GARDEN WALKS AND EOADS. 



189 



two or more walks of the same width, intersect- 

 ing the garden in the middle, thus cutting it into 

 four equal quarters. This is one of the most con- 

 venient arrangements for cultural purposes, and 

 with a fountain, Eose-arbour, covered seat, statue, 

 v^ase, or other centre-piece in the middle of the 

 garden, it also looks well and appropriate. 



Kitchen Garden Walks. — These being chiefly 

 for utility, hardly any of the foregoing principles 

 apply to them. As a rule they will follow the line 

 of wall or other boundary fence, and they will also 

 generally proceed from each ofher at right angles, as 

 the ground is mostly some form of square in these. 

 Kitchen garden ground being more valuable than 

 that in either the flower garden or pleasure-grounds, 

 the walks may, as a rule, be somewhat narrower. 

 Any attempts that have been made to carry a wind- 

 ing walk to any good purpose through a square or 

 parallelogram devoted to vegetable culture have 

 signally failed. 



Working Walks or Alleys. — More or less 

 of these are generally associated with, and run 

 parallel to, the main walks in kitchen gardens. 

 These vary in width from six inches to eighteen, 

 and are simply working paths for men and bar- 

 rows. They are generally formed of earth only, 

 or surfaced, for greater cleanliness, with ashes, 

 sawdust, spent tan, or cocoa-fibre refuse. Some of 

 them by the sides of fruit borders become semi- 

 permanent paths ; others are dug in and re-made for 

 convenience annually, or cftener, as the cropping 

 proceeds. The space is simply set out, and two inches 

 or so of the soil taken out with the spade and laid on 

 either side. This is trodden down, raked, and beaten 

 level with the back of the spade, and the sides cut 

 down straight or at an angle. The bottom is then 

 raked smooth, and the alley of the latter class is 

 finished ; or the base may be surfaced with any of 

 the materials already named, or sand, ballast, or burnt 

 earth, where these abound near the spot. Others take 

 even less trouble, merely lining out and trampling 

 down the vacant space, and leaving it so. But good 

 alleys are well worth the trouble they take in 

 making, as affording ready and cleanly access to 

 garden products in all weathers, and also for the 

 neat and cared-for appearance they impart to the 

 garden. 



These alleys and indeed, all the walks in the 

 kitchen garden, were often foi-med of grass in the 

 olden times. If well kept, these are most cleanly 

 and enjoyable in dry weather; but they are very 

 much the reverse during rain and snow, and dirty 

 weather in general. They were also expensive to 

 keep, and furnished harbours of refuge and the best 



of feeding - grounds for worms, slugs, and other 

 garden pests. Hence the general abolition of grass 

 walks or alleys in kitchen gardens. 



Abolition of Walks in Kitchen Gardens. 



— The labour of keeping, the risk of injury to the 

 roots of important valuable crops, and the waste 

 of space caused by walks, are so very considerable 

 that some have proposed to dispense with them 

 altogether in the vegetable and fruit gardens. 

 In cases where the vegetable garden is large and at a 

 considerable distance from the house, and thus is 

 quite separated from the general pleasure-grounds, 

 there seems little more urgent reason why it should 

 be intersected with walks than fields devoted to root 

 or even corn crops. Mere earth paths or roadways 

 where the ground is dry may sufiice for the cartage of 

 manure on to the ground or of produce off it. Where 

 the ground is too heavy or tenacious for such path- 

 ways to continue passable in wet weather, a layer, 

 six inches or so in thickness, of burnt clay, marl, or 

 other earth, cinder - ashes, slack, or other hard 

 material, will make a fairly clean roadway or path 

 in almost any weather. Even a few inches of saw- 

 dust, spent tan, or cocoa-fibre refuse, have the merit 

 of making a fairly clean pathway over the surface in 

 the dirtiest weather. 



Commoner and Cheaper Walks. — Cinder- 

 ashes, with a little unslaked lime; chalk, builders' 

 rubbish, and grey lime ; gravel, with a dash of lime 

 and cement ; and many sorts of burnt earth or 

 ballast, either with or without any addition of 

 cement, lime, or tar, carefully spread over the surface 

 to the depth of a few inches, will make a temporary 

 path that will answer in many places for years with- 

 out much more trouble and expense. In all cases of 

 making surface walks of this sort, the ground should 

 be levelled and rammed hard at first, to insure the 

 walk material, whatever it is, being of an uniform 

 thickness throughout. Spread it evenly, roll it down 

 firmly, and surface, if possible, with an inch or two 

 of good gravel. On di-y ground, surface walks of 

 this sort are not seldom good enough for kitchen 

 gardens. Of course, the smaller the garden, the 

 narrower the walks — as a rule; and though wide 

 walks have been strongly advocated alike for com- 

 fort and effect in these chapters, yet a walk a foot 

 or eighteen inches wide, well made, and passable in 

 all weathers, is really far more satisfactory than a 

 six-feet walk that is transformed into bird-lime 

 thi-ough very heaV}^ rain. 



A yet more simple path may be made on dry soil 

 by simply raising it up well above the level with the 

 earth on the spot and on either side of it, forming the 

 crown of the path almost in the shape of a semi 



