312 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



forming edging ; and being often got in large pieces, it requires rough 

 dressing to allow of its being firmly and evenly set in the ground. I 

 have used this largely for edgings, which will last as long as they are 

 allowed to remain. The beautiful green stone of Cumberland would 

 make as good an edging as one could desire, and many kinds of stone 

 may be used. 



In districts where there is no stone to be had, and we have to use 

 any kind of artificial stone or terra cotta, these should never have any 

 pattern or beading, but be cast in quite simple forms, never following 

 the patterns usually adopted by the makers of garden tiles. Certain 

 inferior forms of dead edgings should be avoided, such as boards, that 

 soon rot, and are wholly unfit in all ways as edgings. Iron, too, 

 as used in continental gardens or in any shape, should never be used 

 as an edging, ordinary bricks half set in the ground being far better 

 than any of these. 



GRASS EDGINGS sometimes are used to flower borders, but are 

 always full of labour and trouble. And they have various drawbacks, 

 apart from the mowing and edge-cutting, chief among these being 

 that the border flowers within cannot ramble over them as they do 

 over the stone edgings in such pretty ways. These narrow grass 

 margins are often used as edgings to flower borders in the kitchen 

 garden in places where very little labour is to spare for the garden, 



but, little as it is, it has to be 

 given throughout the season to 

 these grass edgings, which are 

 worse than useless as a finish to 

 a flower border. By these I do 

 not mean the grass margins to 

 the garden lawns, or a carpet of 

 turf, as these are easily attended 

 to when the lawn is being mown, 



Bold evergreen edging to rough border. but thfi f Ot Wide g faSS edgingS 



which require attention when 



time can be badly spared for them, and are often so narrow that it 

 is not easy to use a machine for mowing them. 



Box. Of all the living things used as edgings in gardens, the first 

 place belongs to Box, used for ages and deservedly liked from its neat 

 habit and good colour. When there were many fewer plants to look 

 after than we have now, to tend some miles of box edging was often 

 the pride of the gardener, and even now we see it sometimes done, 

 though the hand often fails with the ceaseless care the edging requires 

 if it is to be kept in good order, and it gets spotty and in some soils 

 worn out and diseased. Where cared for it must be clipped with 

 much care and regularity every May after the danger of hard frosts 



