3 1 2 THE ENGLISH FL O WER GA RDEN. 



garden edging are serious ; it requires much labour to keep it in order, 

 and not every garden workman can clip Box well ; it is a harbour for 

 slugs and weeds, drying and starving the soil near ; whereas the stone 

 edging keeps the soil moist and comforts the rock flowers that crawl 

 over it. We cannot allow dwarf and creeping plants to crawl over 

 the Box, or they will scald and injure it, but with the stone, we are free 

 in all ways, and get a pretty effect when Pinks and other dwarf plants, 

 crossing the stone edging here and there, push out into the walk itself. 

 I like Box best as a tall, stout edging or low hedge, used in a bold 

 way as high Rosemary edgings are used in southern gardens, about 

 1 8 in. high, or even a little higher, to enclose playgrounds or separate 

 gardens or to mark an interesting site as that of the old house at 

 Castlewellan. Sometimes old and neglected Box edgings grown into 



Ivy edging. 



low hedges are pretty in a garden, as in George Washington's old 

 home at Mount Vernon in Virginia. And low hedges of Box are 

 now and then a good aid near the flower garden as at Panshanger. 



YEW, IVY, HEATH AND VARIOUS EDGINGS. Among other 

 edgings made of woody or shrubby things, we have the Yew, which bears 

 clipping into edgings a foot high, and which might be worth using in 

 some positions, though much clipping of this sort causes much labour 

 and to me sorrow. Ivy is more precious for its shoots, which garland 

 the earth as well as wall or tree. It is more used abroad than in 

 Britain, the freshness of its green being more valued where good turf 

 is less common, and Ivy is of the highest value as an edging in 

 various ways, but better as a garland round a plot or belt of 

 shrubs than near flower beds, and it enables us to make graceful 

 edgings near and under trees. Like the Box, it may also be used 



