CHAPTER VIII. 



SHRUBBERY, PLANTATION, AND WOOD. 



It must not be thought that the wild garden can be 

 formed only in places where there is some extent of 

 rough pleasure ground. Pretty results may be had 

 from it in even small gardens, on the fringes of 

 shrubberies and plantations, and on open spaces 

 between shrubs, where we may have plant-beauty 

 instead of garden-graveyards— the dug shrubbery 

 borders seen in gardens, public or private. Every 

 shrubbery that is so needlessly dug over every winter 

 may be full of beauty. The custom of digging 

 shrubbery borders prevails now in almost every 

 garden, and there is no worse custom ! When winter 

 is once come, almost every gardener, with the 

 best intentions, prepares to make war upon the roots 

 of everything in his shrubbery. The practice is to 

 trim and to mutilate the shrubs and to dig all over 

 the ground that is full of feeding roots. Choice shrubs 



