SIMPLE R'jfLOlVER GARDEN PLANS. 301 



very violent. I attach great importance to this kindly shelter from 

 the great strength of the winds, for plants are like ourselves in many 

 respects, and certainly in this, that they can bear a very great amount 

 of frost, if only the air is still, far better than they can bear a less 

 cold if accompanied by a high wind." 



The garden then has the advantage of shelter ; it has also the 

 advantage of a good aspect, for though the undulations are very slight 

 the general slope faces south ; and it has the further advantage of a 

 rich and deep alluvial soil, which, however, is so impregnated with 

 lime and magnesia that it is hopeless to attempt Rhododendrons, 

 Azaleas, Kalmias, and many other things, and it has the further dis- 

 advantage of being only about 70 feet above the sea level, which makes 

 an insuperable difficulty in the growth of the higher alpines. On the 

 whole, the garden is favourable for the cultivation of flowers, and especi- 

 ally for the cultivation of shrubs, except those which dislike the lime. 



The garden is in many ways an ideal one, lying deep down in a 

 happy valley and forming with the fine old church the centre of an 

 old world village. It is a quiet, peaceful garden of grass and trees 

 and simple borders, and every nook and corner has its appropriate 

 flower ; in a word, it is just such a garden as one would expect a 

 scholar to possess who has sympathy for all that lives or breathes and 

 who has given us such a book as " The Plant Lore and Garden Craft 

 of Shakespeare." The garden at Bitton Vicarage is no new garden, 

 for it was famous more than half a century ago, when Haworth and 

 Herbert, Anderson, Falconer, Sweet, Baxter and others took such an 

 interest in bulbs and hardy flowers. By the same token it is by no 

 means a new-fangled garden ; there is all due and proper keeping, but 

 it is patent to any plant-lover that its owner thinks more of seeing 

 his plants happy and healthy than he does of any unnecessary 

 trimness. F. W. B. 



RESERVE GARDEN. We have an example in this plan of what 

 is meant by a reserve garden. An oblong piece of ground having 

 the walls of the kitchen garden for two of its boundaries, and a Yew 

 hedge sheltering it from the east winds, while the other is screened 

 by evergreen trees, with which are intermingled hardy plants of tall 

 growth. The plants are set in beds without reference to the general 

 effect, and all the borders, being edged with stone dug on the place, 

 give no trouble after the stones are properly set ; when old and moss- 

 grown the stones look better than anything else that could be used 

 the dwarfer plants being allowed to run over them and break the 

 lines. Every year the plan of such a garden may be varied as our 

 tastes vary and as the flowers want change. A similar garden ought 

 to be in every place where there are borders to be stocked and 

 maintained in good condition, and particularly where there is a 

 demand for cut flowers. 



