62 



THE VIIXA GARDENEE. 



§ 1. Suburban Gardens in which economy is the principal object in view. 

 Design I. Laying out and j)lanting the gardens of a street house of the 



smallest size. 

 93. Laying out the ground. — Fig. 31. shows a plot of ground, in which the 



house, which is 30 ft. hy 20 ft., has a front garden of nearly the same size, 

 and a back garden about 90 ft. in length by 30 ft. in breadth. The kitchen 

 of the house is half sunk under ground, and the ground floor is ascended to, 

 from both gardens, by five steps. There may be a privy and a dusthole in a 

 sunk area {d) at the back of the house, on a level with the kitchen ; and at 

 the bottom of the garden there is a board projecting from the wall or fence, 

 which will be covered with ivy, and under which, on two brackets, may be 

 laid (by pushing them in endwise) the clothes-posts, when not in use. The 

 ground having been properly levelled, and drained if necessary, the central 

 bed is marked out, and places for the clothes-posts (§ 79) are sunk at the four 

 corners. There is no manure-tank or well, because no part of the ground is 

 to be dug ; but there may be a small pit sunk in the ground, with a cover 

 fitted to it, at the bottom of the garden, at e, under the clothes-post bracket, 

 for any decayed leaves or twigs, which may be required to be removed in the 

 intervals between the stated times that a man comes to mow the grass. From 

 the enti-ance gate or door («), a walk 4 ft. broad is formed to the front door 

 of the house (6) : along one side of this walk, under the grass, the water 

 service-pipe is laid; and on the other side the gas-pipe, if any. The landing 

 to the back door is at (c), under which are a safe or small larder, and also the 

 water-cistern. A small cistern over the privy, at the other end of the area, 

 protected by a double roof, with the interstice stuffed with hay, would render 

 this an excellent water-closet. A walk 3 ft. wide is conducted round the 

 garden, the space between it and the wall forming a border 18 in. in width, 

 except at the bottom, where it is 2 ft. wide, in order to make room for the 

 refuse pit at e, over which is the clothes-post bracket. The plot of ground in 

 front, and also the whole of that behind, with the exception of the walks, 

 may be sown with grass seeds, or laid down with turf, and the walks laid 

 with flngstones, or slates, or paved with bricks on edge, instead of being 

 gravelled, in order to save trouble in keeping them in order. 



91. Planting the front garden. — The boundary fences of the front garden may 

 be planted with gold and silver-leaved ivy, intermixed with a plant or two of 

 the common ivy; and the boundary fences of the back garden may be wholly 

 planted with either the common or the giant ivy, or with a mixture of both. 

 In the centre of the lawn, in the front garden, may be planted a laurestinus, 

 an arbutus, a phillyrca, an aucuba, a double-blossomed furze, Cotoneaster 



