192 Landscape Gardening 



laid and diligently kept, will be sure to please, for it has a 

 good color, smoothness, regularity, durableness when not 

 under trees, and harmony with both the architectural and 

 the vegetable constituents of a garden. It furnishes, like- 

 wise, the best ground tint for setting off the colors of 

 flowers, as in a flower garden. As an edging, it should inva- 

 riably be fiat, and at an equal height (not more than half an 

 inch) above the surface of the walk at its margin, with about, 

 an inch or even two in depth along the inner line, next the 

 bed or border, to allow for the washing down of the soil 

 towards it. It must not be too narrow or it will be difficult 

 to keep cut and the sides will be likely to crumble away. 



Box edgings are troublesome, liable to great irregularities, 

 apt to harbor insects, not hardy in most parts of the United 

 States, and suitable merely for quaint figures and old-fash- 

 ioned geometrical designs. They are the proper accompani- 

 ments of parterres and small flower gardens that are laid out 

 with numerous narrow gravel walks. Rough stone, bricks, 

 thick slates, and tiles may make strong and durable edgings 

 for kitchen gardens. The smaller periwinkle, kept in due 

 limits, is useful as an edging under trees; as is the English ivy. 

 The Cotoneaster microphylla is likewise suitable, whether on 

 level ground or among rocks, and will bear a great deal of 

 trimming. 



The most valuable requisites in an edging are evenness, 

 diminutiveness or capability of being regularly trimmed, 

 quietness of appearance or harmony with whatever is behind 

 it, and permanence. In each of these respects grass will, in 

 nearly all circumstances except in the kitchen garden, have 

 the advantage. Where it is least in character is immediately 

 alongside of any rocky surface. There the common heath, 

 undressed, would be most expressive and characteristic. 



Of late years, it has become the fashion in many cases to 



