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I've been drying rose petals and would appreciate a recipe for potpourri. Gather rose petals before the sun is high; then spread them on a table in shade until the dew evaporates. Arrange half-inch layers in a covered jar, sprinkling each layer with salt.

Add petals day by day till there are two quarts pressed down. Stir each day.

Ten days after the last addition, mix separately one-quarter ounce each of powdered mace, cloves, and allspice, one-half ounce ground cinnamon, two ounces powdered orris root, and one-quarter pound dried lavender flowers.

Fill a rose jar with alternate layers of rose petals and the above mix.

Sprinkle each layer with a few drops of any essential oil, such as rose, geranium, bitter almond, or orange flower. Pour over the whole an ounce of any good toilet water or cologne.

Our English ivy did not survive last winter. We had hardly any snow cover and at one point the temperature fell to minus 20 degrees F. with a high wind. Is there any ivy that would be more hardy and still remain green all winter? We want to cover an ugly retaining wall.

Instead of ivy you might want to plant Euonymus Fortunei Vegetus, also called Evergreen Bittersweet. It is hardiest of all vines and can be grown as a shrub.

It has beautiful red berries in fall and winter and is hardy as far north as southern Canada. It will even tolerate the heat of most of the American South.

You also could grow Baltic ivy which has a leaf similar to English ivy.

The American Ivy Society has been testing ivies for hardiness. You can write to it at P.O. Box 520, West Carrollton, Ohio 45449.

Sometime ago we read an article about greensand on the Monitor's gardening page. We can't recall who wrote it and at the time we had no need for it. Since we've acquired some space where we can garden organically, we'd like to know of a supplier.

Although we did not write the article to which you refer, we suggest you try Erth-Rite Products, Gap, Pa.17527. Also, you might write to Organic Gardening magazine, 33 E. Miner Street, Emmaus, Pa. 18049,and ask for a list of suppliers of organic fertilizers.

Thanks to our good readers, we had many responses to the request for suggestions for keeping birds from either pecking at or flying against windows.

Here are some of them: ''A rubber snake on the window sill or a picture of an owl or cat stuck to the windowpane works wonders,'' says one reader.

''An X, a few inches high, made of one-inch-wide, white adhesive tape in the center of each pane has been effective,'' another adds.

''Cut two pieces from a colored picture, about the shape and size of eyes, and fasten them in pairs at strategic places on the pane with scotch tape,'' reports someone else.

''To shield our 4x5-foot window, we have strung two three-quarter--inch pieces of molding (or bamboo or doweling) together with twine that is 4 feet long and 6 inches apart,'' another writes. ''We suspend the contraption from the eaves so the molding strips are 4 feet apart and running horizontally. The twine apparently deters the birds and it does not impair our view.''

We have had success with thin strips of old white sheets or thick white twine attached with thumbtacks outside above the windows at 10-inch intervals. They are cut so they reach almost to the sill.