6 FLOWERS AND THE FLOWEft GAKDEtf* 



done by a tyro, by folding the paper and pricking 

 through ; then divide the paper into squares, and mark 

 out the ground into the same number of squares ; and 

 simple measuring will do the rest. If the beds be 

 separated by paths, not cut out on grass, they must 

 be edged with well-kept box. If a garden of this 

 kind be surrounded by a border, that may be planted 

 with tall-growing vegetation such as ornamental trees, 

 shrubs, standard roses, and plants of a like height, but 

 for the beds themselves low-growing things will have the 

 best effect. The highest should not exceed the height 

 of a rosebush ; and it is a general practice to peg down 

 most of the plants, so as to maintain quite a low surface. 

 The corresponding beds of the two sides, and even of 

 the four quarters, should agree exactly, and the flowers 

 chosen should be of kinds which bloom abundantly. 

 There is no kind of garden which requires more exact 

 care, as extreme neatness should especially characterize it. 

 It looks very poor if some of the beds are behind others 

 in flowering, and others only partially full of plants and 

 flowers, or if the edges are not exactly kept. In the 

 spring a symmetrical garden planted with bulbs is 

 very bright and gay ; but in this case either the bulbs 

 must be sacrificed when they have done flowering, or 

 the use of the garden given up for a portion of the year 

 afterwards. This, however, may be obviated by planting 

 the bulbs in pots, and sinking them. 



The old-fashioned English flower garden will always 

 have many friends. The landscape garden is for the 

 rich, or, at any rate, for the owner of an extensive piece of 

 ground. The Italian garden appertains appropriately to 

 mansions, and requires expensive mason's work, hydraulic 

 apparatus, and plenty of gardeners to keep it in the trim" 

 order without which it conveys more idea of shabbiness 

 than the humblest garden of smaller pretensions. The 

 geometric garden must come down to us from ages back, 

 or it is nothing. Its clipped trees, yew hedges, formal 

 paths, and stately growth are the creation of centuries. 

 The symmetrical flower garden needs a greenhouse or a 

 long purse to supply plants in sufficient numbers for its 



