FLOWER-GARDENING. 17 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 



" If you would have a vivid, vigorous breed 

 Of every kind, examine well the seed ; 

 Learn to what ELEMENTS your plants belong, 

 What is their constitution, weak or strong ; 

 Be their physician, careful of their lives, 

 And see that every species daily thrives ; 

 These love much AIR ; those on much HEAT rely ; 

 These, without genial MOISTURE, droop and die." 



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 and chilling 

 winds by tight fences, or plantations of shrubs, forming a close 

 and compact hedge, which should be neatly trimmed every 

 year. Generally speaking, a flower-garden should not be on a 

 large scale ; and the beds or borders should not be broader in 

 any part 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 lay- 

 ing 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, 

 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 adaptation of each 

 species to its peculiar element, soil, and situation ; 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, require each its most 

 essential aliment to promote a luxuriant growth. 



A flower-garden should be so situated as to form an orna- 

 mental appendage to the house ; and, where circumstances wilJ 



