296 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



has gardening to do all the year round. I made up my mind, there- 

 fore, to pave the walks as shown in the plan, using old half-worn 

 London York stone pavings for this purpose, which at that time were 

 often used in making the bottoms of roads, and not of much value. 

 With these, work all the year round is pleasant, as sand, manure, 

 plants or anything else may be spread about on the walks without 

 adding to the labour or causing any unpleasantness. Where the 

 whole flower garden is set out in a week as in bedding-out this 

 would not matter so much ; but a real flower garden, which is a 

 thing of varied life, cannot be done in that way. The stones, when 

 in irregular pieces, are sometimes set at random, and they are set in 

 sand only, no cement or mortar being used. 



Then came the question of edgings. These in most gardens are 



a nuisance, and a serious and constant source of labour which can 



be very often ill-spared. Imagine the labour of 



Edgings. keeping up a large garden with Box or other live 



edgings, harbouring insects and doing other harm. 



So we had stone edgings made from the same old London 



flagstones, broken up into handy pieces about 10 inches deep. 



These look well at all seasons and make a lasting edging, so that 



the gardeners have time to think of getting beautiful results instead 



of being bothered with needless labours. Otherwise the plan speaks 



for itself. In planting we not only seek to get variety, but also 



some difference in the height of things, and thereby obtain a varied 



surface and not a flat hard one such as is commonly sought. 



Another point gained was that we could devote the beds 



to permanent planting ; we have not to tear up the beds every 



autumn to plant spring flowers, as is commonly 



Permanent done in the gardens about London and Paris. The 



planting. spring flowers abound so much in our lawns and 



woods, and beyond a few pretty edgings of 



Aubrietia, nothing else was done to disturb the beds meant for summer 



flowers. We can leave our Tea Roses and Carnations alone all the 



winter, and prepare for the summer garden only. Many fine things in 



the flower garden will not bear an annual or biennial disturbance, and 



therefore it is essential to have beds that we can plant with some 



degree of permanence. When the beds get tired of their contents, 



we have only to change the plants, but it is a great comfort to have 



beds which one can leave alone for several years, instead of having 



the useless labour of disturbing the ground twice a year. This was 



the old way of the ladies' flower garden before the detestable bedding 



and " mosaic " culture came in. To this the name " formal flower 



garden " may well be given. Only, we may now carry out the true 



way better, having a vastly greater flora to cull from ; and the spring 



