CHAP. II VILLA GARDENING 9 



should be laid from 3 inches to 4 inches of good binding gravel. 

 Such a path will last -without much labour for a century if need 

 be ; but imless the walk is laid perfectly dry it will never be 

 satisfactory, and well-made roads and walks about a place are a 

 luxury which everybody appreciates in bad weather. 



Very conspicuous garden paths may have their bareness of 

 aspect toned down and made interesting by a Weeping Ash, which 

 can be supplemented in the foreground by a group of low shrubs, 

 such as Barberries or Rhododendrons, and in the distance a conifer 

 of some free-gTowing kind, such as the Cedar of Lebanon or Picea 

 Nordmanuiaua, might be introduced. These are merely sugges- 

 tions based on what I have found useful in practice. Unneces- 

 sary walks or roads should never be tolerated, as a garden or 

 gi'ounds interlaced with brown stripes of gravel cannot please. 



Asphalte, when properly laid down, makes firm, dry paths, but 

 a gravel path seems to accord more with oiu- idea of wliat a garden 

 path should be ; and in the country, where the materials for walk- 

 making are always at hand, veiy few asphalte walks are made. 

 Still, asphalte forms a very usefid and durable path. 



CHAPTER II 



Planting Trees and Shrubs.^ — Tliere is scarcely anything in 

 gardening that calls for the exercise of taste, judgment, and know- 

 ledge in a greater degree than does the planting of trees. If well- 

 placed, trees are a constantly increasing source of interest. Those 

 who have not made trees a study have no idea of the beauty and 

 grandeur of the scenes which may be created by them. It is true 

 in a villa garden we cannot have the woods upon woods the poet 

 speaks of, but exceedingly pretty pictures may be made in a limited 

 space if the right materials are selected and judiciously placed. 

 The collection of trees and shrubs at the planter's disposal are very 

 extensive, without touching those whose hardiness is doubtful. 

 Our own native trees are a host in themselves, and besides this, 

 every countiy possessing a temperate climate has been ransacked 

 by collectors for the express purpose of adding to our stock. To 

 form screens, or to blind unsightly objects, the Red-twigged Lime, 

 the Wych Elm, and the Ash-leaved Maple grow rapidly and submit 

 readily to pruning. The Lombardy Poplar also grows rapidly, 

 and may be planted where the space is too limited for a tree 

 of spreading habit. Evergreen trees for a like purpose may be 

 found among conifers, such as the Austrian Pine, the Lawson 

 Cypress, and Thuja Lobbiana. 



