6d 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ January 34, 1867. 



some of its relatives, is often used, though it has not much to 

 racommend it, being difficult to keep in order, and plants here 

 jmd there often die out, making unsightly blanks in what ought 

 to be, whatever it be composed of, one unbroken line. 



Of the host of herbaceous plants used, comparatively few are 

 well adapted for the purpose. Most of them make a broader 

 line than good taste can sanction or economy allow where nar- 

 row walks and narrower borders are the rule, as they too often 

 are in the case of villa gardens, added to which many of them 

 require relaying every year, and most of them every two years, 

 to keep them at all within the bounds of respectability. 



One of the least objectionable in the above respect is that 

 pretty little plant the GentianeUa (Gentiana acaulis). It is 

 most at homo in wet damp places, where it will go on year 

 after year throwing up its great Gloxinia-like tubes without 

 being lifted or receiving any attention beyond a slight docking 

 with tho spade and line every spring when done flowering. 



Several of the Sedums answer very well, but the flowers 

 require to be clipped off before the seeds ripen, as they spoil 

 the gravel with seedlings. 



The Sea Pink (Ai-meria maritima), is so well known and so 

 often used for back edgings that I need only say it has many 

 good qualities to recommend it, not the least of which is the 

 facility with which any quantity of it can be procured, if within 

 a reasonable distance of the sea. 



The Auricula is also a great favourite in small gardens ; so 

 is the Arabis family, especially the variegated variety, but of 

 it a reserve ought always to be kept to make up blanks, which 

 will frequently occur. 



Many of the Saxifrages make neat edgings, but require fre- 

 quent re-arrangement. 



There are many others that are largely used, of which not 

 very much can be said in their favour. All the Daisies are 

 highly objectionable on account of the trouble they give. The 

 equally numerous family of Primulas are too large-leaved, and 

 Mr. Wills's long-lost j)m(e(7e, Viola cornuta, though 1 hear some 

 are using it, is of far too genteel a nature to enter the lists 

 against tacketty boot-toes and accidental barrow- wheels. 



Perhaps on the whole the best substitute for Box will be 

 found in dead materials. Of these, white dressed freestone 

 takes the highest rank, and indeed in situations where weight 

 and massiveness, or harmony with architectural surroundings, 

 are desirable features this is indispensable. Unfortunately its 

 costliness places it almost beyond the pale of common use ; 

 but a wooden kerb well painted with thickish paint, then neatly 

 sanded, and, when dry, again coated with thin stone-coloured 

 paint, if well done, looks remarkably like stone, and endures a 

 long time. 



Cast-iron edgings as usually made are also rather too expen- 

 sive ever to become very popular, but as they will last any 

 length of time, this expense is more apparent than real. As 

 it is, a very neat and by no means insignificant-looking edging 

 could be made for about Is. per yard according to weight. 



With regard to terra cotta edgings I have not had the ad- 

 vantage of seeing many that have been laid down for any con- 

 siderable period ; what I have seen struck me as being what 

 we would call little more than half-hardy, a great many little 

 corners and edges being scaled oft by the frost, particularly 

 about the joints. They look well, however, and as my opinion 

 of their endurance must be taken in connection with a Scotch 

 winter, they may, perhaps, do very well in England. 



I was once acquainted with an old, retired, sea captain, who, 

 after carrying Her Majesty's mails for many years to somewhere 

 round the Cape, settled down in a snug little villa not far from 

 the seaside, as most old sailors do, and took to gardening. His 

 tastes certainly might not be of the purest, nor his theories, of 

 ■which he had a great many, the most correct ; but his shell 

 Wilts were the whitest and his edgings the neatest in all that 

 locality, and they were neither more nor less than old ship cables 

 of about 2 inches in diameter. The way they were put down 

 was this : — The ground being marked off, short stout stakes 

 were driven in to a little below the level of the walk ; along the 

 tops of these common paling rails were nailed to serve as a 

 bed for the cable, to which it was fixed by stout nails, and 

 when the gravel was raked in the woodwork was entirely hidden. 

 Thau this, for a simple, not very expensive edging, nothing 

 could be more artiatio. 



