SUBURBAN RESIDENCES. I 6 



113. In the border next the house, in order to be trained against it, if facing 

 the south, we would plant a vine or a fig ; and, if it faced the east or the 

 west, a Glout Morceau pear, which is a never-failing bearer, of excellent 

 flavour, and a good keeper. If the front faced the north, we should not 

 recommend any tree or shrub to be trained against the house, unless it were 

 ivy, which keeps the house warm, excludes rain, and always looks well. As 

 ornamental flowers in this bordei', and also in those of the two side walls, we 

 would plant scai-let runners, which would give a length of 70 ft. of this vege- 

 table, and would afford an ample supply for a family of six or seven persons 

 during the whole summer. For the runners to twine on, pieces of packthread 

 should be nailed to the walls, and to the house, at about 6 in. apart, and 

 reaching from within 1 ft. of the ground to from 4 ft. to 6 ft. above it, as may 

 be suitable to the height of the side walls. The lower ends of the strings are 

 fastened to a horizontal rod supported by props at about 6 in. from the wall. 

 The kidney beans, being sown between the wall and the rod, will .attach 

 themselves, as soon as they come up, to the strings, and continue to twine 

 round these till they have reached the top, flowering and fruiting as they 

 advance. As the nails in the side wall next the path might be liable to catclt 

 the dress of ladies passing near them, instead of nails, a rod or a wire might 

 be fixed there : and, indeed, the most elegant mode of training kidney-beans 

 against a wall is, to have an iron wire of the fourth of an inch in diameter; 

 fixed horizontally on studs let into the wall both at top and at bottom, and 

 painted green, and to stretch the threads on these wires from the one to the 

 other. Every April, when the kidney-beans are planted, a person taking a 

 ball of twine, and beginning at one end, by passing it over and under the 

 bars at 6 in. distance, would soon complete this string trellis, the lines of the 

 strings not being perpendicular, but in a diagonal direction. By going over 

 the space a second time, and crossing these lines, the effect would be im- 

 proved, and the support for the twining stems of the runners increased. If 

 thought necessary, a slight wire fence might be placed along the walk, to pro- 

 tect the grass plot from dogs,, and, on this also, scarlet runners might be 

 grown ; or an arched wire trellis, from the street entrance to the door of the 

 house, might be formed over the walk, and gourds and scarlet runners might 

 be trained on it. In the border on the fourth, or street side of the front gar- 

 den, we would sow nasturtiums, which would soon grow up against the dwarf 

 wall and the railing, and also spread over the grass. Their flowers would 

 make a fine appearance all summer, and, with the young leaves and the 

 tender points of the shoots, might be used in salading ; while the fruit, if 

 gathered before it becomes too old, is well known to make an excellent sub- 

 stitute for capers. In the side borders containing the scarlet runners nothing 

 else should be planted, unless it were a vine for the purpose of training its 

 shoots along the tops of the walls ; because these borders will require to be 

 dug and manured every year, and the soil renewed every three or four years ; 

 and because no flowering shrub could thrive under the smothering influence 

 of the foliage of the runners. The same may be observed of the border con- 

 taining the nasturtiums. The only culture required for both the nasturtiums 

 and the scarlet runners, in the summer time, in addition to the usual routine 

 of watering, weeding, and keeping down insects, &c., would be, when any of 

 the plants began to cease bearing, to cut them down, and water freely at 

 their roots, in consequence of which treatment they will send up fresh shoots, 



