30 MANUAL OF GARDENING 
unsatisfactory. It generally amounts to this, that we have four 
months of sparse and downcast vegetation, one month of limp 
and frost-bitten plants, and seven months of bare earth (Fig. 19). 
I am not now opposing the carpet-beds which professional gar- 
deners make in parks and other museums. I like museums, 
and some of the carpet-beds and set pieces are “fearfully and 
wonderfully made” (see Fig. 20). I am directing my remarks 
20. Worth paying admittance price to see! 
to those humble home-made flower-beds that are so common in 
lawns of country and city homes alike. These beds are cut from 
the good fresh turf, often in the most fantastic designs, and are 
filled with such plants as the women of the place may be able 
to carry over in cellars or in the window. The plants them- 
selves may look very well in pots, but when they are turned 
out of doors, they have a sorry time for a month adapting 
themselves to the sun and winds, and it is generally well on 
towards midsummer before they begin to cover the earth. 
During all these weeks they have demanded more time and 
