CHAP. I VILLA GARDENING 7 



fiuishing touches are given, than after. The site of the different 

 featiu-es should be marked on a plan of the ground, but no one can 

 give a plan that will be adapted to any given site without seeing 

 the place and its surroundings. Useful ideas may sometimes be 

 gleaned fi'om plans in books, but, except in the case of geometrical 

 figures and as illustrations of particular ideas, they are practically 

 useless, and the man who undertakes to furnish a plan for a garden 

 without having seen the site generally misses his mark. The ad- 

 vantages of thinking out the whole plan so as to grasp all the 

 probable features as a whole are very great, especially in the 

 economical arrangement of the work, and the beds for the different 

 subjects should be prepared early to give time for settling. 



Fences. — Brick walls are commonly employed as boundary 

 fences to gardens, because of the sense of security which they 

 impart ; but as regards appearance they are always unsatisfactory 

 until clothed and hidden by greenery of some kind. In some 

 places long, straight boundary walls are exceedingly objectionable, 

 and a long, straight, closely-cut hedge is almost as bad, unless its 

 utility as a fence carries conviction to the mind of its necessity ; 

 and so mere usefulness carries the day. But there are many ways 

 of breaking up the unsightliness of ugly dead walls. The Irish 

 Ivy will soon hide a high wall, and a collection of various coloured 

 Ivies will be an interesting feature always. Straight lines of wall 

 or hedge can be broken up by a group of shrulis here and there 

 placed judiciously for that purpose. Hollies make splendid fences 

 where the soil suits them, but they will not grow with equal 

 luxiu'iance everywhere ; still with liberal treatment there are but 

 few places where the Holly will not in a few years form an excel- 

 lent fence, and once formed it will be a fLxture. Where a fence 

 and nothing but a fence is wanted, for general utility veiy few 

 plants will beat the White Thorn. The site should be well pre- 

 pared by trenching, and the plants put in 6 inches apart in a 

 single row. The plants should lie about the same strength, so that 

 all may come away together, and then with care and the right 

 shape insisted on, a splendid fence will be the result. A very 

 great deal depends upon the shape in the case of a Thorn hedge. 

 If the sides are cut straight up nothing can prevent the bottom 

 branches dying oft", and the hedge as a fence is soon spoiled, and 

 has to be cut down ; bi;t if from the first the hedge is cut into a 

 pyramidal or inverted A form every branch gets its fair share of 

 light, air, and rain, and consec^uently all flourish alike. The Yew 

 Tree, the Arborvitte, the Spruce Fir, Box, Privet, Asiatic Barberry, 

 and the common Laurel are all useful as hedge plants where ever- 

 green hedges are recpiired. And in the south of England, where 



