However, even from the throw-away-twice-a-year plan you can learn the gardening virtues of order and method, and you can get great pleasure from the flowers. Besides, you may be able to adopt it partly, and have some plants that go on from year to year, some annuals, and some you cherish for a season and then cast out. We will assume that in October someone gave you enough bulbs to make a fine show all through March and April, but that now in May their flowers are gone and their leaves looking shabby. If you are going to have bedders you must harden your heart, dig up all the bulbs, and throw them away. Then you must prepare the soil by turning it well over and raking it fine. If someone will fork in a little well-rotted stable manure, so much the better; if that is not possible, you can add a small quantity of Clay’s Fertilizer. Before you buy your bedders you must consider the aspect of your garden and the state and nature of your soil. Geraniums and Marguerite Daisies will stand rather poor soil, but Calceolarias, Begonias, and Heliotrope want good treatment if they are to flourish. If you have a wall at the back of your garden that is only partly covered, you should put nails a foot apart on either side and stretch string or wire across. Wire is more lasting than string, but more difficult to manage. The next thing to decide will be what colour effects you want, and for how many plants you have room. Geraniums need about a foot square each, Marguerites eighteen inches, Dwarf Marigolds nine inches. If you possibly can, buy your Geraniums, Calceolarias, Heliotropes, and Marguerites in little pots, and not in boxes, or, worse still, in dried-up, rootless cuttings sent by post. It is an elementary piece of gardening knowledge that, provided you keep off slugs and give a little shade and water at first, you can put anything out of a pot at any time. But if you are going to have many bedders, you will save yourself a great deal of trouble by putting them out in showery weather towards the end of May. Some of the best bedders for a small garden are: Dark red and salmon-pink Geraniums; Scented oak-leaved Geraniums; White and yellow Marguerite Daisies; Heliotropes; Calceolarias. All these can be bought in pots for 3s. a dozen. Dark red French Marigolds, Pansies, Violas, Petunias, Musk, and Lobelias can be bought in boxes holding from eighteen to twenty-four for 1s. or 1s. 6d. Begonias, which may be had in all colours and look charming in front of a border, can be had for 2s. 6d. to 3s. a dozen.