204 
THE GARDE N :\I A G A Z I N E 
.1 A \ r A K V , 19 17 
and I think I could not do better than to quote 
the following enlightening instructions from 
“The Book of Topiary”: “No matter how much 
it is desired to get a hedge quickly grown in a 
certain place, whether for shelter or anything 
else, it is the greatest possible mistake 
to sacrifice strength and substance to a desire 
to promote rapid growth, a result that is cer- 
tain to occur if a hedge is allowed to grow 
eight or ten feet before it is stopped. Nothing 
should be done to a hedge in the way of clip- 
ping the same autumn or winter it is planted, 
and perhaps not even the following autumn, 
but each year afterward it should be stopped, 
and never allowed to make more than a few 
inches of growth each year. By following the 
system of stopping the growth every year, the 
length of time recjuired to grow a hedge eight or 
ten feet in height is greatly extended. But the 
result will amply repay the extra time that has 
been taken to grow it; you will get a hedge full 
of strength and substance, 
and well furnished with 
young growths from top to 
bottom. But if the other 
system is followed of allow- 
ing the hedge to get to its 
full height before any clip- 
ping is done, j'ou will have a 
hedge that is lacking in 
strength and substance, 
easily blown out of shape 
by every wind, and also 
one that is very difficult to 
clip in anything likea proper 
way, on account of its many 
strong branches growing to- 
ward the outside thatshould 
have been removed to make 
room for a thicker growth. 
Each year, when the work of 
clipping is being done, a 
sharp lookout should be 
kept for all small branches 
or shoots that are inclined 
to grow toward the outside 
of the tree or hedge, and 
rhese must be removed 
whenever they are seen, 
shoots in the course of a few years will grow 
into strong branches, and become a regular 
nuisance in the way of keeping them constantly 
tied in.” 
Some people care for free-growing, flowering 
hedges, but I think they are not positive 
enough to serve as a fence, but may be very 
charming following paths or drives or used as a 
screen. 
Having got the garden securely enclosed, we 
dig out the beds and borders to a depth of two 
feet, filling them in again with alternate layers 
of manure and good soil — a heavy layer of 
manure at the bottom — to within five inches of 
the top. This is then well forked together, 
and about nine inches of the best soil procur- 
able filled into the remaining space, raising it a 
few inches above the surrounding ground to 
allow for settling. This top layer may be the 
top spit of the soil already in the garden, if it is 
good enough, or it may be brought, as in our 
case, from some old pasture land or from the 
woods. If the soil used to fill the main body of 
the beds is very heavy, the addition of wood 
ashes and sand will be useful in bringing it to 
the proper state of nice loaminess; and if dry 
and light, the layers of manure may be made a 
little heavier. 
The edging of the beds and borders is rather 
a vexing problem, for upon it depends, a good 
deal, the appearance of the garden. All sorts 
of things have been tried from glass bottles 
and shells to the trim and seemly Box. For 
the garden laying not too great a claim to mag- 
nificence, I think no edging is prettier than 
large irregular stones sunk part way in the 
earth. Over these stones many a charming 
alpine will creep and tumble so grateful for the 
moist, cool root-run between the stones and for 
the warm surface over which they may spread 
themselves to sun and air that they burst forth 
with such a praise of blossoming that one 
thinks anxiously of the endurance Of their 
little material bodies under the strain of so 
lavish a manifestation of the spirit. Arabis, 
Aubretia, .A.lyssum, Arenaria, Saponaria 
ocymoides, Cerastium, Iberis, creeping Veron- 
icas, and Gypsophilas, Pinks in delicious 
variety. Thrift, Stonecrops, Silenes, Cam- 
panulas, alpine Phloxes, and many another 
small and lovely thing will create a jewelled 
setting for the taller plants and may be 
brought, by a little care in their arrangement. 
The first view that greets the visitor has much of the Italian feeling in it. Walls enclose this flower garden 
Those 
into delightful harmony with the rest of the 
border. 
