276 BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS 



morning and look down on a pretty and fragrant display of flowers. 

 All country dwellers can taste this pleasure. Many make the 

 mistake of planting the common Virginian Creeper, and then, 

 instead of seeing Roses and Clematises, they will survey a thicket 

 of aggressive shoots, with very little beauty about them, but with 

 enough vigour to keep up a noisy fusillade on the panes during 

 windy nights, and to mat themselves round the frames in a thick, 

 objectionable tangle. 



Before considering the best plants for walls, however, let us 

 take into account the principal things that make for failure and 



success. To begin with, a wall site 

 with a south or west aspect is generally 

 dry. It is also hot. Heat is not in 

 itself bad for plants, but heat in con- 

 junction with drought is. A wall site 

 is dry because the walls absorb a good 

 deal of heat, because the soil is generally 

 shallow and poor, and because a great 

 deal of the rain which falls is thrown 



A, hole made by removing soil to B, B on off by a projecting CaVC Or by WmdoW- 



sills. The walls will absorb less heat 



when covered with plants, and they will be covered with plants 

 more quickly if the soil is made deep and rich. Here, then, is 

 our first practical point improvement of the soil. The soil-area 

 under a wall is often only a few inches wide and deep ; the 

 " soil " itself is half stones. Deepen the area to at least two 

 feet, increase it to a square yard for each plant, put in half-a- 

 dozen good, heaped spadefuls of turfy loam and manure, and the 

 whole prospect is changed. With the increased body of soil there 

 will at once be more moisture and more food available, but it will 

 be advisable to give occasional soakings of water (and they should 

 be real soakings, not driblets) in summer, together with weekly 

 applications of liquid manure. 



