[ I ] 



THE MONKS 1 WALK, ASHR1DGE , 



THE CENTURY 

 BOOK OF GARDENING. 



SHRUB BORDERS AND HARDY FLOWERS. 



By Mrs. Earle, Author of "Pot-Pourri from a Surrey Garden." 



IN England we are always copying from our neighbours, the French ; but 1 think it is 

 somewhat rare for the compliment to be returned. Lately a young architect friend 

 of mine has had the great pleasure of building an English house for real French 

 people in Normandy. I hear the approach is up a straight drive flanked on each side 

 bv white rough-cast walls. On these it is proposed to grow creepers, and to have at a 

 short distance from the wall two broad borders. Now the question is, how shall they 

 be planted ? The first idea was to make them herbaceous. 1 cannot believe this could 

 be satisfactory on each side of a road along which there might be traffic at any time 

 of the year, 



For such herbaceous borders to be beautiful, they would have to be planted in 

 a very bold manner, with large masses of colour, and this means broad bands of earth 

 more or less covered with manure for six or eight months in the year. This would 

 be anything but attractive. A wide mixed border, if not entirely on the simple dotted 

 cottage system, should be intersected with plants which are good in form and restful in 



