FLOWER ENCLOSURES AND BORDERS 101 



determined by the size of the enclosure, for the 

 beds must not be thrown too much in the shade. 

 Quite low boundaries are sufficient where the 

 garden is sheltered, so long as their outline is 

 clear ; and such formal gardens as are sunk below 

 the level of the surrounding turf will probably need 

 nothing more than the bank or retaining wall which 

 marks the change in level. 



The principal reason for providing formal gardens 

 for the display of flowers, is the fact that the colour 

 and general beauty of the blooms are intensified by 

 their association and by massing them together. It 

 is not, of course, necessary to shut the beds in, or 

 to hide them from their surroundings, although the 

 completely enclosed garden has a glory quite its 

 own ; there is room for many degrees between the 

 box-bordered beds arranged below a friendly terrace 

 and the high-walled rose garden with its aristocratic 

 privacy. The effective massing of flowers is, how- 

 ever, common to all such arrangements, and to the 

 same end the broad or herbaceous border should be 

 cultivated against wall and hedge, and down the 

 whole length of the turfed and paved walks. Each 

 flower should appear in a profusion of its own kind, 



