472 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



a finer effect than one of shining gneen holly, decorated with its coral berries. (See 

 Hort. Trans, ii. 354.) 



2472. Color of walls. Garden- walls are generally left of the native color of the mate- 

 rial of which they are constructed ; but they have been also colored white or black, and 

 the latter color is justly preferred as absorbing and refracting more heat than any other, 

 and thereby accelerating the maturity, and improving the quality of fruits. {H. Dawes, in 

 Hort. Trans, iii. 330.) From various trials, it appears that fruit- walls of every descrip- 

 tion, in the open air, may be blackened with advantage ; but under glass, white is pre- 

 ferable, as reflecting light, which is there obtained with more difficulty than heat. 



Sect. IX. Ring-fence and Slip. 



2473. The ring or outer fence of a garden is generally placed at some distance from the 

 fruit or main walls. The object is to admit the use of these on both sides as well as to 

 obtain a portion of ground in addition to what is enclosed. This fence may either be an 

 evergreen hedge, paling, low wall, or sunk fence, and with or without a wire fence to 

 exclude hares and rabbits. It may be placed at any distance from the walls, according as 

 accidental circumstances, or the purposes to which it is intended to devote the intervening 

 space, may determine. This space is technically called the slip, and, according to M'Phail 

 and most authors, should not be narrower tlian thirty feet, nor so wide as to throw the 

 plantation for shelter too far off to produce its effect. 



2474. The breadth of the slip, according to Nicol, should be at least twenty feet, in 

 order to afford a sufficient border for the trees, and a walk ; but it may be as much more 

 in breadth as may be necessary to give ground without the space enclosed by walls for the 

 supply of the family, and it may be enlarged on all sides, or on any particular side, for 

 that purpose. (Kal. p. 6.) Tlie garden, Forsyth states, should be surrounded with a bor- 

 der, or slip, from forty to sixty feet wide or more, if the ground can be spared ; and this 

 again enclosed with an oak paling, from six to eight feet high, with a cheval-defrize at top 

 to prevent the people's getting over : it will also strengthen the paling. By making slips 

 on the outside of the garden-wall, you will have plenty of ground for gooseberries, cur- 

 rants, strawberries, &c. You may allot that part of the slips which lies nearest to the 

 stables (if well sheltered and exposed to the sun) for melon and cucumber beds ; and you 

 can plant both sides of the garden-wall, which will give a great addition to the quantity 

 of wall-fruit. (Tr. on Fr. Trees, p. 294.) 



Sect. X. Placing the Culinary Hot-houses and Melonry. 



2475. Tfie situation of the hot-houses of a kitchen-garden is as various as the size and 

 form of gardens. In very extensive establishments, as at Kew, and the Royal Gardens, 

 Kensington, a garden or walled enclosure is entirely devoted for this department, in- 

 cluding also the framing or melonry. In ordinary cases, however, the culinary hot- 

 houses are either placed against the north wall of the garden, or against one or more of 

 the cross walls. Sometimes they are placed in the slip, which is made wider on purpose, 

 either on the east and west sides of the garden, or to the north, when it is situated on a 

 considerable declivity. Their effect, however, is almost always best when situated 

 within the walls of the garden, either attached or on the north or cross walls. In this 

 way they are sources of greater interest to the proprietor, and come more naturally into 

 the general course of promenade : for it must not be forgotten, that the pleasure or satis- 

 faction derived from even culinar)-^ hot-houses, does not wholly consist in being put in 

 possession of certain fruits of excellent quality, (for if so, recourse need only be had to 

 public markets,) but in marking the progress of the trees or plants on which these fruits 

 are grown, in all their different stages ; and, as Nicol observes, in being able to say 

 " these are the products of my own garden.'* 



2476. Placing the hot-houses in a range with a directly south aspect, or one inclining to 

 the east, is recommended by Nicol ; and it may be here observed, that what is a desir- 

 able aspect for the north and best walls of a garden, vrill also be the best for the hot- 

 houses. By placing them in a range, " there will be an evident saving in the division 

 or end lights, besides the saving of trouble and work to those who attend to them. 

 Being properly arranged according to their different lengths, breadths, and heights, very 

 much beauty and variety may be given to the whole appearance." (AaZ. p. 272.) 



2477. The hot-houses occujn/ a considerable j)art of the south wall, Niel observes, "in 

 many gardens. In the area behind them are sheds for tanners' bark, rich mould, and 

 other requisites ; while there is a cart-access to the doors of the furnaces, and these with 

 the rubbish necessarily attending the operations of forcing, are completely hid from view. 

 In some places all the forcing-houses form a continuous range ; but generally the pine- 

 stove and succession pit, being of different dimensions, are placed separately." (Edin. 

 Encyc. art. Hort.) 



2478. Culinary hot-houses should not be mixed with houses for plants of ornament. In some 

 old ill-arranged places, the greenhouse and plant-stove, or botanic hot-houses, are united 



