GARDEN BOUNDARIES 



or A. Catesbii does well when a lower-growing plant is needed 

 with the rhododendrons. 



As to how the planting is done, how the coast-line is made 

 irregular, the easiest way is this: When trees are to be planted, 

 take tall stakes, six feet, perhaps, stick them in the ground 

 where you think you want the trees, then go off at a distance 

 and look. The trees must not advance on your domain as a 

 solid phalanx, but as pine-trees from the pasture come in and 

 take possession of neglected mowing-land; when together in 

 a group they grow bolder and encroach farther, making httle 

 capes and promontories into which the green sea of the meadow 

 extends, until you cannot tell where the wood leaves off and 

 the meadow begins. When very well done, this may be lovely, 

 but rarely is it well done. 



The other type of boundary, though considered more am- 

 bitious, is really simpler; the most extreme form is the high 

 wall which belonged to all the old gardens, coming from the 

 days when defense was necessary and the garden must needs 

 be an enclosure if it was to be garden at all; the walled gar- 

 den, frequent enough in Europe, is rarely seen here except in 

 the South — ^which is a pity, for it has a charm of its own, and 

 if in the city it were the rule, instead of the omnipresent bill- 

 board-like partitions between the back yards, our small city 

 gardens could attain a permanent beauty. There is a beauty 

 in an old wall which a board fence cannot, by any stretch of 

 the imagination, claim: 



"Oh, the old wall here, How I could pass 

 Life in a long midsummer's day. 

 My feet confined to a plot of grass. 

 My eyes from the wall not once away !" 



But would Browning or any one else sing thus enthusiastically 

 of a board fence? Besides, do what one will to conceal it, it's 



85 



