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FORMATION AND MANAGEMENT OF FLOWER GARDENS. 
a working plan upon which the form of the 
beds should be indicated to scale by some per- 
son competent to judge of their effect, when 
transferred from the paper to the ground, as 
it frequently happens, that the designs which 
are most pleasing to the eye in the form of a 
drawing, are not so on the ground. Those de- 
signs, which, in practice, are found to give 
most satisfaction, and to be most suitable for 
gardening purposes, consist of pleasing com- 
binations of round, right angled, or blunt 
angled forms, arranged so as to appear com- 
plete as a design, without being crowded. 
Especially if on grass, this latter point should 
be considered, the effect and relief of broad 
spaces of green among the gayer masses of 
the flowers, being particularly effective ; and 
besides this, as the grass will have to be fre- 
quently mown, narrow, or confined strips of 
turf are excessively inconvenient: in fact, it is 
impossible to mow them properly without 
injuring the flowers. The space between the 
beds ought never to be less than three feet 
wide. The centre of the group may appro- 
priately be occupied by a fountain, a sculptured 
figure, a dial, or any object of a similar nature. 
It is as well if the design provides an equal 
width between the beds, throughout, but this 
is more essential in the case of gravel walks 
than when the beds are laid down upon grass. 
The design having been drawn on paper to 
a large scale, and marked all over with pa- 
rallel lines at right angles, at the scale of a 
yard apart, or wider if the beds are large and 
not intricate; corresponding parallel lines in- 
dicated by string, should be temporarily placed 
down on the ground, after it is made perfectly 
even on the surface. Both the plan and the 
ground will now be covered with little squares, 
the sides of which are a yard in length. The 
next step is, to measure with the compasses 
from (the angles chiefly, of) these lines on the 
plan, to the lines which indicate the outside 
of the different beds, and the compasses being 
applied to the scale, and the distances ascer- 
tained, the same lengths are to be measured 
on the ground with a light rod, and marked 
by means of light pegs of about two feet long. 
The same process has to be done in every 
direction, till the dimensions of each bed are 
sufficiently indicated to enable the operator to 
fill up the figure by the eye. The laying 
down of the design consists in thus going 
through the whole of the beds, and measuring 
the distance of their projection from the square 
guide lines, and marking it on the ground by 
means of the pegs. The lines must be identi- 
cal in their position, both on the paper and on 
the ground ; this is secured by starting from 
some fixed object which admits of being indi- 
cated with accuracy on the paper, and can be 
measured from in laying down the lines ; thus 
the straight line of a walk or of a building afford 
a good starting point or base line, and this 
being secured, it is only further necessary to 
make all those parallel to it quite true, and to 
take care that the cross lines are placed exactly 
at a right angle with the others. When the 
whole design is accurately indicated in this 
way on the ground, the lines may be removed, 
and the pegs be adjusted by the eye, so as to 
exactly represent the straight or curved lines 
they are intended to indicate, for this is rarely 
done with accuracy in first setting down the 
pegs, some getting put an inch on one side 
the true line, and some an inch on the other ; 
these irregularities are, however, easily recti- 
fied by the eye, but of course not more than 
one or two pegs should be taken up at a time, 
and these should be replaced before others 
are removed. 
Thus far, the proceedings would be the 
same, whether the garden was to be formed 
with gravel pathways, or laid down on grass ; 
but here the operations differ. If the beds 
are to be formed on a lawn already made, the 
next step will be to cut away the turf from 
the part which is to form the bed, not ap- 
proaching at first to within three or four inches 
of the marginal line. If the turf is required 
to be used elsewhere, it should be cut off 
evenly and carefully, in straight pieces of a 
foot wide and two or three feet long ; but if 
it is not required, it may be dug in, and will 
serve to improve the soil. After the digging 
up of the soil, the edges maybe cut accurately 
to the line marked ; but after this is done, great 
care must be taken that the edge is not trod- 
den down. The original surface will now 
form the pathways between the beds. As re- 
gards the soil, if the natural earth is of bad 
quality, it must be taken out and renewed two 
feet deep, with rich, sandy, loamy soil. The 
drainage, as already stated, must be made per- 
fect. If the soil is of good quality, it should 
be trenched two feet deep, and a portion of 
fresh soil added to give the bed a slightly 
rounded surface. If of medium quality, some 
of the worst, which is usually the lower part, 
should be taken out, and fresh soil added, and 
well mixed with what is left of the old soil. 
In either case, if this be done, manure will 
not be required : indeed, manure is danger- 
ous in a flower garden if inconsiderately ap- 
plied ; and therefore it is better to renew the 
soil from time to time as it gets exhausted, 
than to apply a great quantity of manure. 
When the pathways are intended to be of 
grass, and these, as well as the beds, have to 
be formed, the surface should first be made 
even, and the beds marked out as already ex- 
plained. Then the part which is intended to 
form the bed must be dug up, and the soil 
renewed, if necessary, as just explained. The 
