the house wall or scrambling freely amongst trees and shrubs. The selection of the variety to grow is purely a matter of personal taste. Success with clematis and all other climbers is de­pendent upon correct planting rather than any other factor. Climbers planted next to a wall will often have to contend with dry and dusty conditions where the soil is overhung by the eaves of the roof. Concrete wall foundations will interfere with root deve­lopment as well. It is important to plant in a position that allows the climber to proceed to its support unimpeded, yet provides for amenable soil conditions.

When the soil is very dry a generous quantity of peat should be incorporated to retain moisture and aid initial establish­ment. Root interference is a problem that also arises when a climber is planted near the base of a tree. During the summer the leaf canopy effectively keeps moisture from the roots of the newly planted climber too, so great care must be taken in selecting the planting site. It is much better to plant a climber or scrambler 60—75 cm (2-2-1/2 ft) from its support and trail the initial growths along the ground rather than try to establish it in dry soil between spreading roots. In any event, the watering of newly planted climbers is essential until they have become well established.

The Spencer sweet peas are tall growing plants, with frilled blossoms and a delicious fragrance, while the multifloras are less sub­stantial but have an earlier flowering period. Galaxies have a large quantity of blossoms per stem but flower at the same time as the Spencers, while the dwarf kinds have typi­cal sweet pea blossoms on much shorter plants.

Sowing and planting

Sweet peas can either be sown in the autumn and overwintered in a frame, or else started off under glass in the spring. A late spring sowing outside is also possible, although the flowering period is consider­ably shortened. Autumn sown sweet peas should always be grown in John Innes Seed Compost so that they do not make excessive soft growth before the onset of bad weather, whereas during early spring, when the com­post takes a while to warm up, it is more prudent to use the lighter and warmer soil­less type.

Irrespective of sowing season it is prefer­able to adopt the same cultural routine. Remember that sweet peas are members of the legume family and like other related plants dislike root disturbance. It is theor­etically possible to transplant misplaced or additional seedlings successfully, but in practice they always suffer a check. That is why the majority of growers raise their plants in sweet pea tubes. These are made of a thick black papery material called whale-hide with a narrow top, deep sides and no base. Filled with compost and stood pot thick in trays they are the best way that I know of raising vigorous young plants. If two seeds are sown in each pot, the stronger seedling can be allowed to remain. Although with some mixtures it is wise to take a cross section of plant stature as different colours have different vigours. If you select all the stronger seedlings from a mixed batch you always end up with a preponderance of blue or purplish colours.

The plants must be carefully hardened off before planting outside if they have been raised in a glasshouse; good soil is an equal partner in the production of quality sweet peas and adequate preparation and the incorporation of well-rotted manure the previous autumn is a prerequisite. This lat­ter is especially important as bud and flower drop are common maladies associated with a variable soil moisture content. A high humus content in the soil encourages a consistent moisture level.

Supporting sweet peas

At planting time it is vital to include your supports, as the pushing and poking with sticks or stakes around and amongst young plants after planting can be very damaging. There are several methods of supporting sweet peas, but the one that merits prime consideration in the informal garden involves the use of clumps of brush wood. These are made from very twiggy material, usually birch, and are pushed into the soil in a circle so that a twiggy column about 2 m (6 ft) high is created. If such material is not forthcoming, then a similar effect can be obtained by making a strong columnar or pyramidal framework over which netting can be stretched. This need not be of the permanent wire sort, but of the plastic material used extensively in the vegetable garden. Of course sweet peas can also be allowed to grow in and amongst other plants, but I have found maintenance very trying, although in the short term the effect is good. Sweet peas for garden decoration are allowed to develop naturally without pinching or removing tendrils. Such extra­vagances are for the showman, but having said that, if a sweet pea has not naturally broken and started to produce laterals by the time that it is 15 cm (6 in) high it should be pinched out. Otherwise routine summer maintenance merely involves watering regularly in spells of dry weather and removing faded blossoms and their stalks regularly to encourage a longer flowering season

Our native male fern, Dryopteris filix-mas, is undoubtedly one of the most useful, for it will thrive in almost any soil or situation. A coarse growing plant of dignified stature with broad lance-shaped fronds, it attains a height of a metre (yard) or more. Its op­posite number the lady fern, Athyrium filix-femina, is equally tolerant of situation, but a trifle more elegant in structure. With grace­ful arching fronds it has been the delight of gardeners for many years and under the influence of cultivation has given rise to many very attractive forms and varieties. Both the hard shield fern, Polystichum acu-leatum, and soft shield fern, P. setiferum, sport bright green scaly fronds that remain in character until well after Christmas. The closely related holly fern, P. lonchitis is completely evergreen and with the hard fern, Blechnum spicant, lends height and colour to the garden during the winter months.

