VILLA GARDENS. 



17 



recovered, by bringing up their seeds to the influence of 

 air and sunshine. 



If it be your task to make a new one, first ask your- 

 self " What style of garden shall we have ? To what 

 branch of horticulture shall we give our attention ? On 

 toJiich group of the vegetable kingdom shall we spend our 

 money ? Soto shall the exterior of our villa residence 

 look from without and within ? Shall we form a little 

 arhoreticm, and nestle ourselves beneath a cluster of 

 some dozen or twenty rare hardy trees ? Shall we go 

 into the Dutch line, and gratify our taste for florists' 

 flowers? Shall we make a Rosary, and be content to 

 look a little naked in the winter if we can but have a 

 blaze of bloom during summer and autumn? Any of 

 these proposed plans can be carried out in villa gar- 

 dening ; only — there must be no indecision, no patch- 

 work, half-measures, nor coalitions of opposite aims and 

 principles. There is one apparent exception to the rule ; 

 but then it requires both more time and a more daily 

 and assiduous study of garden literature than villa-pro- 

 prietors can mostly afford. The amateur who, happen- 

 ing to have a sufficiency of land attached to his residence, 

 chooses himself to take the command of two or three 

 labourers, instead of employing a professional gardener 

 at high wages, will adapt his practice to various ends, 

 according as utility or ornament is the object the more 

 desirable in his state of affairs. His horticulture is 

 mostly of the composite order ; he cultivates a garden of 

 all-work. As the celebrated cobbler " lived in a stall — 

 that served him for parlour, kitchen, and all," so the inde- 

 pendent manager arranges a plot of ground so as to 

 comprise the conveniences of orchard, kitchen-garden, 

 shrubbery, parterre, and terrace. And a capital school 

 it is for the men and boys who are wise enough to look 

 after instruction while working in it. How well, too, 

 an avenue of standard perpetual roses harmonizes with 

 the line of a feathery asparagus-bed ! How little is there 

 to displease in a rectangular strawberry-ground inclosed 

 in a frame-work of brilliant low-growing flowers, with 



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