FORMAL GARDENING. 319 



can be spared. The length of the beds should be about 

 twenty-five to thirty feet in the clear. Now, as four feet on 

 the path end of the bed should be devoted to the path, that 

 is to say, to plants which should form a border of flowers on 

 each side, although in reality intersected by the narrow side- 

 paths, they would require to be four feet longer on that 

 account, but the length is necessarily governed by space. It 

 may be that there is not enough ground to make such length 

 of beds, therefore the length we have mentioned has reference 

 rather to large than small gardens ; for we follow up the 

 subject by mentioning, that if the width of the ground is con- 

 siderably greater than will make such beds as we mention, we 

 would have other paths parallel with the middle one, so as to 

 make two beds in width on each side instead of one. Suppose 

 the ground to be anything under eighty feet wide, we would 

 have a three-foot wide path down each side, within three feet 

 of the boundary, so as to form a three-feet wide border all 

 round the garden ; then a centre walk of four to six feet, and 

 paths of eighteen inches two feet right and left, so as to lay 

 the whole out into four-feet beds, the length which the ground 

 would allow. For instance, if the ground be eighty feet wide, 

 the six feet for the middle path, the six feet for the borders, 

 and the eight feet for the two four-feet side-paths would oc- 

 cupy twenty feet of the width, and leave all the beds thirty 

 feet long ; and by occupying the four, or say five feet, with 

 plants, to give effect to both sides of the centre path, twenty- 

 five feet length of bed would be left for florists' flowers. 



If the ground were considerably less than this, the beds 

 would be proj)ortionably shorter, and one would feel inclined 

 to lessen the width of the paths to make the most of the 

 ground. In these beds most of the subjects would be planted 

 six inches apart, and therefore seven rows in a bed taken 

 lengthways — although florists count the rows the other way 

 always, and say so many rows, seven in a row. This is the 

 most compact width for all kinds of operations. We can reach 

 two feet across without inconvenience, to weed, plant, prune, 

 or do anything else to whatever the bed contains. These 

 beds are equally convenient for all things, even dahlias and 

 hollyhocks, the two largest and most unwieldy things we 

 have to do with, would be at proper distances one row down 

 each bed, or of hollyhocks perhaps two rows, as they do not 

 spread so much. But the very formality of the florist's 