For poolside planting few ferns can sur­pass the tall and stately royal fern, Osmunda regalis, its handsome fronds being mirrored in the water as they change colour from lime-green through yellow to bronze. Unfortunately these delightful autumnal tints are short-lived, for at the first touch of frost the leaflets shrivel and hang wearily from the semi-persistent frond stalks. Often grown in association with the royal fern, the sensitive fern, Onoclea sensibilis thrives where its spreading rhizomes are allowed to creep into the water and colonize the shal­lower areas. Its fronds are flattened, about 30 cm (1 ft) high and change from rose-pink to an agreeable shade of pale green as the summer progresses. The ostrich fern, Mat-teucia struthiopteris, appreciates a similar position, thrusting up handsome pea-green fronds like huge lacy shuttlecocks. Under favourable conditions these may reach a metre in height and produce curious dense spikes of rusty coloured spores from the centre of each plant.

In drier shady places the hart’s tonge fern, Asplenium scolopendrium, and its vari­ous crested and crimped varieties may be tried. This is a tough little fellow with broad solid fronds some 45 cm (18 in) long that resemble dock leaves rather than fronds. They are more or less evergreen, persisting until early spring when the young emerging fronds take over. The small divided fronds of the common polypody, Polypodium vulgare are almost evergreen too, but this little fern requires much damper conditions. In nature it grows amongst moss on old walls and boulders and consequently prefers these conditions in garden situations.

The various spleenworts inhabit similar places and are excellent subjects for the rock garden. This is a rather doubtful feature in the cottage garden, but crevices in old walls serve equally well if one is being a purist and excluding alpine gardening altogether. Cer­tainly spleenworts, like the tiny maidenhair spleenwort, Asplenium trichomanes and the black spleenwort, A. adiantum-nigrum, would have been utilized by the cottage gardener and can still be seen in such gar­dens to this day, especially in the damper regions of Britain. The maidenhair spleenwort has slender arching fronds which sup­port legions of tiny round leaflets for their entire length, while its cousin the black spleenwort has attractive triangular fronds on slender black stalks.

Lilacs and forsythia

Lilacs were amongst the most successful, particularly cultivars of the common Syr-inga vulgaris. The named progeny of this rather mundane species runs into hundreds, varying in colour from white, through pale pink and mauve to deep rose and purple, with either single or double blossoms. ‘Sou­venir de Louis Spaeth’ is probably the best loved of the single kinds. A bold fellow with blossoms of deep port wine in dense conical panicles. The snow-white ‘Maud Notcutt’ is one of the best recent introductions and ‘Primrose’ one of the most unusual.

Of the double lilacs ‘Charles Joly’ reigns supreme, an excellent dark purple cultivar which flowers slightly later than most other kinds. The creamy-white ‘Madame Lemoine’ is equally well known and together with the soft lilac-pink ‘Belle de Nancy’ completes a trio of really depend­able garden shrubs. As I intimated earlier, the ordinary S. vulgaris is rather gloomy, but its white form alba is still encountered in older gardens and has a special charm of its own. It may not be quite so floriferous as the modern cultivars, but it is a solid and dependable character.

There is another important group of lilacs that are not strictly speaking cottage garden shrubs, but which are ideal for the cottage garden. These are popularly called Cana­dian hybrids following their development at a research station in Ottawa in the 1920s by a Miss Isabella Preston. They are amazingly resilient plants, growing into sizeable bushes which during early summer froth and foam with pendent panicles of colourful blossoms. There are so many hybrids that you are spoiled for choice, but I like the deep pink ‘Audrey’ and immense purplish-pink ‘Isabella’.

The forsythia, its boughs laden with deli­cate golden bells is a regular harbinger of spring and as inextricably tied up with the cottage garden as the lilac. Forsythia inter­media ‘Spectabilis’ is the one usually grown and most frequently sold prepacked by the chain stores. That is not to imply that it is in any way inferior, but more recent introduc­tions like ‘Beatrix Farrand’ and ‘Lynwood Gold’ do produce larger blossoms of a more intense hue. For those with limited space, F. ovata can be recommended. A neat bush no more than 1-5 m (5 ft) high, its naked branches are sprinkled evenly with bright yellow blossoms.

The most prolific of the species is F. suspensa, a large pendulous shrub of lax and untidy growth which is seen at its best when grown against a wall, although some gar­deners use it as ground cover. If you have an awkward bank to disguise it is especially useful. Plant it towards the top and peg its main branches down and it will soon become an impenetrable mass, turning into a tumbling cascade of gold during early spring. Forsythias illuminate the spring garden. Give them a dark background of evergreens or plant them in association with bright red flowering currants like Ribes san-guineum ‘King Edward VII’. The shorter growing kinds can be interplanted with the lilac-purple Rhododendron ‘Praecox’, while those that are used for ground cover benefit from a generous sprinkling of blue grape hyacinths or muscari in their midst.

