52 
FORMATION AND MANAGEMENT OF FLOWER GAllUENS. 
are planted. When there is not the means of 
absolutely renewing the soil every year, if 
there is a spare corner where the soil can be 
laid, and frequently turned over in summer and 
winter, and enough can be procured to fill the 
beds twice, the same soil, after being so turned 
over, may be used on alternate years, and will 
thus last for several years, being sufficiently 
improved by the exposure to answer nearly 
every purpose which fresh soil would secure ; 
whilst the only expense would be the labour 
attending its being removed and replaced, and 
that involved in turning it at intervals during 
the whole year in which it would be unem- 
ployed. Unless something of this sort can be 
done, full success in the modern system of 
flower- gardening cannot be realized, for no 
application of manure of any kind will com- 
pensate for the freshness and aeration of the 
soil which is thus secured. 
The soil of a flower garden is very easily 
made too rich by the application of manures ; 
and when this is the case the plants grow rank 
and luxuriant, and generally do not bloom 
well. And thus it is that the application of 
manure to the old soil is never productive of 
such satisfactory results as the renewal of the 
soil. In cases where the latter is out of the 
question, it will be necessary to use some 
manure from time to time, perhaps annually. 
None, however, should be employed which is 
not thoroughly decomposed, and no kind is 
preferable to that of cows, or in place of this, 
the decayed manure employed for hot-beds. 
The artificial manures, such as guano, and 
the various saline manures, are too powerful, 
and though they may sometimes be used with 
advantage, yet they are dangerous in the 
hands of the uninitiated. Generally speaking, 
these latter are best applied in the form of 
liquid manure during the growing season. Of 
the decomposed manure, a sufficient dressing 
would be secured by a layer of four or six 
inches thick ; this should be evenly spread 
over the surface, and then the whole 
mass of soil, to the depth of eighteen inches, 
should be turned over, and the manure tho- 
roughly and carefully incorporated therewith. 
If the beds are filled during winter and spring, 
this should be done in the autumn, before the 
spring flowers are planted ; but if the beds 
are allowed to remain empty during the win- 
ter, as they may be in entirely detached gar- 
dens, though it may be done at the same time, 
yet the process will differ, inasmuch as it 
would then be desirable to lay the surface up 
in rough ridges, which would require to be 
forked down level in the spring when the beds 
were planted. 
General Management. — The management 
of a bed or border of miscellaneous plants is 
simple. At the time of planting, the dwarf 
kinds should be kept near the edges, while the 
taller ones are placed behind them, the tallest 
being quite at the back of all the rest. The 
first set of plants, growing six inches high, 
may be six inches from the margin, or one 
foot, if of a spreading or procumbent habit. 
Plants of a foot or so in height may be set a 
foot behind these, and alternating with them. 
Those growing two feet or so, should be 
eighteen inches behind these, and opposite the 
front ones, and so on to the back part of the 
border. The distance between the plants in 
the ranks should be about the same as from 
the other rows of plants, the object being to 
give each plant, according to its size, a fair 
proportion of space. Mixed borders of this 
kind generally get out of regular series in a 
short time ; when additions are made, it often 
happens that they are put in, in the most open 
pai'ts, without much regard to arrangement, 
and so that something like the proper position 
is thus secured to the plant, it is quite as well 
or better than planting them formally. In- 
deed, if any attempt is made to range them in 
the series, which, for the sake of illustration 
has been pointed out, formality must be 
strictly guarded against, the larger and more 
spreading plants being allowed more room 
than close upright compact growers. Such 
gardens as this, are usually furnished with 
a proportion of herbaceous perennials, which 
are, as it were, fixtures ; and the interme- 
diate spaces are filled out by a few bulbs in 
spring, by self sown or autumn sown annuals, 
or by half hardy annuals reared in frames in 
spring, or hardy ones sown at the proper time 
where they are intended to grow, by dahlias 
reared in heat in spring, and by the half- 
hardy greenhouse plants, which are more espe- 
cially brought into requisition by the modern 
grouping system. Besides planting, the at- 
tention required is mere routine ; — the plants 
must be supported as they require it, the de- 
caying flowers, leaves, and stems removed ; 
the annuals entirely cleared away when past 
flowering, and the tender plants taken up in 
autumn and dealt with according to their 
nature, either stored away or thrown away, 
as may be required in each case. Watering 
must be attended to in dry weather. The 
branches or flowers must be thinned if they 
become crowded ; the permanent plants taken 
up and reduced when they get too large ; and 
the vacancies in other cases filled up, as they 
occur, with such plants as may be available. 
The modern style of flower gardening, in 
which plants — usually of a better class — are 
grown in masses of larger or smaller extent, 
differs materially from the foregoing. In 
order to explain its nature, we must suppose 
the annexed diagram to represent a group of 
beds forming a parterre, or flower garden, 
