260 



THE GARDENER'S ASSISTANT. 



now somewhat discredited fashion of carpet- 

 bedding. It therefore behoves anyone who 

 contemplates the formation of a flower-garden 

 to consider fully the available labour and means 

 for the propagation of and housing of the plants 

 required; for a small garden well managed is 

 immensely preferable to a much larger one in- 

 differently kept up. 



The site chosen, it becomes a consideration how 

 to dispose of the available space. Nothing is 

 more common than to see a piece of ground, 

 square or otherwise, inclosed by a wall, a hedge, 

 or a formal bank of shrubs, in which far the 

 greater portion of the surface is occupied by 

 flower-beds, having the effect of a large highly- 

 coloured picture in a scanty frame. Now, had 

 the central portion been lawn, with flower-beds 

 here and there skirting the paths, and the border 

 filled partly with shrubs and partly with her- 

 baceous plants, the effect would have been better 

 and less costly. 



The beds for flowers should be simple in 

 design, a circle, oval, or oblong being preferable 

 to star or crescent or zigzag shapes. In the 

 arrangement of paths, too, the plan should be 

 simple and natural both in curve and direction. 

 Serpentine wriggles are ugly, whether in path 

 or flower-bed. Raised or sunk beds are equally 

 objectionable. Where gravel is used in a par- 

 terre to separate the beds an edging of some 

 sort becomes a necessity, in order to keep the 

 soil in position; for this purpose box-edging 

 looks much the best, and is the most appro- 

 priate ; but a flower-garden cut out of turf looks 

 incomparably better than any arrangement that 

 requires a permanent edging to the beds. 



Aspect. — A southern or a western aspect is in 

 some measure the best, but east or even north 

 will do if other essential conditions exist, such as 

 a sufficiency of light from the absence of high 

 walls or trees in the near neighbourhood of the 

 garden. It is of little use attempting flower- 

 gardening in exposed situations, where nothing- 

 exists, or can be induced to grow, to check the 

 force of the wind, especially since subtropical 

 plants have become so generally employed, and 

 which are considered to be more or less indis- 

 pensable to break the otherwise monotonous 

 and too even surface of beds of flowering plants. 

 These usually tall-growing foliage plants require 

 considerable shelter, or their leaves become so 

 disfigured as to render them unsightly, instead 

 of being objects of beauty. It is seldom, how- 

 ever, that the land slopes so much that shelter 

 belts of tall-growing evergreen and deciduous 

 shrubs, with a few dwarf-growing trees, Thuias, 



Cupressus, and others which will be treated of 

 in their proper place, cannot be planted to afford 

 shelter from the wind. It is wonderful how 

 well the lowly vegetation of which a flower- 

 garden mainly consists succeeds with the shelter 

 afforded by shrubs of only 7 or 8 feet in height, 

 provided it be sufficiently dense. 



Preparation of the Ground, Drainage, &c. — The 

 measure of success to be attained in flower-gar- 

 dening depends a good deal upon the nature of 

 the land. Heavy retentive soils, even with the 

 assistance of thorough drainage, do not answer, 



I for several reasons. The nature of flower-garden 

 plants is such as to require a soil that is warm 

 and tends to early development, so that they 

 may, after planting-out, grow away rapidly, and 

 in the least possible time fill their allotted space. 



| Where this does not take place their season of 



I beauty is shortened, and the autumn frosts are 

 upon them by the time they assume their best 



| garb. Again, the majority of the plants em- 

 ployed are fine-rooted, and make greater pro- 

 gress in a soil that is readily pulverized, and 



, which offers little resistance to the penetration 

 of the young roots. In heavy ground these 

 conditions are altogether wanting, consequently 



1 the natural soil must be removed from the beds, 



. and replaced with a properly prepared light soil. 

 In the case of soils of medium quality, ameliora- 

 tion may be effected by the addition of charred 

 garden refuse, an admirable substance for fine- 

 rooted plants; sand, leaf -mould, and lime; and 

 with an infertile soil the addition of rotten 

 manure may be desirable. It would be better 

 still were the whole surface of the garden so 

 treated — both the space occupied by the beds 

 and that which is between them, for this reason, 

 that if at any time the design had to be altered, 

 and the beds occupy different positions, no 

 further addition would be required. 



The only objection to this is the excessive 

 exuberance of the lawn grasses and the con- 

 sequent frequent necessity for mowing. This, 

 in part, does away with a serious difficulty. In 

 draining heavy land for such purposes, where 

 the natural retentive soil is wholly or in part 

 replaced by such as is lighter and more porous 

 in the space occupied by the beds alone, each 

 individual bed acts as a receptacle for the water 

 that naturally drains to it from the surrounding 

 less absorbent ground, involving the laying of a 

 drain or drains under each bed to carry off the 

 otherwise stagnant water. To assist in doing 

 this, if the land is of a wet and retentive 

 nature, a layer of brick rubbish or similar 

 material should be put in the bottom of each 



