HOUSES AND GARDENS 



background of a deep pine-wood and a few silver birches, and all the setting 

 a house of grey stone will require will be a terrace enclosed with a rough 

 wall of lichened stone. If a site of this ideal description is large enough, a 

 portion of it may then be well enclosed as a garden of a formal kind ; and if 

 there is a stream, for no garden is quite complete without water, it may be 

 carried in formal waterways and by fountains till, in the moorland, its course 

 is marked by the emerald green of its grassy banks, and by the groups of 

 iris, forget-me-nots, and other water plants. 



But, in the suburban plots, there are few such possibilities, and a more 

 formal kind of garden is suggested by the rectangular enclosure of the site 

 and the somewhat artificial character of the surroundings. 



In my previous indication of the lines in which a garden may be made 

 which will need the minimum expense in maintenance, I have purposely 

 assumed a somewhat extreme case. It will be mainly useful to the average 

 man in showing what features of the garden are expensive to maintain. 



In the production of a small suburban garden its practical application 

 may lead to a reduction in the area of mown grass, and the avoidance of 

 grass banks and edgings, which are difficult to keep in order. It may suggest 

 the advisability of paved paths wherever possible, and when the site is large 

 enough, the inclusion of an orchard and wild garden. 



It will lead to the exclusion of bedding out geraniums, begonias, or 

 pansies, and will take as a general principle of open-air flower culture that 

 plants should be perennial, and not require removal in winter ; and though 

 dahlias, as well as some of the best annuals, may be included in the garden 

 scheme, these will be recognised as worthy of a relaxation of the general rule. 

 In preparing the flower-beds, the ground should be dug for at least a yard in 

 depth, and where the soil is heavy, a drain formed with stones and filled up 

 with good garden soil. The roots of the plants will then strike deep, and 

 they will be little affected by drought. To protect the soil from drought, 

 too, the garden beds should be well covered, and creeping plants may be 

 introduced between the masses of perennials for this purpose. The borders 

 should not be invariably planted with the smallest flowers nearest the edge, 

 and the effect should be varied by bringing tall, bold clumps to the edge of 

 the path, and this edge should not appear as a line, but should be formed by 

 the plants in the border overhanging the path. When a change of level 

 occurs in a garden, a grass bank should not be made, but a rough retaining- 

 wall built of stone, and from the upper level roses and trailing plants should 

 shower their blossoms. The joints should be planted with wall plants, and 

 at its base flowers that will be grateful for the warmth and shelter it gives. 

 The same rough and homely treatment should be used in steps, and these 

 and the walls should be considered as not being mere masonry, but building 

 which is to be clothed with plant life. 



A garden of average size may include a lawn for tennis, croquet, or bowls, 



an orchard, a kitchen garden, and a flower garden in two main divisions one 



a rose garden, which may be square or nearly square in form, and the other, 



which may be long and narrow, devoted to perennial flowers. All these out- 



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