THE PRACTICE OF GARDEN DESIGN. 



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from chaos and assume shape and form. The glasshouses comprise 

 vineries, peach and fruit houses. Propagating houses and conservatory in 

 a large garden may well be described as a department in itself, but I am 

 compelled to generalize to a great extent. There is need of close 

 inspection during the progress of this work to see that the terraces are 

 properly rammed, that the drives get their specified depth of pitching and 

 metalling. It is a good plan to keep off the gravel until the very last, 

 and then in a good job it ought to be delightfully coloured Breedon or 

 some setting gravel which needs to be rolled in with water ; reject gritty, 

 teeth -grinding, flinty gravels. The close inspection needs also to be 

 exercised towards all constructive work to see that it is sound and good, 

 that the kitchen garden is deeply trenched, the soil properly enriched with 

 manure and leaf soil, if procurable, with every bit of its own surface tilth 

 and that which can be got from elsewhere put on the top. This surface 

 soil is worth three times its weight in manure. The fruit borders should be 

 formed with the proper parts of lime and all well drained, and also 

 the vine and peach borders. Keep a sharp look out on the building, 

 pointing and coping of the kitchen garden walls, where bad cement and 

 lime, leaving holes as lodging places for insects' nests, spell despair 

 almost to the poor gardener. If our reputation is to be maintained, at this 

 stage at all costs, all jerry men and skimpers must be despatched 

 ruthlessly. It is, I say, the height of folly for a client to be stingy in his 

 garden. Far better, I repeat, do a little well and gradually accomplish the 

 ultimate, season by season, with thoroughness stamped upon each part. 



When all is shaped and formed and the lawns made, comes the question 

 of adornment, and whatever else can be done from plans with our feet 

 on the fender, this cannot. Now our place is in the fresh air, as in the 

 sunlight the garden itself almost speaks, yet how easily stillness and 

 stolidity begin to make themselves apparent. If you do not tackle 

 this work in the happy mood, working with straight aim, simplicity, and 

 precision, the result of that riper judgment of fine and sympathetic 

 thought, you cannot get that feeling of jaunty ease into the disposal of 

 your ornamental plantations and borders. The vistas and glades seem to 

 be stereotyped, the angularities of the house appear harsher even though 

 climber clad, and the terrace wall more insistent than ever. Anyone, 

 almost, can tell when the ornamental planting has been done by a novice ; 

 but there are few, myself included, that can make any appreciable altera- 

 tions in it when it is clumsily disposed. As to this difficult part of the 

 work I am often pretty much like the lad who said, " If it hits it hits, but 

 if it doesn't, well then we must make the best of it." If it doesn't hit I 

 will make a confession such as I once heard made by a famous orator who 

 said that if his theme didn't go off he always had a few reliable stock side- 

 issues whereby to cover his retreat ; and so it is with most of us garden 

 designers, we always have a few never-failing devices to raise the adorn- 

 ment of the garden out of mediocrity. Some people prefer the make- 

 shift, but we bewail that here at least that subtle suggestiveness which 

 ministers to the reflective garden en j oyer has eluded us, so we pass on to 

 the next caravan and begin again, adding just this reminder : Your 

 planting must be made once for all. " Most of the plants in the border 

 can be divided when they grow too quick and the soil redug and enriched, 



