138 



Gardens for Small Country Houses. 



quite unequalled. This also must be cut by hand and the surface allowed a little 

 freedom. Fig. 178 shows a hedge of Portugal laurel backing a lily pool in a good 

 piece of rectangular gardening, and Fig. 180 a clever way of using pollarded and 

 clipped limes for greatly heightening a garden wall abutting on a road. 



For commoner purposes, such as a hedge to a kitchen garden, beech and horn- 

 beam are both excellent. They serve also, especially hornbeam, for training over 



arbours and covered 

 ways ; growing close 

 and twiggy when 

 regularly clipped. 



All such green 

 hedges must be well 

 planted, the ground 

 deeply dug and 

 liberally enriched 

 and, if possible, 

 further encouraged 

 during the next few 

 years by additions 

 of manure just 

 under the surface. 

 T h e y cannot be 

 hurried. Nothing is 

 more frequent or 

 more fatal than 

 compliance with the 

 wish of the im- 

 patient client who 

 desires to have an 

 effect at once. It 

 can only be success- 

 fully done by special 

 and unusual means 

 and at great cost. 

 For yew and holly, 

 three feet is the limit 

 of height for prudent 

 planting. Beech can 

 be planted four feet 

 to five feet high at 

 once; hornbeam, 

 privet and white- 

 thorn should be cut 

 down to within a few 

 inches of the ground 



the year after they are established, when they soon throw up a number of strong shoots. 

 Besides the green things used as actual hedges, fine effects are gained by the use 

 of upright trees bounding grassy walks. Fig. 182 shows Lombardy poplars so 

 used by Mr. Reginald Blomfield. Irish yews, the upright cypresses and their 

 near relations, the junipers, can be so employed. Of the junipers, the neat 



FIG. l8o. POLLARDED LIMES USED TO HEIGHTEN A WALL. 



