LAYING OUT GARDENS. 



294 



LEAF MOULD, 



devoted to such crops in the kitchen garden 

 as require a warm, sunny border. 



Where it can be so arranged, the garden 

 should be a rectangular oblong. A very 

 convenient form will be found in an oblong 

 that is a length of 100 yards from east to 

 west and a width of 30 yards from north 

 to south, and about the proportions laid 

 down in the plan given in Fig. 2. This 

 allows the vegetables to range from north 

 to south, which is always to be preferred, 

 otherwise they get drawn to one side by 

 the side light of the sun. The arrange- 



FIG. 2. PLAN FOR GARDEN AND 

 GROUNDS OF ABOUT HALF AN ACRE. 



ment of the entire garden is as follows : 

 A, the sight of the house ; r>, the conser- 

 vatory ; c, a clump of trees and shrubs 

 fronting the main entrance ; D, coach house 

 and stables ; E, tool house ; F, manure and 

 frame yard ; G, flower borders and shrub- 

 beries ; H, ferns and American plants ; I, 

 rose clumps ; J, circular beds for hollyhocks, 

 dahlias, and other free-blooming plants in 

 summer, and thinly planted with evergreens 

 to take off the nakedness in winter; K, 

 arbour ; L, flower beds ; M, lawn ; N, 

 paths ; O, beds for placing out flowers in 

 pots ; P, kitchen gardens ; Q, peach wall ; 

 ^, west wall for plums, cherries, and pears. 



It is sometimes advantageous to have 

 buildings and even groups of large trees 

 contiguous to gardens : where these are 

 situated to the north of the garden, they 

 not only break and turn aside the cold 

 winds, but concentrate the heat of the sun, 

 a great advantage when early crops are 

 required. They also preserve the crops 

 during winter. Buildings have this advan- 

 tage over trees, that they afford the shelter 

 without robbing the soil of the food neces- 

 sary for its legitimate crop. In the accom- 

 panying plan it will be observed that the 

 whole frontage north of the house is laid 

 out as lawn, and to the south, that the 

 breadth of the house and offices is disposed 

 in the same way ; a single winding path 

 running through it. South of the house 

 lie the conservatory and offices, sheltered 

 by a belt of shrubbery which runs round 

 the whole lawn. The kitchen gardens 

 occupy the north-west' side of the ground, 

 and adjoining, at the western extremity, 

 are vineries, forcing houses, and orchard 

 houses. The eastern boundary is a dwarf 

 wall with green iron railings. 



Leaf Mould. 



This is a substance complex in its nature, 

 and its functions, except so far as its 

 heating properties are concerned, are im- 

 perfectly known. The substance of all 

 plants and leaves yields by slow decom- 

 position results of the highest importance 

 to the cultivation of the soil ; and when 

 exposed to a sufficient amount of heat, and 

 under the full play of atmospheric air or 

 oxygen, they burn, yielding water and car- 

 ! bonic acid, leaving only a trifling amount 

 of organic matter behind. Natural decay 

 is just such a slow combustion of moist 

 organic matter as is required ; it is decom- 

 posed when freely exposed to the oxygen 

 of the air by slow burning, and the result 

 is that when the gaseous fumes evolved by 

 decomposition are given off, a blackish- 



