VILLA GARDENING 



PART I 



CHAPTER I 



Selecting- the Site. — It is possible to make the poorest soil 

 fertile, but it is a loug, expensive operation ; and in selecting the 

 site for a villa residence, if one is fond of gardening, some consider- 

 ation should be given to the character of the soil, for on a good 

 soil the gardening operations may not only be more extended 

 in character, but they also will give more satisfaction. In fact, if 

 we garden on very bad land we shall be shut out from the higher 

 flights of open-air gardening, which, after all, is the most enjoy- 

 able. We may quote Cowper, and say, "Who loves a garden 

 loves a greenhouse too," with perfect truth ; but gardening in the 

 open air is the healthiest and pleasantest, as well as the least ex- 

 pensive, and much more may be done with trees, shrubs, and 

 hardy plants generally than has yet been attempted in most 

 gardens. 



Three main requisites to successful gardening are a good deep 

 soil, shelter from biting winds, and an atmosphere free from im- 

 piuities, or at least nearly so. And hapi^y is the man Avho can 

 secure a combination of these three on the same site. Too 

 often if we obtain good soil we are blown to pieces by the 

 winds, and nearly always in the neighbourhood of large towns 

 the atmospheric question is a serious one, and puts a limit to 

 the number of plants that can be grown with success ; and I 

 hold it to be the merest folly to attempt to grow a plant that 

 experience has shown cannot do more than pass a lingering 

 existence in that particular situation. In all gardening there is 

 yet something to learn as regards the right things to plant in 

 one given situation, and this matter perhaps will not be alto- 

 gether put right until those most directly interested take it up 

 and work it out for themselves. Rule -of- thumb men, deeply 



B 



