172 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



July, 



THE COMPLETE GARDEN.* 



VII. 

 BY A WKLL-KNOWN HORTICULTURIST. 



(Continued from page 153.) 



0. Walks and Drives. In locating these 

 let it be the aim to introduce no more than 

 shall actually be needed, and bringing such 

 where they shall be most needed. Good 

 walks and drives in pleasure grounds are 

 more costly to make and to maintain than the 

 same area devoted to sward, — a strong argu- 

 ment against their excessive introduction. 

 Let us remember also, that at all times in the 

 diy season of the year, excepting when the 

 grass may be wet from dew or rain, a smooth 

 lawn affords more pleasant footing than 

 either gravel, concrete or stone. Still, it is at 

 precisely the time when grass, foliage and 

 flowers are suffused with moisture that a visit 

 to the garden is highly enjoyable, hence it is 

 well to provide at least some walks of a matei-- 

 ial at all times comfortable under foot for ren- 

 dering the main parts of the garden accessible. 



As to course, the points set forth under head 

 of Curves are in the main applicable to orna- 

 mental walks and di'ives. One thing always to 

 be sought is to have an apparent reason for the 

 existence of a walk or drive. If there be not a 

 clearly obvious reason present, then one should 

 be created by the introducing of some special 

 point or object, as a flower bed, seat, or ar- 

 bor, for as has well been said, a walk leading 

 nowhere and ending in nothing can never be 

 satisfactory. Some persons have a fondness 

 for laying out certain plats, usually in the rear 

 yards, to elaborate aiTangenients of gravel 

 walks and flower beds combined, and these we 

 have rarely seen satisfactory. There can be 

 no doubt that in nine cases out of ten of this 

 kind, if the same beds were layed out as one 

 continuous marginal border, and instead of 

 gravel walks there was to be a grass plat ex- 

 tending to the border, the effect would be far 

 more agi'eeable, with much time saved in keep- 

 ing up. 



In the fruit and vegetable department straight 

 walks and di-ives are the only style that com- 

 mend themselves. Such are naturally adapted 

 to the straight 

 rows and square 

 plats that consti- 

 tute the ruling 

 features in design 

 here. As this de- 

 partment should 

 usually be layed 

 out for admitting 

 of horse plowing 

 and cultivating, 

 it follows that the 

 permanent drive- 

 ways and walks 

 here should, in 

 the main, unless 

 the garden be 

 very ample, run 

 in the direction 

 of the greatest 

 length of area, as 

 this would also be 

 the direction the 

 plow and the rows 

 should take. 

 Cross or lateral 



F'ty. 2i, Another An'angme7it 

 of IValkfifor FVuit and Vt:g- 

 etable Garden. (Explanation 

 of Letters under Fig. 21.) 



walks of a more temporary character could 

 then intersect the main walks at right angles 

 for dividing the area into different plats, and 

 to render all parts e."isily accessible. The idea 

 of these last named temporary walks would 

 be, to re-make them after each annual plow- 

 ing, paying little attention to them in subse- 

 quent tillage with horse implements. In figures 

 31 and 32 are shown two arrangements of 

 garden walks after this style, the full lines 

 representing permanent walks and beds, the 

 dotted ones temporary boundings. 



" Copyright, 1887, by Popular Gardening Publishing Co. 



In width, ordinary walks may properly be 

 from two feet upwards across, the nar- 

 rower ones being usually in the rear parts and 

 in the vegetable garden. For approach walks 

 and general curved walks a width of from 

 three to six feet is considered the most desir- 

 able. As a rule, 

 long, straight 

 walks or drives 

 should, for good 

 effect, be wider 

 than curved ones. 

 For drives a width 

 of from eight to 

 fourteen feet is 

 employed, the 

 former width not 

 permitting of 

 teams passing 

 each other. 



10. The Sur- 

 face OP THE 

 Garden. With 

 few exceptions 

 the design of the 

 grounds should be 

 adapted to the 

 natural character 

 Fig. 21. Straight Waiks ;« of the surface of 

 Fmitand Vegetable Garden: the gi'ounds or of 

 full lines permanent tvalks. ., .^„i„-t-^ a« 

 dotted lines temporary ones, tie vicmicy. An 

 A A Fruit plats. BB Vegetable extremely flat 



abounding in 

 hills and mountains would be equaled in in- 

 appropriateness only by a garden full of made 

 inequalities of surface in a locality that is 

 generally level. Where natural undulations ex- 

 ist they afford great advantages for producing 

 a spirited effect in the plantings, permitting of 

 more variety and beauty than would be possi- 

 ble in a strictly fiat ai'ea of the same size. I 

 have found that the introduction into compara- 

 tively level gardens of gentle rises of ground 

 wherever leading groups of shrubs or trees are 

 to be planted, and especially next to the bound- 

 aries, tend to a pleasing and varied effect. My 

 own course more than once has been to make 

 a slightly raised border of good soil in such 

 places for the main plantings. Then I keep 

 the surface tilled until the growths obtain a 

 good start, after which grass is sown and a 

 sward produced. By such a course the trees 

 and shrubs assume an effective size much 

 sooner than if the planting was done in sod, and 

 this with most planters is a point worth attain- 

 ing. Another advantage of such slightly raised 

 gi'oup settings is the thorough drainage afforded 

 to the growths, a matter of great importance 

 when one attempts to grow the more delicate 

 evergreens and many shrubs and plants on land 

 not naturally dry or not readily drained. 



