GA RDENING BY M YSELF. 6 1 



your edgings, lest they encroach in irregu- 

 lar fashion here and there, and so spoil your 

 pattern. Choose and sort your colours care- 

 fully, giving heed to the contrasts. Mrs. 

 Loudon advises that the design be first 

 drawn and coloured on paper, where alter- 

 ations are easy. And then throughout the 

 season see that your beds have not only 

 care and chpping, but also water — from 

 your hands, if the clouds fail ; lest brown 

 plants and empty beds take the place of 

 bright patches of colour. This it is, more 

 than anything else perhaps, which makes 

 geometric flower gardens such a success 

 in England and (so often) such a failure 

 here: the English cHmate is so much more 

 favourable. 



To say truth, I never saw any " bedding " 

 system in our climate amount to much more 

 than beds of tinted green ; and I never even 

 guessed how superb it might be, till an En- 

 glish lady showed me a water-colour sketch 

 of a certain English country house. Quiet 

 and brown itself, the house had for a fore- 

 6 



