300 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



kitchen garden had been in its present place originally ; its position- 

 could not be changed, and was therefore accepted and walled round 

 with Oak. The whole garden is quite distinct from any other, which 

 in itself is a great point. This garden was, as I think all gardens 

 ought to be, marked out on the ground itself without the intervention 

 of any plan. A plan is always a feeble substitute for the ground, and 

 even if made with the greatest care and cost has still to be adapted 

 to the ground. The plan shown in the engraving was made after 

 my work was done. 



Shrubland Park. — The plan here given is that of the new 

 flower garden at Shrubland Park, which is situated exactly in front 

 of the house, and tells its own story. It shows the simple form 

 of beds adopted, planned to suit their places, in lieu of the complex 

 pattern beds for carpet bedding, sand, coloured brick, and also the 

 change from such gardening to true flower-gardening. The names of 

 the plants used are printed in position, but the actual way of grouping 

 cannot well be shown in such a plan — the plants are not in little dots, 

 but in easy, bold groups here and there running together. The flower 

 gardening adopted is permanent, i.e., there is no moving of things 

 in the usual wholesale way in spring and autumn. The beds are 

 planted to stay, and that excludes spring gardening of the ordinary 

 kind. But many early spring flowers are used in the garden, the 

 mainstay of which is summer and autumn flowers, the period chosen 

 for beauty being that when the house is occupied and all beautiful 

 hardy flowers from Roses to Pansies that flower from May to 

 November are those preferred. There is no formality or repetition 

 in the flower planting but picturesque groups, here and there running 

 together, and sometimes softened by dwarf plants running below 

 the taller ones. The beds are set in a pleasant lawn, and there 

 is easy access to them in all directions from the grass. The area of 

 gravel was much greater in the old plan than in the present one, in 

 which what is essential only for free access to the garden is given. 



Evergreen Flower Garden in Surrey Villa. — Bearing in 

 mind the conventional bareness and hardness of the common garden 

 of our own day, there is no improvement greater than results 

 from breaking into this by permanent planting of things of a bushy 

 kind. The plan of this garden shows a choice evergreen garden 

 instead of the usual summer planting and autumnal death. The beds 

 are simple and planted with choice shrubs, not crowded, but leaving 

 room for different kinds of hardy flowers so as to get the relief of 

 flower and shrub, and the charm of beds alive and filled at all times. 

 Most of the evergreens (like Kalmia, Japanese Andromeda, and Rhodo- 

 dendrons of beautiful colour) are choice flowering ones, so that we 

 have bloom in spring and summer ; and after, or with the shrubs, the 



