Landscape Gardening 



poras. By a judicious choice and variation of these, put- 

 ting one sort only to a bed, some amount of verdure and 

 liveliness will be produced during winter, at a cost of labor 

 and materials which are entirely insignificant in comparison 

 with the effect reaUzed. The plants should be potted in 

 rather a poor soil, lest they grow too luxuriant and send 

 their roots too far beyond the pots. 



8. Shady Spots. — Beneath trees and shrubs which are 

 so dense or create such a thick shade that grass will not live, 

 and has to be renewed every year, a simple and convenient 

 plan of carpeting the ground is to plant it with patches of 

 periwinkles or English ivy where the latter will thrive. Bare 

 earth, which does not even produce weeds, and on which, in 

 consequence of the number and strength of the roots from 

 trees, a sufficient undergrowth of shrubs cannot be obtained, 

 has an exceedingly cold and poor appearance, and tends to 

 make a place look smaller. English ivy or the larger peri- 

 winkles form a rich and luxuriant carpet in such places. 

 But these dwarfer sorts of undergrowth are principally 

 adapted for such plantations as are nearer the outside of a 

 place and those which may run along the sides of a shrub- 

 bery walk in a field, and they must be well watered for a 

 year or two after planting. 



9. Treatment of Hedges. — Where hedgerows are em- 

 ployed as a boundary fence, or are used inside a wall or pal- 

 ing to conceal it from view, their ordinary unsightliness and 

 hardness of line may be very greatly relieved by a little 

 attention to pruning and by fronting them here and there 

 with a few scattered bushes of the same or other kinds. In 

 assuming that a hedge is unsightly, however, I would not 

 be misunderstood. When perfectly developed, furnished, 

 and nicely trimmed, a good hedge is rather a beautiful than 

 an ugly thing in itself; but, as I have before alleged, no 