All up and down our shores, but more particularly on the 

 south' and west coasts of England, there are to be met with 

 whole acres of rocks and boulders all bored over with little 

 holes as if milUons of fairy wimbles had been busy at work 

 ever since the creation. This is the handiwork of several 



species of burrowing molluscs, known to those skilled in marine 

 lore as Pholades, Saxicavse, &c., and the means they use in 

 making and the ends for which they make these countless 

 holes in the hardest rocks have long been a puzzle among 

 scientific men. Be that as it may, these molluscs manufacture 

 one of the best materials for making rustic edgings that I know 

 of. Broken up into pieces of nearly uniform size, and either 

 laid on the ground or fixed on a foundation of brick by means 

 of cement, it has a more unique and coralline appearance than 

 anything else of the kind obtainable in this country. It is 

 most suitable for walks in or about rockeries, ferneries, &c. 

 Even for making rockeries themselves, if such caricatures there 

 must be, it is much better than ordinary cobbles, tree roots, 

 bottlework, clinkers, and all the other conventional abomina- 

 tions which when tumbled together are dignified by that 

 name. — Ateshire Gaedeneb. 



[ObUge us by sending your name and address.^EDS.] 



GARSTON VINEYARD. 



{Continued from I'ol. XI., page 40-1.) 



I DAVE the more pleasure in resuming my description of the 

 Garston Vineyard, because it will enable me to prove to 

 " ViTis " and other readers that I only stated the truth in my 

 article on making Vine borders. What " Vitis " says may be 

 correct in reference to the ridge running through Hertfordshire, 

 Essex, and Cambridgeshire, and which is composed of a cal- 

 careous sandy loam, a soil in which the Vine luxuriates with- 

 out borders or anything except water. Give the Vine plenty 

 of water in the above localities, and a moderate amount of 

 horticultural skiU is all that is necessary to grow good Grapes ; 

 but confine the roots of the Vine within the walls of vineries in 

 borders only 3 feet deep, follow the practice which has pleased 

 " Vitis " so much — namely, watering only once a-month, and 

 I think " Vitis," or any one else would look in vain for good 

 results. In Lancashire both climate and soil are adverse to 

 the Grape-grower, and " Vitis " will therefore perceive that it 

 is wrong to dogmatise on any subject, no matter what, when 

 conditions differ. 



Some years ago, long before Mr. Miller was heard of as a 

 Grape-grower, there was a Mr. Nash at Bishop Stortford, who 

 surprised everybody with his fine Grapes ; but there was no 

 merit due to Mr. Nash or his gardener — the soil was there 

 ready, and they could not help growing good Grapes. The one 

 want above all others to be attended to in the sandy soil of 

 Bishop Stortford is water. The Vines will require it weekly, 

 or oftener, during their season of growth. The great merit is 

 in producing results under unfavourable conditions. This Mr. 

 Meredith has done. He has not only had to contend with 

 climate, but with the constant outlay which his undertakings 

 involved. 



Nine years ago last March Mr. Meredith began carting bricks 

 to what was then a green field. One of his first proceedings 

 was to build a good substantial dwelling-house, which is very 

 commodious and pleasantly situated ; most of the rooms up- 

 stairs and down are nicely heated with hot water. DiU'ing the 

 first year Mr. Meredith built his dwelling-house, four vineries, 

 and four Pine-stoves, besides several other smaller houses and 

 pits for plants. From three of these houses he has out his 

 most extraordinary Grapes. These results will at once show 

 that when he made the borders nearly ten years ago, he clearly 

 saw that to make a shallow border for permanent Vines on a 

 cold lazy subsoil was useless. He was also well aware that to 

 insure success it was necessary that a border should be made 

 both outside and in. He had likewise a settled conviction 

 that it was necessary, though expensive, to make a good lasting 

 Vine border ; if he had not done so he would have been under 

 the necessity of replacing the splendid Vines that have borne 

 such enormous crops of good Grapes, and which still give 

 promise of greater results in future years, with others which, 

 as soon as they were arriving at the proper age and strength 

 for bearing good crops, it would have been necessary either to 

 have lifted whilst another border was being made for them, or 

 to have replaced with fresh Vines. In either case there must 

 have been a break of a year at least before any favourable 

 results could have been obtained. 



The front of Mr. Meredith's dwelling-house faces due south. 

 On each side of the house there is a lean-to vinery, 55 feet 

 by 17. The healthy Vines, and the magnificent Grapes which 

 these houses produce every year, abundantly prove that aspect 

 has nothing to do with the well-being of the Vine. One of 