As finished the surface of the lawn should be 

 rendered sufficiently smooth to permit of the 

 mower doing effective work, and all parts 

 should have at least eight inches in depth of 

 good soil overlaying the entire surface. 



11. Simplicity and Order. A garden, 

 however elaborate in detail, should be simple 

 and methodical in its general design. One may 

 often meet places that are laid out with a 

 perfect confusion of walks, drives, arbors, rock- 

 eries, trees, grass, etc., these being brought in 

 either without oz-der or else after some fanciful, 

 yet objectionable, design. No one thing can 

 better aid in giving the garden a simple char- 

 acter in the main than to keep prominently in 

 mind the location of one or more open areas, 

 referred to imder heading 6. Around these 

 then, more or less remote, may be clustered the 

 general collection of growths to be included. 



The bringing together in separate groups 

 of the various classes of growths, instead of 

 scattering the same unduly, is another step in 

 the direction of desirable simplicity and order, 

 with no curtailment of variety. For example, 

 if one has 10 Weigelias in varieties and the 

 same of Spiraeas, Lilacs,Phloxes,Paeonies,Lilies, 

 Pansies, etc., to set the plants of each genus 



somewhat by themselves, instead of scattering 

 and intermingling all sorts promiscuously, the 

 gain will be great for simplicity and beauty. 

 Indeed each kind will, by such a course, gain 

 in strength of character, to the rendering of 

 that kind much more interesting as a feature 

 of the garden in general. 



13. Fitness of Selection. Many blunders 

 are made in gardening through lack of a suit- 

 able plan for the place and the unfitness of the 

 trees, shi-ubs and flowers selected. Let me say 

 first of all therefore, that those who have small 

 taste or interest in ornamental gardening 

 should undertake but little, and that mainly in 

 the direction of having a good grass plat and 

 some of the more robust trees, shrubs, and 

 plants. This advice may to some seem un- 

 necessary, just as if those who are lacking in 

 taste and knowledge in gardening matters 

 would be, of all people, the last ones to enter 

 upon elaborate plans of work. But the truth 

 is that many persons are ready to enter upon 

 improvements in this line with great enthusiasm 

 and in a way to early involve large outlays for 

 planting stock only to learn, perhaps before a 

 year is around, of their utter incapacity to 

 properly carry outthe work undertaken. Then 

 a failure more or less marked must result, and 

 always with deplorable effect, for just such 

 failures as these prove serious stumbling 

 blocks to others who might desire, by a reason- 

 able course, to engage in home gai'denmg. If, 

 therefore, the inexperienced were to start with 

 a simple piece of good lawn, one or a few walks 

 and a small number of the easily grown shrubs 

 and trees, they would do well. As experience 

 and taste would then develop, additions to the 

 assortments could be made from time to time, 

 until finaUy a large and varied selection would 

 be reached. By this means a schooling in prac- 

 tical gardening would be gradually acquired, 

 and in the end a complete garden well managed, 

 with no risky proceedings at any stage. 

 (To be continued.) 



Cactuses In the Window— A Miniature 

 Cactus Rockery. 



The very conditions of heat and air-dryness 

 existing in living rooms, and which are so try- 

 ing to most plants, singularly enough suit the 

 Cactus order almost perfectly. Hence it is 

 that this family stands unequaled for window 

 culture, and any suggestions that can lead to 

 their better management in large assortment 

 should be widely welcomed. 



The few kinds of this interesting class which 

 have long been cultivated have usually been 

 treated as ordinary pot plants, each to occupy 

 a pot or box of its ovra. This is well enough 

 so far as accommodating certain ones, like the 

 fiat-leaved Opuntias, Cereus, Melon Cactuses, 





Fig. 3. Plant of Opuntia Basilaris. 

 etc., may be concerned. But when it is de- 

 sirous to embark somewhat largely in the 

 pleasures of Cactus culture in the house, it soon 

 is S3en that to grow each to a single pot would 

 in many cases preclude the culture of anything 

 like a large assortment. A thing in the way 

 is that many handsome kinds are so armed 

 with hooks, prickles or spines, that to have each 

 by itself with its entire armed circumference 



