28o EDGING AND CARPETING PLANTS 



within. The real purpose of box is to outline the design. For, in 

 a formal garden the main thing is the design, while in the 

 naturalistic garden it is the flowers. Now, design can be more 

 pleasantly impressed by means of cool lines of evergreen foliage 

 than by broad gravel walks, which are hot and tiresome in the 

 sun. Thus box has been used for edging from classical times, 

 and as it usually lives longer than anything else in a garden, some 

 people maintain that it is impossible to have a charming formal 

 garden without it. 



In olden times the common, or tree, box was used for edging, 

 but in the life of every garden comes a period of neglect and then 

 the tree box overruns the walks and flower beds, thus obscuring 

 the original design. Dwarf box is therefore better for edging 

 flower beds, but it involves a long wait. Little plants only six 

 inches high may cost one hundred dollars a thousand and look 

 painfully small for several years. Box edgings need to be trimmed 

 to a line once a year in May. They are said to be ruined some- 

 times by neighbouring plants overhanging them and by salt thrown 

 upon the walks to kill weeds. They rob the flowers of plant food 

 and are supposed to poison the ground for certain kinds. It is 

 necessary to grow an extra supply in a reserve garden to fill 

 gaps. There are many other drawbacks to the use of box. 

 Before deciding to use it, every one should inquire in the neigh- 

 bourhood about its hardiness and what kind and degree of shade, if 

 any, seems best. 



PERMANENT EDGINGS 



If you can satisfy all the conditions, box will preserve the 

 design for many human generations, but if not, the only permanent 

 materials are "dead edgings," such as stone, brick, or tile. I saw 



