Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/251



Any rude or rough structure will answer for this purpose, so long as it modifies the sun's rays, reduces the light and heat, and keeps bleak winds away. It should be eight or nine feet high, and that end from whence the coldest winds come boarded in securely. The building can be made in the same manner as the summer house previously mentioned, the sides closed in with boughs or short twigs arranged thatch fashion. The roof can be thatched in the same manner, either with brush wood twigs or (thinly) with the bladey grass, so that the rain and dew can dip through—the boughs of the ti-tree are the best for this purpose; but for a permanency or for neatness a fernery entirely built of thin battens or lathes nailed on cross ways is the best and most effective. Some authorities prefer the flat roof, others one with a very steep pitch. It is, I think, all a matter of taste, save where heavy storms are frequent, when it is advisable to protect the ferns and plants from too much water, then it is advisable to cover with light boughs or twigs. As to soil, it is best to make the whole of the soil, and if doing it altogether yourself, I would suggest your taking a small portion of your fernery at a time. If living anywhere near a scrub, a dray load of the soil could be obtained. Scrub soil is good and rich. If unable to get this, the soil under the wood heap is excellent, usually consisting of decayed particles of wood. Lay out your fernery in beds all round, protecting the edges with a board, or even two boards, one on top of the other, so that the box-like bed so made can be filled up with rich soil. If obliged to make your soil I would suggest the following as a good foundation:—To three spades of ordinary garden mould put one of fowl house manure, one of loose sandy soil, one of stable manure, and one of fine ashes. Manure from the cow yard is also very good, but this soil must be allowed to stand a few weeks, being turned over and over every few days. Pieces of rock, moss grown stones, old lengths of logs, etc., should be placed about the fernery, birds' nests, ferns, stag horns, and others being grown upon and among them. If the posts of the building are of the rough varieties of timber all the better, as ferns can be grown upon them. In the bush, and particularly in scrubs, many curious formations of branches or bark can be picked up, and help to beautify the fernery. Hanging baskets made of wire netting and lined with moss, filled with mould and ferns, look very effective when hanging about. To make a basket, cut off a piece of wire netting about five or six inches deep and a couple of feet long, fasten the two ends together with wire, which will give you a ring or hoop of wire netting; then with the fingers and thumb work round and round the lower rim, gradually bringing it narrower and narrower till it