24 On a Winter Garden. 



parts of the year, we have gleams of sunshine and fair wea- 

 ther, and often, in November, January, &c., there are days as 

 fine and agreeable as any in the summer months, which may 

 be enjoyed by every lover of a country life when walking in a 

 winter garden. Such a one 1 will endeavour to describe, or 

 rather give you a description of such a one as I have formed 

 at my cottage in the country. The cottage is situate about 

 the middle of the garden, which consists of one acre : it is a 

 parallelogram, or long square, being exactly as long again as 

 it is broad, sloping gently to the east. One fourth of this spot 

 I have endeavoured to convert into a winter garden. On the 

 north side is a brick wall ; on the south, plantations of ever- 

 greens ; at the top, facing the east, the house stands ; at 

 bottom, facing the west, is a summer house. The wall is well 

 clothed with bearing peaches and nectarines. About 18 inches 

 from the wall, I have planted chrysanthemums, 4 ft. asunder, 

 which, during the summer months, are tied up to strong 

 sticks. About the 10th of October, when the fruit has been 

 all gathered, I untie them from the sticks, expand, and tie 

 them to the fruit trees, generally so that they completely cover 

 the wall, at least from 2 ft. from the ground to the top, 8 ft. 

 I find not the least impediment to the ripening of the fruit 

 by the chrysanthemums, as sufficient sun and air come 

 between them for that purpose ; and they being 18 in. fx'om 

 the wall, there is plenty of room to manage the trees. As 

 they decay, I cut them off, for nothing is more unsightly than 

 decayed flowers or stalks in a well regulated flower-garden. 

 On the south side, the back row is a perfect yew hedge; the 

 border from which, 8 ft. wide, consists of boxes, Portugal 

 laurels, arbor vitae, yellow-berried privets, Chinese privets, 

 ^'rbutus, Symphoria or snowberry ; variegated and green 

 "hollies, of all the varieties, perhaps twenty ; laurustinus, 

 Alexander laurels, butcher's broom, Ai'icuba jap6nica,Phill5'rea, 

 bays, and others; all disposed according to their difterent 

 heights : which border extends, in a semicircular turn, to the 

 summer-house ; on the other side of which, up to the wall, is 

 a corresponding semicircular border, planted with the same 

 mixture of evergreens. Likewise, at top, on each side of the 

 house, there are similar borders ; so that the area, or open 

 space, is a long oval ; dispersed over which there are a num- 

 ber of circular and oval clumps, of different sizes. In the 

 middle of each is an evergreen, from 4 to 5 ft. high, of the 

 more choice kinds, such as Scarlet Arbutus, Magnol/a grandi- 

 flora, Mespilus japonicus, two or three fine hollies, &c. ; and 

 each clump has a proper number of chrysanthemums, of the 

 hnrdier kinds, such as the crimson quilled, white, French wliite, 



