FLOWER-BEDS 



end we had a space of about three quarters of an 

 acre, sloping southward, made into eight terraces, 

 each about six feet in height, the whole being 

 connected with -flights of rough stone steps, laid 

 up without mortar; there being sixty-four steps 

 in all from top to bottom. On these terraces, so 

 prepared, we transplanted all our hardy perennial 

 plants. Here they were protected from the cold 

 north and west winds of winter, and the flying 

 snow piled up over the bank, driven by the 

 winds, thus covering the plants with a warm thick 

 blanket of snow. Flowers survived here that had 

 formerly died every winter on the northern or 

 western slopes, and nearly all the species increased 

 both in the size and in the quality of their bloom. 

 At another point on the southern slope, pro- 

 tected by a thick fringe of woods to the westward, 

 I laid out my garden beds for the rearing of 

 flowering plants and the few vegetables that we 

 cared to cultivate. The space selected measured 

 about forty-three feet east and west, and thirty- 

 three feet north and south, with a slope to the 

 southward. In this space we built fourteen beds, 

 each being fourteen feet long by three feet wide. 

 The beds were enclosed in cedar planks, nine 

 inches deep, supported by stout stakes at each 



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