Potentillas, hypericums and periwinkles

What the forsythias do for the spring, the potentillas do for the summer, especially the shrubby types like Potentilla dahurica and P. fruticosa. It is not the parents that are of great interest, but their progeny, like the pure white ‘Abbotswood’ and its contem­porary ‘Mount Everest’, both derived from the short compact P. dahurica. Cultivars of P. fruticosa tend to be larger and more rangy, witness the two popular yellow culti­vars ‘Katherine Dykes’ and ‘Moonlight’. ‘Tangerine’ is an excellent orange-yellow which stands alone, together with the rich yellow ‘Elizabeth’. No mention of potentil­las would be complete without ‘Red Ace’, a controversial plant which has gained tremendous publicity for potentillas both favourable and ill. When growing in a situa­tion to its liking it is quite outstanding, but I have equally seen it looking washed out and sad. However, the lovely rich carmine-pink ‘Royal Flush’ looks to be stealing its thunder and is likely to be the potentilla of the future.

Alongside potentillas I would place hypericums as plants for the summer. Not only the common rose of sharon, Hypericum calycinum, but many lesser known kinds, especially the named varieties. One of the best of these is ‘Elstead’, a cultivar derived from H. inodorum with small flowers and spectacular fruits. The soft yellow blossoms are produced in terminal clusters and fol­lowed by the most brilliant salmon-red ber­ries. Hypericum androsaemum is of similar habit with golden flowers and glossy black fruits. The cultivar ‘Hidcote’ provides the largest flowers of any of the hypericums. Of indeterminate origin, this has spreading saucer-shaped blossoms of rich golden-yel­low which smother the plant from late sum­mer until early autumn. Unlike most hy­pericums it forms a compact bush scarcely 1-5 m (5 ft) high. Hypericum moseranum is smaller still, a compact ground hugging plant with attractive fresh green leaves and myriad bright yellow flowers.

I am not sure whether periwinkles are shrubs or not, but they are of a persistent nature and more or less evergreen. They are also exceedingly useful, flourishing in dark dry corners where nothing else will grow. Here they produce starry blossoms of blue, white or maroon with a frequency that seems to be directly proportional to the harshness of the conditions that they are compelled to endure. The lesser periwinkle, Vinca minor, and greater periwinkle, V. major, are those that adorned cottage gar­dens in years gone by, together with culti­vars like ‘Alba’ and ‘Burgundy’, and the double flowered ‘Multiplex’. All flower from late spring until mid-summer amongst handsome dark green foliage.

However, it is not one of these that I favour, but the soft blue V. difformis, a well behaved native of southern Europe which, if given a little shelter, will flower continu­ously from late autumn until early summer. The inward glow and feeling of wonder engendered by just a glimpse of its starry blossoms peeping through the winter snow would be ample justification for its inclusion in my garden.

Daphne and Rubus

So would the scent of the daphnes, for these are amongst the finest fragrant shrubs for the small garden. Few cottage gardens do not accommodate at least one plant of our native mezereon, Daphne mezereum. During late winter and early spring the naked branches of this elegant little shrub are wreathed in blossoms of rich reddish-purple, followed by vivid scarlet berries. Unfortunately it is not a long-lived shrub and therefore requires regular replacement. Luckily it produces viable seed in abun­dance which, if sown immediately it ripens, germinates freely. Seedlings must be pot grown as they resent root disturbance and do not transplant successfully from open ground.

Some of the decorative brambles will tolerate a bit of shade, but usually fare better in the open. Brambles are not usually thought of as desirable garden plants as the wild thorny species have given them a bad name. This is unfortunate, for the genus Rubus as a whole embraces some of the most interesting shrubs for the informal garden. Of course some are conventional and thorny, like the white-washed brambles. These are species of modest growth with stems of glistening white. Where space can be found they present a picture of stark beauty, their naked white stems sparkling in the winter sunshine against a backdrop of dark evergreens. Rubus bijlorus and R. cock-burnianus are the usual ones grown, easy­going characters that ask for little more than an open position and the annual removal of canes.

Other flowering shrubs

There are so many other shrubs that 1 could describe that would enhance a cottage gar­den. Mock oranges or philadelphus with their fragrant summer blossoms of cream and white. Various brooms in every shape, size and hue imaginable. Some like the Mount Etna broom, Genista aetnensis erupt into a great fountain of gold, others like Cytisus kewensis create tumbling creamy cascades. There are the winter flowering viburnums, V. farreri and V. bodnantense, with fragrant flowers of cream and pink. The common laurustinus, V. tinus, sporting pinkish-white clusters of tiny blossoms amongst handsome dark evergreen foliage. The witch hazel, Hamamelis mollis, its branches outstretched and revealing fra­grant red and gold blossoms during mid­winter.

Every season has its possibilities and some of these I have noted. Get out into the countryside and see what other gardeners are doing. It is even better to visit private gardens that are open to the public for charity, especially those belonging to small suburban gardeners.