252 
WINTER GARDENS. 
Much as the attention of cultivators has been engrossed with rendering 
flower gardens, stoves, and greenhouses, the interesting places in summer which, 
under skilful designing and management, they now rarely fail to prove, it has 
seldom been turned practically to the improvement of the pleasure-ground in 
winter. And, as in many parts of the country there are gardens which are never, 
or very rarely, seen by their proprietors at any other season, we imagine they 
should then be made as enlivening, and kept with the most scrupulous neatness 
that the unfavourable period will permit. 
We are led to the present remarks from an observation of the cheerful aspect 
which those gardens present where industry and care have supplied a verdurous 
covering to the parterre, to succeed the flowers which autumnal frosts have 
destroyed, compared with those which are left with the flower-beds naked, or 
exhibiting the wreck of former beauty. However much the latter may serve to 
prove that success has not been wanting in the season gone by, it conveys, at the 
same time, a more forcible impression of the dreariness of winter, and betrays an 
utter disregard of all regularity and neatness — a disregard which the mind 
naturally carries back and views in connection with the gaiety of summer, and 
which cannot fail prejudicially to influence an estimate of the beauty of the 
garden at tliat season. A naked border, if neatly kept, is infinitely preferable 
to th^ negligent aspect of such a place ; and a still more agreeable effect may be 
produced by the aid of a few low-growing evergreen shrubs. And though, in 
extensive grounds, ifc would be impracticable, and, indeed, scarcely desirable, to 
carry this feature throughout the whole garden, yet, in those parts where the 
eye is continually wandering over, in the immediate vicinity of the mansion, or 
in any of the more interesting and frequented parts, especially near the green- 
houses and stoves, a vast improvement may be effected by planting, temporarily, 
the vacant beds. 
This, at first sight, may appear an expensive undertaking, as well as a very 
troublesome one ; but it is surprising at how small a cost, both of money and 
(what is almost the same thing) of time, it may be managed. A few extra 
plants, and a small space in some secluded nook of the garden, as a reserve 
ground for preserving and propagating them during the summer, are nearly all 
that is requisite. 
The selection of suitable plants is the next consideration ; and to avoid the 
too even character and sameness which is a common fault in most gardens where 
the borders are planted in winter, these should be more varied and extensive. In 
choosing them, none should be taken that are not completely hardy, and likely 
to retain a healthy green throughout the winter. It will also be desirable that 
