'54 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF GARDENING. 



the lighter ground stable manure should be employed as a fertiliser. In making the border, 

 plentifully dress the lower half with fresh manure, while to the upper half, with which the 

 roots will first come into contact, add only well-rotted manure. In such a border, richly 

 stored with food, the plants will grow vigorously and attain full development, while they 

 will retain strength unimpaired until their increased dimensions render division necessary, 

 and then the border may be partially or entirely remade. Mulchings are useful, and light 

 coverings that do not become sodden and "cake" tend to conserve the warmth in the soil if 

 applied during the autumn, but a heavy damp coating lowers the temperature at the ground 

 level considerably during the winter months, at which time, moreover, the plant roots, being 

 dormant, cannot utilise the fertilising elements washed from the mulchings by the rain. 



In the spring and 

 summer the case is different. 

 At the former season the 

 roots are stirring, and eagerly 

 convert the manurial agents 

 to their use, while in the 

 summer a slight mulch tends 

 to keep the surface soil moist, 

 even in very dry weather, 

 and root action progresses 

 unchecked. A slight sprink- 

 ling of soil above the mulching 

 will be sufficient to render it 

 inconspicuous. 



Planting the Border. 



AFTER making the border, 

 one must plant it ; and in 

 directing attention to this 

 point, it cannot be too strongly 

 emphasised that the one por- 

 tion of the garden above all 

 others from which artificiality 

 should be most rigorously 

 banished is the mixed border. 

 Here there must be no 

 geometrical patterns, 

 no planting in lines, no dotting 

 of single specimens of a family 

 about the bed, such as will 

 tend to produce a confused, 

 muddled effect. The plants should be arranged in informal groups, not all of an exact size or 

 contour, and if the outlying pickets of a troop of tall-growing subjects stray into the territory 

 occupied by plants of lowlier stature, so much the less formal will be the effect. 



The border should be wide, 8ft. to ioft. offering a better opportunity for artistic 

 grouping than a narrow width, and the background will necessarily be filled with the tallest- 

 growing plants. This should not, however, prevent some of them from occupying forward 

 positions, where they will create an artistic break in the level, and disturb an unbroken 

 uniformity of height. 



Some care should be exercised in selecting the positions for the different plants, or groups 

 of plants, so that the kinds which flower in the early summer and later on become unsightly, such 



MIXED BORDER AT FA1RFIELDS. 



