CHAPTER XXXI 



SHRUB AND FLOWER BORDERS 



WHERE there are wide lawn spaces and fine trees 

 in garden ground much of the effect is often lost or 

 spoiled by the presence of unworthy trivialities where 

 there should be distinct and bold features. The 

 most frequent offender is a narrow strip of flower 

 border, edging shrubbery and coming between the 

 shrubs and the grass. Nothing is more useless than 

 such a border. The shrubs would look much better 

 coming right down to the grass, while if bright or 

 distinct colour is absolutely required, it is easy to 

 make a place here and there where some patch of 

 Lily or other flower of bold form may be well seen. 



These narrow borders are undesirable, not only 

 for their poor effect we think not of one, but of 

 many a fine place where there are furlongs of such 

 futility but because the plan is destructive to both 

 shrubs and flowers. If the ground is not dug for 

 a year the roots of the shrubs invade it ; if it is 

 dug and enriched for the flowers, the feeding roots 

 of the shrubs are mutilated. 



In the case of a place where lawn comes up to 

 shrub plantation, which, again, is backed by wood- 

 land, the better way is to have, in just the right places, 

 a bold planting of something fairly large, whose 



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