CHAP, xii VILLA GARDENING 73 



gotteu that land which is always at work must have very liberal 

 treatment. After the spring flowers are removed to the rubbish 

 heap, or in some cases to the reserve garden, dress the beds heavily 

 with compost in which charred refuse forms a part. I find this 

 better than all manures ; it fills the cracks of the soil between the 

 clods, and the roots of the plants seem to work in it so freely. 

 Often in May the land that has been under crop in spring turns 

 up rough and dry, and as the beds cannot be long exposed for the 

 air to perform the amelioration, something must be added that will 

 at once give tone to the soil, and, by blending with it, destroy its 

 harsh outline and character. Charred refuse mixed with earth 

 and leaf-mould meets the difliculty thoroughly. 



Beds of difterently-coloured Pansies are very pretty in spring, 

 and if they are well attended to they blossom well into the summer. 

 Blue King, Golden Bedder, Magpie, and Blanche make a nice selec- 

 tion, though the latter, I believe, is a Viola. Daisies are indis- 

 pensable in any spring bedding arrangement, white and pink at 

 least. The Forget-me-nots and double yellow Wallflowers make a 

 nice showy contrast; the Polyanthus, the Primrose, and Alpine 

 Auricula for partially-shaded spots, and bulbs and autumn-sown 

 annuals everywhere. 



I need not say much about the tender exotics, as everybody 

 must be familiar with beds of Pelargoniums. Of late years the 

 progress has been chiefly in one direction, namely, trying to obtain 

 Pelargoniums with large trusses of flowers. Though this may be 

 right for plants in pots under glass, smaller trussed varieties are 

 better adapted for oiu: showery climate. I still keep a few of the 

 old Tom Thumb, though otherwise I am so much under the influ- 

 ence of fashion as to grow the large trusses ; but whenever rough 

 weather comes on Tom is to the front and seems to enjoy it, whilst 

 the fair weather kinds, with their immense trusses, rush up into 

 growth and their flowers fail to open. During the last few years 

 various expedients have been adopted with the view of breaking 

 up the flat, dumpy, monotonous masses of colour in our gardens, 

 the most successful being the introduction of tall plants, at more 

 or less wide intervals, among the dwarf plants, the latter, in fact, 

 being used to form the undergrowth ; and sometimes this is done 

 with foliaged plants, but generally now flowers are in the ascendant. 

 I here give a few examples of those beds which pleased me most 

 last year : — No. 1. Hardy herbaceous white Phloxes, with a ground- 

 work of dwarf blue Ageratums ; No. 2. Lythrum roseum superbum; 

 groundwork white variegated Geraniums ; No. 3. Perpetual Carna- 

 tions and dwarf Chrysanthemum Asters ; No. 4. White Paris Daisy 

 and bright lake-coloured Tom Thumb Nasturtium; No. 5. Acer 



