90 OUR GARDENS 



horse-chestnut will range in pursuit of nourishment. 

 It would seem almost as if they were guided by scent, 

 or some other sense, in finding depots of nourishing 

 soil. In my own garden I have adopted a system of 

 control by surrounding such trees as stand near flower- 

 beds by a narrow trench drawn at a liberal distance 

 from the outer branches, sunk down to the hard and 

 filled with concrete to within three inches or so of the 

 top. The turf is then relaid over the concrete, and 

 all that is required thereafter is to watch for any 

 attempt on the part of the tree to send its roots over 

 the top of the subterranean fence. 



The merit of informal gardening is that each owner 

 may follow out his own ideal. Sameness has been 

 banished with the regulation bedding plants. For 

 monotony, such as reigned erewhile, there is now no 

 ghost of excuse. Abundant, superabundant variety 

 of first-class things have been gathered for us from all 

 the ends of the earth by enterprising nurserymen 

 and indefatigable collectors. Every herbaceous border 

 should provide a series of agreeable surprises to the 

 instructed eye, while the general effect must be so 

 ordered as to ensure pleasure to those unversed in the 

 details of the craft. As for a recent craze in the treat- 

 ment of hardy plants the creation of ' colour schemes ' 

 and the construction of blue, red, or white borders 

 that is to put precious material to vulgar purpose. 

 Those who wish to display skill in such window- 

 dressing freaks should go back frankly to bedding-out 

 with tender plants. 



The extraordinary vogue for alpine gardening which 



