80 THE VILLA GARDENER. 



greater surface than is occupied by its roots, will require more room than a 

 tall-growing phlox, which will reach the height of 4 ft., and not cover above 

 a square foot of the surface of the border. Creeping plants also require more 

 room than such as grow compact and bushy, or narrow and erect. The rule 

 which we have just given, of not associating plants in the same bed that have 

 different habits, directs that creepers, and climbers or twiners, should always 

 be planted by themselves, or at least, not introduced indiscriminately among 

 other plants. At the same time, a plant with one of these babits, introduced 

 occasionally into a miscellaneous border, has a good effect by contrast. 

 Where creepers alone are employed, if each plant be of a different kind, they 

 ought to be kept as distinct from each other, as busby or tall plants ought to 

 be ; but where a bed is entirely filled with creepers of the same kind, then 

 they may be allowed to cover the whole surface of the bed ; because the 

 object of the planter in this case must necessarily be to produce a mass of one 

 kind of form and colour. In general, small plants ought to be chosen for 

 small beds, and dwarf-growing plants for beds of irregular figure ; but of 

 course this must be regulated by circumstances. 



132. The back garden has fruit-trees against all the walls, and some stand- 

 ards and dwarfs in the central beds. The spaces h li, in both gardens, are sup- 

 posed to be devoted to annual crops, such as peas, spinach, salading, &c. The 

 beds marked i, in both gardens, may be planted with asparagus, sea-kale, and 

 tart rhubarb. The potherbs are supposed to be grown in the borders next 

 the walls. The three fruit-trees at k are Hawthornden apples (standards), 

 for immediate effect in bearing, and to be cut out in a few years after the 

 three rows of dwarf-trees, shown in each garden, have come into full bearing. 

 If the front gardens supply a sufficient number of gooseberries and currants, 

 these dwarf-trees may be apples, pears, cherries, and plums ; but gooseberries 

 and currants may be substituted for these, if those grown in the front garden 

 are not considered sufficient. In order to insure good crops, the ground 

 among the dwarf fruit-trees should not be cropped with vegetables, but only 

 occasionally manured on the surface, and forked over to the depth of a few 

 inches. The trees against the walls, on the supposition that the direction of 

 the gardens is east and west, may be peaches and nectarines on the south 

 aspect, plums and cherries on that facing the north, and apricots on the end 

 wall ; but, if the garden should lie in the direction of north and south, the 

 peaches, nectarines, and apricots may be planted against the side-walls, and 

 figs and vines against the end-wall that faces the south ; or morello or other 

 cherries or plums, if it faces the north. The edgings to the walks of tlie 

 back garden we have supposed to be box ; but strawberries might be substi- 

 tuted, more especially if the walks were formed of flagstone, 



133. Another mode of 'planting the hack gardens of fig. 35. — For this mode 

 of planting we shall suppose the gardens to be laid out like that in fig. 34. in 

 page 71, as in no kitchen-garden whatever, whether large or small, would 

 we introduce standard fruit trees among the kitchen crops; because, as we 

 have already stated (§ 119.), the digging and trenching necessary for the 

 perfection of the latter, prevent the roots of the trees from spreading near the 

 surface of the ground ; and being forced to seek their nourishment in the 

 subsoil, they run to wood from excessive moisture, become cankered, and do 

 not produce either abundant crops or well-ffavoured fruit. In a small garden 

 of the kind we are treating of, standard trees would shade the grovmd so 



