GARDENING BY M YSELF. 59 



likely to give out; then you may have a 

 very splendid show with a. geometric flower 

 garden, — where all the beds are laid out in 

 exact shapes, and with a certain reference to 

 each other ; the whole forming a pattern of 

 coloured embroidery upon the green turf. 

 In this case each bed must be filled with a 

 single colour and a single kind of flower, 

 the compact, close-growing sorts being 

 chosen, and those which are of constant and 

 abundant bloom. A mere border line of a 

 different colour is admissible round each 

 bed ; but it will not make the figure so full 

 and perfect as where simple masses of col- 

 our are used. For full effect, such a garden 

 should be on ground a little lower than the 

 house, so that the whole may be seen to- 

 gether. One of the finest situations I ever 

 saw, was where the house stood on an up- 

 springing rise of ground ; and quite at the 

 foot, a little to one side but all in sight, lay 

 the garden. 



Geometric beds need to be very carefully 

 planned and marked out, before a thing is 



