CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



into which the ground may be divided. These 

 paths are only flattened by the foot or by the 

 spade, and are to be delved up annually in the 

 course of digging. At that side of the garden oppo- 

 site the door there may be an arbour or summer- 

 house fitted up according to taste and overhung 

 with honeysuckle, jasmine, or other climbers. 



The regular walks in all moderately sized 

 gardens should not be wider than five to six 

 feet, at least where land is of value ; and each 

 should have a three to four feet deep drain, formed 

 under its centre where the adjoining ground is 

 level, but under its upper side when that is 

 sloping ; an ordinary drain-tile being laid in the 

 bottom, and then filled up with ashes, gravel, or 

 other water-conducting substances. Much care is 

 required to keep walks in order, for they are very 

 liable to shew crops of weeds and moss. To 

 prevent this, as well as to guard against worms, 

 which are very apt to disfigure the walks by 

 throwing up casts, it is a good plan to bottom the 

 walks with nine inches in depth of broken stones, 

 clinkers, rough cinders, or slag from furnaces. 

 Over a smooth level bed of this kind put a layer 

 of small gravel that will bind, or, failing this, a 

 layer of brayed yellow ashes from a furnace, if 

 they can be procured. Smooth all with the rake, 

 and flatten with a roller. Such walks should be 

 scuffled with the Dutch hoe, raked, and rolled 

 down several times during the season, otherwise 

 the growth of weeds and moss will render them 

 untidy. On no account should such operations be 

 neglected until Po a annua and other weeds have 

 shed their seeds, otherwise it will be impossible to 

 get the walks thoroughly cleaned. Many small 

 plants such as daisies, Gentianella, thrift, dwarf 

 heaths ; several kinds of whortleberry, and the 

 bush or runnerless Alpine strawberry are used 

 for edgings to walks ; but that most in repute 

 is dwarf box-wood. Flints and other stones 

 of different kinds, forms, and sizes, as well 

 as frost-proof bricks of various patterns, are 

 also very frequently employed for forming edgings, 

 as they afford no shelter for slugs or other 

 vermin, while they admit of the weeds being killed 

 with boiling water, gas liquor, or other liquid 

 applications. 



The above remarks will suffice to indicate the 

 mode of forming walks in a common kitchen- 

 garden of ordinary dimensions. Where the 

 garden is more extensive, and is intended as much 

 for ornament as utility, more care will be required, 

 for nothing conduces so much to the tidy ap- 

 pearance and comfort of a garden as the neat- 

 ness and dryness of its walks, especially in wet 

 weather. On flat ground, both verges or edgings 

 of a walk should be on the same level ; but where 

 the ground is much sloped transversely, a fall to 

 the lower side may be allowed of about a quarter 

 of an inch to the foot. Where the walk takes a 

 precipitate fall, it will be necessary to have 

 surface tile-gutters along one or both sides, or 

 channels formed of sea-pebbles may be used with 

 good effect ; but where edging-tiles are used, those 

 having hollow water-runs underneath are more 

 sightly and effective than open water-runs. Con- 

 crete or asphalt is sometimes used for the sur- 

 face ; but good, gravel, where obtainable, is to 

 be preferred. ' It is more congenial to our feelings, 

 and harmonises better with the surrounding 

 scenery of the garden.' 



516 



No precise directions can be given respecting 

 garden tools and apparatus ; the following are the 

 articles required in moderately sized gardens of a 

 mixed kind : Spades, a digging-fork, a trowel for 

 lifting flowers, Dutch and common hoes, iron 

 rakes, a strong clasp-knife for pruning, pruning- 

 gloves, a pair of strong pruning-shears, an axe, a 

 hand-saw, a hammer and cast-iron nails, a wheel- 

 barrow, a roller, a dibble and line, a watering-pan, 

 a scythe, a mowing-machine, edging and hedge 

 shears, a ladder, flower-pots of different sizes, 

 conical earthenware blanching-pots, bell-glasses, 

 and hand-glasses of different sizes. These last may 

 be had either in one piece or with a movable top, 

 as in the following figure. A neat small kind, 

 framed in zinc, useful for protecting early seedlings 

 or flowers, may be 

 had for 2s. 6d. each. 

 Other utensils em- 

 ployed by gardeners 

 such as forcing- 

 pumps to wash wall- 

 trees, fumigating bel- 

 lows, &c. need not 

 be particularised. A 

 person possessing 



only a small garden will shortly discover by ex- 

 perience what are the articles required in his 

 operations. The articles constantly in use are the 

 spade, rake, and knife; with these alone many a 

 small garden is successfully cultivated, and the 

 amateur with whom economy is an object, will do 

 well, in entering for the first time upon a little 

 garden of his own, to begin with them, and allow 

 experience to suggest further wants in the tool 

 department. For gardens in which cucumbers 

 and melons are to be grown, glazed frames and 

 brick-built pits will be necessary. As already 

 indicated, it is a great advantage for a garden to 

 have a command of good fresh water for the 

 purpose of irrigation, and also a small pond in 

 which aquatic plants can be grown. If water is 

 procured from a pump-well, it should be allowed 

 to stand in the open air in a trough for at least a 

 day before being poured on the plants. By this 

 means it gradually acquires the temperature of the 

 atmosphere. 



A garden is in all cases laid out according to 

 the taste or fancy of the proprietor ; but there are 

 certain general rules which all follow. The wall 

 is reserved for fruit-trees. As fruit-trees require 

 much air and sun, the borders must not be clogged 

 up with bushes, peas, or any other tall vege- 

 tables. The borders should either be reserved 

 entirely for the roots of the wall-trees, or contain 

 only small articles which are delved up yearly, 

 because the soil at the roots of the trees requires 

 occasional renewal and loosening, and these 

 operations cannot be done if the ground is en- 

 cumbered with permanent plants. If a row of 

 gooseberry or other small fruit-bushes be placed 

 on the borders, they should be near the out- 

 side, and not less than ten feet apart. Let it 

 be observed also, that flowering-plants should 

 occupy the border most exposed to the sun ; while 

 horse-radish, and others naturally loving the shade, 

 should be placed on northerly and easterly exposed 

 borders, from which the sun's rays are generally 

 less or more excluded. 



The body of the garden within the walks is laid 

 out in larger or smaller plots, according to taste. 



