POPULAR GARDENING. 



October, 



TKE COMPLETE GARDEN. 



X. 

 BY A WELL-KNOWN HORTICULTURIST. 



Continued from the September Number. 

 ENCLOSING THE GARDEN; DIVIDING ITS PARTS. 



Along with the improved highway laws 

 in most parts, forbidlng live stock to run 

 at large, the need of fences or like bar- 

 riers at the street front is less obvious than 

 formerly. The same is true on most farms 

 and gardens concerning division fences, a 



Mg. 32. Hed^e fortified with 

 Cable Thorn Wire. 



Fig. 33. The Plashing System of 

 hedge making. 



result mainly due to that improved form of lura aurantica. 

 live stock management which relies on 

 soiling instead of pasturage for feed. 



But that a complete garden should be en- 

 tirely without boundary or division fences 

 I suppose no one would claim. What it is 

 desired here to call attention to as especi- 

 ally appropriate to the garden in this line 

 is the use of hedges or other live screens. 

 Such are, both on account of their beauty 

 and iitility, well in accord with the idea of 

 gardening. Even though a street fence 

 may not be deemed a necessity for turning 

 away cattle, yet to have the garden pro- 

 tected at the front by a good defensive 

 hedge is desirable enough. It will make 

 the careful owner feel easy against the in- 

 trusion of occasional stray animals, which 

 it is well always to count upon, and of dogs, 

 truant children, fruit thieves, etc., while 

 the hedge will serve as a line between the 

 well kept interior grounds and the less per- 

 fectly cared for roadside beyond. So of 

 boundary liarriers and interior divisions 

 for separating the ornamental, fruit, vege- 

 table and other parts, here hedges of ever- 

 greens or shrubs, or screens of climbers, 

 serve to add a degree of peculiar beauty 

 and interest to the garden not otherwise 

 attainable. They also 

 have a valuable use in 

 breaking off any long 

 and uninteresting scen- 

 ery in the place. 



EVEKGREEN HEDGES. 



Among evergreen 

 hedge trees the writer 

 is satisfied that few are 

 equal to, while none 

 excel, the well-known 



Norway Spruce for Fw.Si. Various forms 

 I, 1 -vT ^ "/ hedaes. a and h 



hedge purposes. Next ,/(.i„y ,",,£ preferable 

 to this excellent tree I ones. 

 would place the Hemlock and the American 

 Arbor Vitw. In planting I treat the trees as 

 to distance apart and pruning according to 

 the ultimate size desired. For a fine low 

 hedge to be three to four feet in height, and 

 five feet ultimately, the plants are put into 

 well prepared soil in a straight line, and at 

 a distance no more than twenty inches 

 apart. By an annual pruning then of the 

 young tender growth in the early summer 

 there is no difficulty in so controlling the 

 size that an advance in height of not above 

 from one to two inclies per year need be 

 allowed. If a screen eight to twelve feet 

 in height is wanted, the planting should be 

 farther apart, say at four feet in the line. 



While evergreen hedges, unlike various 

 deciduous ones, are witliout thorns, hence 

 naturally less effective in turning oti in- 

 truders, it is easy, as shown by P'ignre 32 

 annexed, to unite several lines of cable 

 thorn fencing material with the evergreens 



for forming a perfectly defensive barrier. 

 This is done by setting strong oak stakes 

 (not posts) at a distance of 16 feet apart 

 along the line soon after the trees are set, 

 and upon which to attach two or three 

 coils of the wire referred to. After some 

 years the stakes will decay at the ground, 

 but by this time the wires and stakes will 

 have become so interwoven with the 

 branches that the footing of the former is of 

 no consequence. The same plan is applica- 

 ble to any deciduous plants that may be 

 lacking in thorny 

 qualities. 



Deciduous Hedges. 

 Of strong-g rowing 

 hedge trees, which, 

 without any pruning 

 or crowding will in 

 time form trees, may 

 be mentioned the 

 Honey Locust, Ole- 

 ditchia triacanthos; 

 Osage Orange, Mac- 

 While these as a class are 

 neither as handsome or tractable as the 

 shrubby kinds to be mentioned further on, 

 they possess because of their stronger growth 

 some advantages where a formidable bar- 

 rier is needed. 



In the culture of strong hedges mistakes 

 are often made by not giving the plants the 

 required attention in the first year's growth 

 for providing a good basis for a close, per- 

 manent line. The soil for a hedge should be 

 in a good condition for raising any ci'op. The 

 plants should for a number of years be cul- 

 tivated as one would care for a row of pota- 

 toes or corn. In planting, good plants 

 should be chosen, and if these vary in size, 

 they should be sorted to bring those of the 

 same strength together. Plant in a single 

 row at one foot or a little less apart, first 

 pruning the tops back to about two inches 

 above the collar. General directions for 

 further pruning might thus be stated: Cut 

 back the plants at one year from planting to 

 within si.x inches of the last year's place of 

 cutting, and tlie second spring cut again to 

 about nine or twelve inches from the for- 

 mer cut. After this if the growth be good 

 the hedge may be allowed to advance from 

 si.x to twelve inches a year, until it reaches 

 the desired height. 



