794 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



PART III. 



sunk ; seldom more than an inch ; otherwise they have a bad eflbct. and look rather like furrows than 

 alleys. They may be edged with box, with daises, with violets, gentianella, or thrift, according to fancy. 

 But the edging, whatever it be, should be kept low, thin, and neat. It should seldom be allowed to rise 

 two inches high, or spread two inches wide. A linear box-edging always pleases, if kept quite close and 

 connected." (Kal. 458.) 



6096. The author of the Florist's Manual, though she confines her directions to one style, has much 

 more correct ideas on the subject than our practical authors. " It is more difficult," she says, " than may 

 at first appear, to plan, even upon a small scale, such a piece of ground, nor, perhaps, would any but an 

 experienced scientific eye be aware of the difficulties to be encountered in the disposal of a few shaped bor- 

 ders interspersed with turf ; the nicety consists in arranging the different parts so as to form a connected 

 glow of color, to effect which it will be necessary to place the borders in such a manner that when viewed 

 from the windows of the house, or from the principal entrance into the garden, one border shall not inter- 

 cept the beauties of another, nor in avoiding that error, produce one still greater, that of vacancies be- 

 twixt the borders forming small avenues, by which the whole is separated into broken parts, and the ge- 

 neral effect lost Another point to be attended to, is the just proportion of green turf, which, without 

 nice observation, will be too much or too little for the color with which it is blended ; and, lastly, the 

 breadth of the flower-borders should not be greater than what will place the roots within reach of the 

 gardener's arm without the necessity of treading upon the soil, the mark of footsteps being a deformity 

 wherever it appears amongst flowers." (Flor. Man, 13.) 



6097. The materials which form the surface offiower-gardens (figs. 543, 544.) are gravel (a), turf (b), and 

 dug borders (c), patches (d), or compartments (<), and water (/) ; but a variety of other objects and mate- 

 rials may be introduced as receptacles for plants, or on the surfaces of walks ; as grotesque roots, rocks, 

 flints, spar, shells, scoriae in conglomerated lumps, 545 



sand and gravel of different colors ; besides works of ._ 

 art introduced as decorations, or tonsile perform- ** 

 ances, when the old French style (fig. 546.) is 

 imitated. 



6098. Rock-works. The author of the Florist's 

 Manual observes, on this subject, that " frag- 

 ments of stone may be made use of, planted 

 with such roots as flourish among rocks, and to 

 which it might not be difficult to give a natural ap- 

 pearance, so far as by bringing forward to the view 

 the utility of these stones in the culture of the vege- 

 tables growing thereon. The present fashion of in- 

 troducing into flower-gardens this kind of rock-work 

 requires the hand of taste to assimilate it to our flower- 

 borders, the massive fabric of the rock being liable 

 to render the lighter assemblage of the borders di- 

 minutive and meagre : on this point, caution only 

 can be given, the execution must be left to the ele- 

 gant eye of taste, which, thus warned, will quickly 

 perceive such deformity. I must venture to disap- 

 prove the extended manner in which this vegetable 

 rock- work is sometimes introduced, not having been 

 able to reconcile my eye, even in gardens planned 

 and cultivated with every advantage which elegant 



ingenuity can give them, to the unnatural appear- 

 ance of artificial crags of rock and other stones in- 



terspersed with delicate plants, to the culture of i 

 which the fertile and sheltered border is evidently 

 necessary, being decided that nothing of the kind 

 should be admitted into the simple parterre that is 

 not manifestly of use to the growth of some of the 

 species therein exhibited. In pleasure-ground* or 

 flower-gardens on an extensive scale, where we meet 

 with fountains and statuary, the greater kinds of ve- 

 getable rock-work might probably be well intro- 

 duced ; but to such a magnificent display of art I feel 

 my taste and knowledge wholly incompetent." (Flor. 

 Man. 15.) " Where neither expense nor trouble," 

 the same author adds, " oppose their prohibitory 

 barrier, many of the vegetable tribe may be cultivated to greater perfection, if we appropriate different gar- 

 dens to the growth of different species, as, although it is essential to the completion of our garden fro intro- 

 duce, on account of their scent and beauty, some of the more hardy species of the flowers termed annuals, 

 in that situation room cannot be afforded them sufficient to their production in that full luxuriancy which 

 they will exhibit when not crowded and overshadowed by herbaceous vegetables ; and hence becomes de- 

 sirable that which maybe called the annual flower-garden, into which no other kind of flower is admitted 

 besides that fugacious order, and under which is contained so great a variety of beauty and elegance, as one 

 well calculated to form a garden, vying in brilliancy with the finest collection of hardy perennials. Also, 

 the plants comprised under the bulbous division of vegetables, although equally essential to the perfection 

 of the mingled flower-garden, lose much of their peculiar beauty when not cultivated by themselves, and 

 will well repay the trouble of an assiduous care to give to each species the soil and aspect best suited to its 

 nature. Two kinds of garden may be formed from the extensive and beautiful variety of bulbous-rooted 

 flowers ; the first, wherein they should be planted in distinct compartments, each kind having a border ap- 

 propriated to itself, thus forming, in the Eastern taste, not only the 'garden of hyacinths,' but a garden of 

 each species of bulb which is capable of being brought to perfection without the fostering shelter of a con- 

 servatory. The second bulbous garden might be formed from a collection of the almost infinite variety of 

 this lovely tribe, the intermixture of which might produce the most beautiful effect, and a succession of 

 bloom to continue throughout the early months of summer. A similar extension of pleasure might be 

 derived from a similar division of all kinds of flowers, and here the taste fbr borders planted with distinct 

 tribes may be properly exercised, and, as most of the kinds of bulbs best suited to tin's disposition have 

 finished their bloom before the usual time at which annuals disclose their beauties, the annual and the 

 bulbous gardens might be so united, that, at the period when the bloom of the latter has disappeared, the 

 opening buds of the former might supply its place, and continue the gaiety of the borders." 



6099. The green-house or conservatory is generally placed in the flower-garden, provided 

 these structures are not appended to the house. In laying out the area, a fit situation 

 must be allotted for this department of floriculture, and the principles of guidance laid 

 down in treating of the situation of the culinary hot -houses (2475.) require here also to 

 be applied. Some recommended the distribution of the botanic hot-houses throughout 



