AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 15 



northwest corner, and if the garden be not fenced on the north, 

 as directed p. 17, a high, close fence must be continued east- 

 ward from the garden-house, at least so far as may suffice to 

 shelter your pit (B), your cold bed (C), and your hot bed (D) 

 from the northerly winds. 



Eastwardly from the pit, &c., along the north fence, a border 

 (E), ten or twelve feet wide, should be made for the raising of 

 early and tender vegetables, &c. ; a portion of it may also be 

 appropriated to early strawberries and asparagus. 



To make it more suitable for these purposes, if the ground 

 have no natural descent to the south, it should be made to slope 

 by raising it gradually until the back of the border is six or 

 eight inches higher than the front. It must also be kept in 

 the highest possible condition by the application of warm, stim- 

 ulating manures. (See p. 60.) 



Entirely across the garden, along the. front of this border, 

 should extend a path at least six feet wide (H), at either or 

 each end of which may be an entrance (Gr, G). In a small gar- 

 den no- other path will be found absolutely necessary ; but, if 

 deemed desirable or expedient, a border three or four feet wide 

 may be made along either side, or all the other sides of the 

 garden (F, F, F), with accompanying paths two or three feet 

 in width (I, I, I). In addition to these, a wider path may run 

 north and south through the centre (J). On either side of 

 these latter paths, and on the south side of the former, such ar- 

 ticles as are ordinarily sown in small beds or plots may be 

 raised, strawberry beds may be made, and the various fruit-trees 

 and bushes which properly find a place in a vegetable garden 

 may be planted, the whole being interspersed with such flowers 

 and shrubs as may suit the taste of the owner. The relative 

 positions and proportions of the different kinds of fruit-trees 

 and shrubbery introduced may be varied to suit the individual 

 fancy, but the aggregate should by no means be large, if we 

 would have a garden that will yield full crops of choice vegeta- 

 bles. Nothing interferes more with the free growth and con- 

 sequent excellence of vegetables than the roots of trees running 

 in the same soil, the effect of which is often but erroneously 

 attributed to their shade. 



