Annual Garden See at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

Flowering tobacco plants come in both day-flowering species, including the very large tobacco plant (Nicotiana Tabacum) of the annual garden see garden (see page 24) and the following night-bloomers for the evening garden. All are treated as annual garden sees with seeds started indoors six weeks before the last spring frost. Plants like a good garden soil liberally laced with compost or manure, and a location either in full sun or partial shade. Set them 1 foot apart. All do well when grown in 12-inch pots on the terrace, as long as they get plenty of water. Space plants 1 foot apart in the garden.

The inclusion of an arresting object within a small garden is an excellent way of detracting the eye from adjacent buildings and into the garden itself. The focal point in this garden is an ornate wrought-iron seat, which leads the eye down the garden. The rather austere rectangular lawn is surrounded by a mass of pretty, shrubby little plants, which together help to soften the overall look of the garden.

Goslar, in the Harz, came through the war virtually scatheless and this is a great mercy, for the town is so rich in medieval buildings that it is, in its entirety, a German National Monument. Hamburg has much more than its luxury hotels and its strident, much-advertised Reeperbahn. With its Inner and Outer Alster Lakes, its world-known Hagenbeck's Zoo, its brilliant annual garden see spring Garden Show, its seething port and its broad River Elbe, bordered by such charming river resorts as Blankenese, it has surged into the front rank of Germany's tourist cities. Hannover, capital of Lower Saxony, is an outstanding garden city in a land of garden cities. It has a wealth of flowers and landscaped parks.