153 Balcony and Area Gardening. 



small Ferns, Echevarias, Sempervivums, Saxifrages, 

 Sedums, and small plants of Aubretia, and Linaria, or 

 any other dwarf plant only should be used, for the 

 space being confined only a little tiny rockery can be 

 got up, and the rock-plants must be in proportion to 

 its size. 



The same may be said of the area. A rockery for 

 Ferns would thrive there very well, and be a very 

 interesting object to my city readers who seldom have 

 a chance of beholding them in their native haunts. 

 The shade and protection afforded by an area is just 

 the thing required for Ferns. 



I can fancy a Fern rockery built up against the area 

 wall around the root of a robust Ivy, where the graceful 

 fronds of the Ferns and the pretty little Linaria and 

 Sedums form a natural rustic bank from which the Ivy 

 seems to spring, rockery and Ivy forming together a 

 picture of beauty. 



The common hardy British Ferns are the kinds to 

 cultivate in the area rockery. Always be particular to 

 water them gently overhead every morning and evening, 

 during the season. 



There are a great many contrivances in the way of 

 Baskets, Brackets, Flowerstands, and Rockeries which 

 a person of some taste and ingenuity can work out. 

 It only requires an imaginative mind, and proper 

 means and appliances at hand to contrive and work 

 out numberless little inventions for the embellishment 

 of town gardens with the lovely flower and foliage plants 

 now so cheap and plentiful. 



The principal care of the gardener must always be 



