NOTES ON A SHELTERED GARDEN 



ONE of the most charming of Irish gardens, that of Mount A River 

 Usher, Ashford, Co. Wicklow, affords the student of Bank 

 beauty many examples worthy of imitation, and sugges- 

 tive of fresh ideas. It unites many of the attractions of nature 

 with the true skill of consummate gardening. The house was 

 formerly a mill, and the most dexterous use has been made of the 

 original features of the place in the development of the garden. 

 The little river Vartry, which runs through it, has a walled bank 

 on one side, beautified in spring by masses of Aubrietia, Arabis, 

 Paul's Carmine Pillar, and other early and late spring flowers, 

 which hang from the stones, whilst along the path above runs 

 an ultramarine line of big Gentian. Later, these are succeeded 

 by Pinks, and still later by the effective scarlet flowers and grey 

 green tufts of Zauschneria californica. A creeping grey- 

 leafed Convolvulus, Convolvulus althteoides, or Riviera Bind- 

 wood, trails over the top of the wall, bearing through the 

 summer pretty pink flowers ; and Erigeron mucronatus^ is 

 established in crannies between the stones. 



On the farther side of the river the ground rises rather 

 steeply, and the natural edge is left. Rocks lie, as only nature 

 lays them, forming miniature promontories and bays. By the 

 side of the stream are huge plants of Saxifraga peltata, which 

 send their great, snake-like roots into the river, where they 

 cling to the rocks forming its bed. Fortunately these plants do 

 not resent being drowned in their leafless state, as the water 

 in winter rises from three to five feet. Above on the bank are 



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