34 PRACTICAL GARDENING. 



gether : mnlching keeps off the frost, and is of great service 

 to some fruit-trees, many herbaceous plants, and to vines that 

 are to be forced. Mulching is best done with stable-dung ; 

 and every time a thing is watered, the effect is seen, because 

 it is simply laying dung round the stem on the roots of any- 

 thing, and every time it is washed by the rains or the water- 

 pot, the dung feeds the plant. It is often done with holly- 

 hocks, when they are coming into bloom, and to dahhas, 

 much to their disadvantage ; for we have seen them half- 

 devoured by the colony they have invited. However, one 

 watering with lime-water will disturb the inhabitants, and 

 perhaps destroy them altogether. 



THE LAYrN"G-OUT OF THE aAEDEiS". 



The laying-out of a garden must depend a little upon the 

 use that is to be made of it. A garden of any extent requires 

 three main walks from end to end ; one in the centre, and one 

 on each side within a border-width of the extreme boundary, 

 one across the bottom within border-width of the fence or 

 wall^ and one across the upper, and about the same distance 

 from the extreme. Borders on all four sides are handy : we 

 are not supposed to command the situation of the garden, but 

 it is quite certain that such portions of this border as face the 

 south and west will be warm, and those which face the north 

 and east will be cool. If the boundary happens to be some- 

 where about the points of the compass, one side and one end 

 wiU be warm, and the other side and end cool ; but this is of 

 small consequence — one-half the border will be each way. 



Paths. — The paths ought not to be less than five feet : if 

 ground is scarce, a barrow can be pushed along a walk of 

 three feet, but there is nothing like room. If we have paths 

 too narrow, two barrows could not pass, and there would be 

 fifty inconveniences that we hardly contemplate, and could 

 not foresee, perhaps. These paths are not to be mere spaces 

 marked out, and trodden down hard; although many gardens 

 have no other, and in such case they are useless in wet 

 weather. J^o ; they should be the first space that is dug all 

 over a piece of ground to be converted to garden purposes. 

 Mark them out with a line, and dig out a good spade deep all 

 along, the width you intend the path to be, sloping your spade 

 outwards, while you cut the two sides, to form a bank as even 



