SHRUBBERIES. 



468 



SHRUBBERIES. 



handles of the same length attached in the 

 same way, but the blades are very large, 

 square in form, and have the edges turned 

 up at the back and on both sides, like a 

 fire shovel. They are described here that 

 the purchaser of a shovel for garden use 

 may not be induced to buy an article 

 which, being intended for a different pur- 

 pose, will be of little use to him. The 

 blade of a garden shovel should be of 

 one or other of the forms shown in the 

 illustration, and should be furnished with 

 a socket for the reception of the handle, 

 which, as it has been said, should be 

 long and slightly bent. 



Shrubberies, Renovation of. 



In old gardens, it is no unfamiliar thing 

 to find the lawns and borders skirted by 

 long, unbroken belts of shrubs, inter- 

 mingled in pell-mell fashion, the lower 

 part of most of the deciduous shrubs lean 

 and naked, long since denuded of their 

 smaller twigs. Confusion rather than 

 order seems to have been encouraged. 

 Stems bare and naked at the roots show 

 only straggling wiry branches towards the 

 summit. When a shrubbery has acquired 

 all or any of these characteristics, renova- 

 tion, in whole or part, has become indis- 

 pensable. 



Shrubberies skirting winding paths, 

 either as a screen to unsightly objects or 

 as shade and shelter from sun and wind, 

 are perhaps the most agreeable portions of 

 a garden ; but in order to be so the shrubs 

 must be cultivated with much care. Ever- 

 greens should be selected for their close 

 habit of growth, and this habit increased 

 by high dressing, judicious pruning, and 

 pegging down. This compact habit, how- 

 ever, can only be maintained in beauty for 

 a number of years by planting the shrubs 

 so far apart that they may not touch each 

 other, the ground between being kept clear 

 by frequent raking and hoeing. Tb^e are 



some exceptions to this rule of planting. 

 Rhododendrons do well planted in masse>, 

 and where the shoots are pegged down 

 they soon present a broad mass of green 

 en the margin of the clump or shrubbery, 

 when the turf can be carried up to their 

 lowest branches. Behind these dense 

 shrubby evergreens the taller thorns, 

 Turkey oak, the sophoras, and other trees 

 of moderate height, and of the fancy arbo- 

 retum varieties, might be planted for shade 

 and breadth of effect. 



Shrubberies on the verge of the lawn 

 would naturally be planted with the best 

 small flowering shrubs on the margin, 

 either in masses or singly : if in masses, 

 the shrubs should be pegged down, so as 

 to present a continuous mass of vegetation 

 along the whole margin, relieved as before 

 with a background of ornamental trees ; 

 leafy masses of rhododendrons, touching 

 the margin of the turf, form an admirable 

 connecting link between the grassy sward 

 and the shrubs and dwarf trees behind 

 them. Where the shrubbery is planted 

 for individual effect, those of an enduring 

 growth and elegant habit should be chiefly 

 used. Where there is space for such dis- 

 play, the lawn adjoining the shrubberies 

 may be advantageously dotted with single 

 evergreens and some of the more elegant 

 flowering deciduous shrubs. An occasional 

 hemlock-spruce, with its weeping plumes ; 

 a holly whose lower boughs, still fresh, 

 sweep the turf on which it is planted, 01 

 the graceful Cedrus Deodara, or Araucaria^ 

 in order to break the outline. Hardy 

 flowering plants may also be introduced 

 with excellent effect until the lower 

 branches of the shrubs have made suffi- 

 cient growth to admit of the surface being 

 turfed up to meet them. 



In planting or renovating lawn and 

 shrubberies, due attention should be paid 

 to their different seasonal effects. There 

 are tew shrubs which herald in the spring ; 



