WALKS AND EDGINGS. 217 



Here is an illustration showing a wretched mud edging. These 

 miniature ramparts, though less common than formerly, are a blot 



in London gardens and 

 Plastered margins parks. They are made of 

 to flower-beds, muddy compounds, and in 

 addition to the offensive 

 aspect of the little walls when first plastered 

 up, there are the cracks which come after 

 well shown in the cut. In a hot year, or any 

 year, it is madness to cock the beds upon a little wall like this. The 

 proper way to make a flower-bed is to let the earth slope gently 

 down to the margin, as was the practice for ages before this ugly 

 notion came about. 



TRIALS OF EDGING PLANTS IN MY GARDEN. 



These are only well done where there is stone edging of some kind. 

 In my youth I saw many miles of Box edgings being clipped, 

 and endless labour bestowed upon such wasteful work done at a 

 season when essential work was pressing. With a garden of my 

 own I made up my mind to stop all such waste, and got some old 

 York stone paving, which, broken up, made edgings to last for 

 hundreds of years ; also, rough sandstone rock gave bolder edgings 

 for shrubs. Given these stone edgings, I enjoyed much beautiful 

 life of alpine and rock plants, which liked the edging stone as much 

 as any rock garden. In this way may be grown numbers of beautiful 

 plants to give an added grace of colour and flower. To give an idea 

 of the result of this plan and of the plants that have given me the 

 most pleasure is the aim of this chapter. 



The Wall Hairbell (Campanula muralis). Of all the plants used, 

 this is the most long-lived and useful. Other Hairbells of the 

 mountains are difficult to grow, and even in careful hands are lost, 

 but this lovely Hairbell creeps up rocks, and even penetrates walls, 

 flowering for years, and so densely that the number of bells in one 

 foot of the line could not be counted. Flowering in early summer, if 

 we cut off the flowers with the shears the plants bloom again right 

 into November. 



The Lancaster Geranium (Geranium lancastriense}. This plant, 

 native of an island on the coast of Lancashire, has given as much 

 pleasure as any plant of the alpine rocks. It is dwarf, flowers all the 

 summer, is beautiful in colour and habit. 



Alpine Forest Heath (Erica carnea]. This is not in the flower 

 garden, but bordering beds and walks in the Heath garden, where it 