Some growers of the Honey Locust allow 

 the plants to grow two years before prun- 

 ing, then cutting down to within three 

 inches of the ground. This causes numer- 

 ous shoots to start up below the cut with 

 the effect of making a well formed and in a 

 degree complete barrier shortly afterwards. 

 A course of treatment which has been 

 adopted largely in the Western States, with 

 the Osage Orange and some others for 

 early forming a strong hedge is Illustrated 

 in Figure 33. The trees are allowed to grow 

 upright for a few years, removing a part of 

 the side branches to cause a strong, upright 

 growth. They are then cut half off at the 

 surface of the earth, with the exception of 

 some trees, to be about four or five feet 

 apart. The cut trees are bent at an angle of 

 near thirty degrees, being here interwoven 

 with and tied to the upright ones, to form 

 a straight line. The row is then evenly 

 trimmed off at the top at a height of about 

 three feet from the ground. Directly upon 

 this treatment, which should be done in 

 early spring, many new shoots start up 

 fi-om the stumps and sides to the forming 

 of an impenetrable growth. In after years 

 the tops are annually cut back to within a 

 few inches of the last place of cutting. 



Of the deciduous kinds named, the Osage 

 Orange, being a native of Arkansas and 

 Missouri, is less hardy and reliable in the 

 North than the others. The Honey I^ocust 

 is perfectly hardy, but without regular 

 pruning is liable to assume a coarse appear- 



ance. The Buckthorn, while it has the ad- 

 vantages of hardiness, easy propagation by 

 seed, an abundance of fine roots, permitting 

 transplanting with hardly a chance of loss, 

 and has a naturally thick and hedgy growth, 

 still the growth, unless it be in rich land, is 

 not such as to make as formidable a barrier 

 as either of the others named. But by em- 

 ploying the method illustrated by Figure 32 

 this ob.iection may in the main be overcome. 



Shrub Hedge.s. It is in the line of shrub- 

 by plants in which is to be found the best 

 material lor the small, ornamental decidu- 

 ous hedges that would most often be 

 found desirable about gardens. In this 

 class we would place the various Privets, 

 Lidustiim; several of the Barberries, Ber- 

 hcris:, Japan Quince, Pyrns {.tyn. Cydonia) 

 Japonica; Thorns, Crattegufi; Weigelias, 

 Mock Oranges, Philadephus; Spireas, 

 Deutzias, and other vigorous, dense-grow- 

 ing flowering shrubs. Some Evergreens 

 might be brought into this same class as to 

 size, namely the Box, Malionia, dwarf 

 Spruces, Firs, Arbor Vita's, and Pines. 



The management of the shrub hedges is 

 even more simple than that of the stronger 

 growing sorts before mentioned, for the rea- 

 son that their nat- l »wn_ 

 ural growth is 

 close and hedge- 

 like. Among those 

 named the Privet 

 has the advantage 

 of bearing the 

 shears better, 

 hence is more eas- 

 ily shaped into 



any desired form pjg, 36. silt basin cmmcc 

 than the others. Hon between road gutter 

 Most of the latter, "'"* *™"'- 

 however, are so tractable and so handsome 

 both in foliage and flowers, that their use 

 should become very general. 



Pruning. As to form, it should be un- 

 derstood that some shapes are better than 

 others. In Figure 34 are shown several cross 

 sections of hedges, of which n and h are the 

 best, because they most nearly approach 

 the natural style of growth. Were these 

 forms more rounded at the top no great ob- 

 jection could be raised, while for the sake 

 of variety such might be desirable. The ad- 

 vantage of the forms which are broad at the 

 base, as compared with that of C, is that the 

 sun and light can reach and penetrate all 

 parts of the former about equally, with im- 

 portant benefit to health and vigor. 



The time of pruning a hedge has its pecu- 

 liar effects on growth. To prune early in 

 the spring, before the buds start, Uniits the 

 growth of the season to the remaining eyes 

 of the shoots, with the effect of inviting a 

 vigorous growth in those, and the earlier 

 forming of a barrier. Pruning the young, 

 tender growth in the summer, on the con- 

 trary, checks or retards the growth. After 

 a hedge has become established, therefore 

 by making the early slimmer season the 

 main pruning time, following it by several 

 successive shearings later on, the work is 

 not only easier done than in hard wood 

 pruning, but the hedge is confined to a 

 more limited degree of growth, just as one 



SSf^SHJ*^^ 



Fig. 35. Section of the Telford Ga/rden Road, a 

 large stones, b broken stones, c gra/cel, d gutter. 



would most desire. In the flowering kinds 

 the first summer pruning may follow 

 closely upon the season's crop of bloom. 

 But under any circumstances some cutting 

 back with the knife, in order to admit air 

 and light the more freely back of the sur- 

 face, is a good practice to pursue. 



