The Mixed Garden 



them, and only require that the ground should 

 be " furnished " during the summer months, the 

 bedding-out will exactly do for them what they 

 want. The order is to supply " a blaze of 

 flowers," and if a blaze of flowers is the test of 

 good gardening then a bedded-out garden in the 

 summer months shows the perfection of gardening. 

 And in some places it seems almost necessary. 

 As a foreground to large, stately houses the 

 bedded-out parterre forms a fitting ornament ; 

 and it also seems in its right place in front of 

 such buildings as the great palm-house at Kew, 

 where all the immediate surroundings are stiff 

 and artificial. Even where the circumstances are 

 not such as these, I would leave it to each man's 

 taste to arrange his garden as he thinks best. I 

 am not bound to follow his example, but I 

 certainly have no right to impute want of taste 

 to an arrangement which does not please me. 

 Within certain limits I can admire the stiffest 

 bedded-out garden — the individual flowers at 

 least have their charm, though the standing rule 

 of bedding-out is that the individual is to be sunk 

 in the mass ; but there is one limit to my admira- 

 tion. In no way can I admire the so-called 

 carpet or cushion beds, in which certain patterns 

 are worked out as flat as possible. Such beds I 

 can in no way call gardening. They represent 

 the maximum, of labour with the m.ini'mum of 

 healthy results ; they are the degraded successors 

 of the " knots " of our forefathers, and can only 



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