ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



XXI 1. — On Edgings for Garden Walks and Flower Beds. 

 By Robert Glendinning, F.H.S., Chiswick Nursery, 

 Turnham Green. 



(Communicated June 17th, 1853.) 



The mind can never contemplate with any satisfaction or delight 

 a walk, however well it may be kept, or a flower-bed planted with 

 the most beautiful flowers, unless the margins present some degree 

 of mathematical precision. Nothing, in my opinion, tends so 

 largely to set off order and high keeping in a garden as clear and 

 definite marginal demarcations : the contrary only evinces a want 

 of accuracy and good taste. It is marvellous how some gardens 

 might be improved were these hints acted upon, and without 

 incurring a farthing of extra expense, because no more trouble is 

 required to define the truthful line than the converse. Whether 

 a walk is placed at right angles or on a curve the breadth should 

 be uniform, and this is best indicated by proper margins, which, 

 in gardening, are as essential to express the truthful character of 

 the design as those in a building are of correct architecture. This 

 holds good whether the verges are of turf or some dwarf shrub, 

 for they equally influence the character of a garden. Those 

 accustomed to high keeping and good marginal lines cannot look 

 upon anything else with satisfaction : when entering dressed 

 grounds with shaggy edgings, broken and defaced borderings, 

 however well the ground may be kept otherwise, these defects 

 always prove self-condemnatory. 



Let us examine for a moment the effect which verges are 

 capable of producing when introduced by an artistic hand. The 

 meagreness produced by a line of turf or a verge of Box tree is 

 apparent enough, and yet how many seem to think otherwise, or are 



