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OBSERVATIONS 



THE FLOWER GARDEN 



Previous to forming a flower garden, the ground should 

 be made mellow and rich, by being well pulverized, manured, 

 and prepared in every respect as if intended for a kitchen 

 garden. A flower garden should be protected from cold, 

 cutting winds by close fences, or plantations of shrubs, form- 

 ing a close and compact hedge, which should be neatly trim- 

 med every year. Generally speaking, a flower garden should 

 not be on a large scale, and the beds or borders should not 

 in any part be broader than the cultivator can reach, without 

 treading on them : the shape and number of the beds must 

 be determined by the quantity of the ground, and the taste 

 of the person laying out the garden. 



Much of the beauty of a pleasure garden depends on the 

 manner in which it is laid out ; a great variety of figures 

 may be indulged in for the flower beds. Some choose oval 

 or circular forms, others squares, triangles, hearts, diamonds, 

 &c, intersected with winding grass paths and gravel walks. 

 In the design of an ornamental garden, nature, however, 

 should be imitated as closely as practicable, not only in the 

 formation and regulation of the flower beds, but in the adap- 

 tation of each species to its peculiar element, soil, and situ- 

 ation, taking into consideration, that the inmates of a garden, 

 constituting as they do a mingled group, collected from all 

 the different climates and soils of the vegetable creation, re- 

 quire each its most essential aliment, to promote a luxuriant 

 growth. 



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