A u oust, 1 i) 9 



T HE ( } A R I ) E X M A G A Z I X E 



19 



rugged, we feel the need of a feminine touch. 

 When you go outdoors to-day, apply these 

 principles to the front yards that you see. 

 Determine where you would sweep away the 

 bushes and where you would put them in. 

 I believe that ordinarily you will wish to 

 put in ten shrubs for one that you pull out. 

 The showy yards of our proud cities may 

 have a certain barbaric splendor, but I 

 think you will conclude that they usually 

 lack refinement and repose. If you can go 

 to the country, study the landscapes that seem 

 most restful and soothing, notice the tran- 

 sitions that nature makes 

 between wood and field — 

 the rounded, billowy masses 

 of sumach and the like. 

 You will conclude that rest- 

 fulness is due to gently flow- 

 ing lines and that the harsh 

 right angle between trees 

 and grass is best hidden by 

 shrubbery. 



EDGINGS FOR FORMAL 

 GARDENS 



If edging plants are im- 

 portant on the lawn they 

 are doubly so in the garden, 

 where we wish every foot of 

 ground to do its best. The 

 most famous edging plant for 

 gardens and formal flower 

 beds is box, and rightly so, 

 because it is evergreen and 

 "breathes the fragrance of 

 eternity." 



But in this case the pur- 

 pose of the edging plant is 

 not to furnish a transition, 

 for the edging is often taller 

 than the flowers within. The 

 real purpose of box is to 

 outline the design. For, in 

 a formal garden the main 

 thing is the design, while in 

 the naturalistic garden it is 

 the 'flowers. Now, design 

 can be more pleasantly im- 

 pressed by means of cool 

 lines of evergreen foliage 

 than by broad gravel walks, 

 which are hot and liresome 

 in the sun. Thus box has 

 been used for edging from 

 classical times, and as it usu- 

 ally lives longer than any- 

 thing else in a garden, some people main- 

 tain that it is impossible to have a charming 

 formal garden without it. 



The spirit of formal gardening is admir- 

 ably illustrated by the little picture on 

 page 18, which was given me by Mr. 

 William Goldring and shows a portion of a 

 garden designed by him. Yet, at first glance, 

 it looks like one of our old Colonial gardens. 

 It has the same atmosphere of seclusion, 

 luxuriance, mellowness and of intimate 

 home life. Aside from the madonna lilies, 

 however, the materials are all different. 

 The conifer is yew, not hemlock. Behind it 

 is English laurel, where we would now use 

 rhododendrons. And the edging plant is 



not box but lavender, I should judge. 

 However, the species is not now important. 

 The main thing is to see how necessary 

 trimmed vegetation is for outlining the 

 design of a formal garden, because it is the 

 design that gives one a sense of order, fitness, 

 and harmony. And for outlining the design 

 of a garden we shall probably never find 

 anything better than box. 



In olden times the common, or tree, box 

 was used for edging, but in the life of every 

 garden comes a period of neglect and then 

 the tree box overruns the walks and flower 



The exquisite finish of English lawns is largely due to the edging of 

 however, is not continuous, but allows occasional glimpses into the 



beds, thus obscuring the original design. 

 Dwarf box is therefore better for edging 

 flower beds, but it involves a long wait. 

 Little plants only six inches high may cost 

 $ioo a thousand and look painfully small for 

 several years. Box edgings need to be 

 trimmed to a line once a year in May. 

 They are said to be ruined sometimes by 

 neighboring plants overhanging them and 

 by salt thrown upon the walks to kill weeds. 

 They rob the flowers of plant food and are 

 supposed to poison the ground for certain 

 kinds. It is necessary to grow an extra 

 supply in a reserve garden to. fill gaps. 

 There are many other drawbacks to the use 

 of box. Before deciding to use it, everyone 



should inquire in the neighborhood about its 

 hardiness and what kind and degree of shade, 

 if any, seems best. 



PER.MAN EXT E ] >G IXC S 



If you can satisfy all the conditions, box 

 will preserve the design for many human 

 generations, but if not, the only permanent 

 materials are "dead edgings," such as stone, 

 brick, or tile. I saw all sorts of abominations 

 in England that we never dream of — 

 ornate tiles, fancy bricks, and even cast iron 

 intricate patterns. They were always get- 

 ling out of plumb or being 

 cracked by frost and I can- 

 not understand why anyone 

 ever invented them or ever 

 found a purchaser. They 

 are supposed to save the ex- 

 pense of trimming box but 

 their first cost is heavy and 

 some of them have to be 

 carefully set in cement. 

 Heaven defend us from 

 their hard lines and glaring 

 colors and intricate orna- 

 mentation! The motive be- 

 hind all this tawdry art is 

 display, whereas the only 

 sensible object of a dead 

 edging is to save labor in 

 weeding, by sharply defining 

 the walks. 



The only dead edging that 

 pleased me in England was 

 natural stone. In some 

 princely gardens I saw stone 

 copings elaborated by skilled 

 workmen into designs of rare 

 beauty, but I heard sorrow- 

 ful tales of their chipping 

 and splitting from the action 

 of frost. But the best effect 

 came from using rough- 

 dressed stone of the neigh- 

 borhood, setting the blocks 

 in a fairly straight line, but 

 without bothering to make 

 all the blocks the same 

 length. In the moist, cool 

 climate of England lichens 

 and alga? soon obscure the 

 marks of the chisel and the 

 chinks are filled with pre- 

 cious little flowers like the 

 wall pepper, the Minorca 

 sandwort, Kenilworth ivy, 

 etc., which bring the stone into a natural 

 and loving relation with the soil. And the 

 prettiest feature of all is to see these stones 

 overgrown by some live edging, such as 

 stonecrop, thyme, or bellflower. This type 

 of edging is the one approved by William 

 Robinson, and in describing it I have used 

 many of his ideas and phrases. 



FLOWER EDGINGS FOR THE GARDEN 



But the most affecting loveliness, in my 

 opinion, is that which comes from the use 

 of flowers for edging garden walks. Take, 

 for instance, the white pinks shown on page 

 1 8. These unpretentious little flowers, 

 that crouch at one's feet, appeal to one's 



shrubbery — which, 

 heart of the grove 