THE SWEET RESERVE OF BOX 
Box edgings are charming and create always 
an atmosphere of sweet and comely reserve, 
while the “far, strict scent,” rising from its 
dark, shining surfaces, carries one dreaming 
into the past. Flowers seem to behave them- 
selves behind Box edgings — they do not get 
out into the path, nor sprawl about, but seem 
somehow imbued with the prim manners of 
Box — but this will be considered romancing, 
and the fact is that Box is frightfully expensive 
and grows very slowly, but if one can afford 
both to pay for it and to wait for it there is 
nothing quite so good to possess. 
Turf edgings are very popular and always 
look well if taken care of, but they must be 
kept absolutely true to line and shorn the 
sleekest, or they will present a ragged and 
slovenly appearance. Edgings of brick set on 
end are sometimes used, but the frost is apt to 
throw them out of place during the winter. 
Concrete edgings are durable and satisfactory, 
and edgings of boards firmly pegged into the 
earth and painted white or green are both 
quaint and useful for unpretentious gardens. 
BEGUILING PROBLEMS OF SELECTION 
The question of what to put in our beds and 
borders, now that we have them enclosed and 
trimly edged, is such a broad and beguiling one 
that it may not he sipieezed into the narrow 
space of a chapter, and besides, each one of us 
must desire and choose his own flowers or he 
loses the very pith of the pleasure. But a few 
generalities are permissible. Gardens of the 
most lasting satisfaction and beauty are those 
in which hardy herbaceous perennials are the 
foundation. By these, I mean those plants 
whose leaves and stems die down in winter but 
whose roots endure; among those we include, 
rightly I think, the hardy spring bulbs and 
Lilies. Shrubs are also permanent residents 
in the garden and play an important part, but 
annuals, tender bedders, and such bulbs and 
roots as Gladioli and Dahlias, are incidental, 
mere decorations, subject to our caprice, while 
the herbaceous folk and shrubs come into the 
garden as long-tenure residents, and upon them 
the stability and strength of the garden de- 
pends. 
I take it that with most of us the goal aimed 
at in our gardening is not 
simply to form a large col- 
lection of plants as speci- 
mens, but to so choose and 
arrange our material as to 
create as fine and full an 
effect as possible over a 
period of five or six months. 
This does not preclude 
thinking of and treating 
our plants as individuals; 
quite the contrary, for to 
meet with any success in 
the management of our 
garden world, we must 
know very well the needs 
and habits and possibilities 
of each of its tenants. In 
pursuance of this end, it is 
wise to carefully consider 
one’s garden conditions in 
relation to the plants it is 
desired to install, and not to 
try to force upon reluctant, 
helpless plants conditions 
which are utterly unsuit- 
able. 
as Foxgloves, Delphiniums, 
If such plants 
Valerian, Canterbury Bells and Oriental Pop- 
pies, that die down or must be cut to the 
ground after flowering, are planted in front of 
some of the long-armed brethren, such as 
Hardy Asters or Gypsophila, the blank left by 
their departure will bloom again, for the long 
branches may be drawn over the vacant spaces. 
Plants with especially fine and lasting foliage 
should be given due prominence. Of these are 
the Flag Irises, Fraxinella, P unkias, Baptisias, 
Achillea filipendulina (A. Eupatorium), 
Phlo.xes, Lemon Lilies, Geums, Paeonies, 
Heleniums, Galega, Heucheras, Lythrum 
Salicaria, Potentillas, Dicentras, Thalictrums, 
Elymus, Santolina, Stachys lanata, Artemisia 
abrotanum. Rue, and Nepeta Mussini. Such 
scantily clothed plants as Lilies, Gladioli, 
Tuberoses, and Asphodels need the foliage of 
other plants to screen their naked stalks, and 
are always weak in effect if planted in large 
groups without this borrowed greenery. 
In small beds and narrow borders, and in- 
deed in any save good-sized gardens, plants of 
great size and pervasive character such as 
Boltonias, many Helianthuses, Polygonums, 
Bocconia, and Golden Glow, are best omitted, 
and choice made among the more conservative 
of which there are a great number. 
PICTURES FOR EACH SEASON 
There has been much written of late as to 
how to keep the entire garden in full bloom 
