318 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
January 26. 
to make them young enough, and of any shape re¬ 
quired. 
To give another turn to the question for and against 
an old worn-out or chocked-up shrubbery, and suppose 
that any of us, wishing for a fresh start, sent an order 
I t» a first-rate nursery for an assortment of all the new 
,1,,-ubs r . 7 low tree's that have been introduced for so 
many years past with only this one restriction, that 
none of those should be sent us for which more than a 
guinea is charged, but of those under half-a-crown a- 
piece send six of this, ten of that, and fifty of the other, 
and so on. Now, where could all these be better pro¬ 
vided for than in this very old shrubbery, after all the 
old shrubs are rooted out, and leaves and their ashes 
I spread over, the ground, which is then trenched three 
spits deep, taking up six inches of the very bottom to 
! be mixed with the best soil in the trench on the surface; 
, surely the young stock will take to this deep wrought 
i soil at once, and we may plant them now so thick as 
] that in two or three years two-thirds of them may be 
removed to other plaees, which is all quite true; but 
still I hold to my first tune. There are so many irons 
in the fire when one begins a new place, or to improve 
an old one, that some must go to the wall, or come oil' 
second best; and if we made up our minds to do away 
with every plant in the old shrubbery, except some 
very fine specimens, and that the whole ground is to be 
renewed at once by deep trenching, as above, there is a 
cheaper, more safe, and much better way of managing 
the young plants from the nursery thau that of planting 
them at once on the site of the old ones. 
The moment I made up my mind about the number 
of new plants that I could afford to buy and pay for in 
one year, I would order them at once, and I would plant 
them in nursery rows, in a new-trenched piece of ground 
in the old kitchen-garden, where they would be ready 
for my hand at any time when I was ready for them; 
but I would not consider it as just ready for planting 
when the site of the old shrubbery was trenched, because 
such ground is sure to settle down uneven. Root weeds 
arc not all taken out at once, there will be roots, or bits 
of suckers from the old plants, that you cannot get rid 
of till they show where they are by next growing season; 
and besides, the shrubbery ground is yet too much ex¬ 
hausted by the old roots to furnish the necessary supply 
to a fresh crop of similar quality, which is the greatest 
objection of all. These objections could only be got 
over by allowing the newly trenched ground to lie for a 
season under some cleaning crop, that is, a crop which 
would allow of the ground to be worked or stirred 
between the rows or plants; and when this crop was 
removed, tho whole ground would be dug over and 
made even on the surface. All this would mix the fresh 
soil that was brought to the surface at the time of 
trenching with the rest of the surface-soil more properly, 
and then the whole would be in a much better condition, 
in all respects, for planting the young trees; if, in 
addition to this, we could afford to give two or three 
spadefuls of fresh compost from a prepared heap to 
each plant, as the work proceeded, I should say the 
whole put together would be as much as any planter 
could do under the circumstances. 
Again. Suppose we decided on the plan of destroying 
i all but the very best plants in the old shrubbery, and 
finding that the nature of the subsoil did not promise a 
safe addition to that which is worn out already, what is 
to be done? Why, in that case, the best plan would be 
to make single groups of such best plants by leaving a 
! few of the inferior ones round, or near them, for a time, 
then merely level the rest of the shrubbery ground, and 
turf the whole of it up to tho very boughs of such 
groups, or single specimens, and to have no dug ground 
at all on the old site. This last plan would make the 
most telling improvement in the shortest time, for 
shrubbery borders are entirely out of fashion, except in 
limited places near large towns, where one likes to have 
a little of everything. This docs not affect the question 
whether newly planted trees, or shrubs, are better in dug 
beds, in groups, or singly, in open spaces on the grass. 
It is certainly better for old trees or shrubs to be 
planted in beds or spaces that can be stirred over the 
surface for the first fow years. If you only plant a 
common Beech, on a corner of the lawn, or pleasure- 
ground, you expect it to grow faster and to be more 
vigorous than another Beech-tree planted out in the 
park or forest, because it is under the eye of the 
gardener. To meet your wishes, the gardener makes 
a hole four feet in diameter, and as deep as his ground 
will allow of, for the Beech, and be mixes two barrow¬ 
loads of good soil with the best soil from the pit for 
planting the tree in ; be raises the soil in the centre of 
this pit six inches above the grass, and plants your 
Beech, then stakes it, and reduces the size of the pit 
one-half by laying the turf so far rising in a very gentle 
slope; he waters it in the summer, and if you notice 
how fast it grows, he will be sure to water it the more, 
and to give liquid-manure at times; but if you grumble 
at him, and say the Beech will never make a big tree, 
he will take you at your word, and the tree may go to 
Halifax sooner than he should water it again, unless 
you are on the spot; and if you are, forced growth does 
not suit Beech-trees at all. As soon as the roots of this 
Beech get away below the grass, and out of the influence 
of hand-watering, he covers the space over with nice 
turf; and the soil has now settled so much that you can 
perceive but a slight rise from the rest of the lawn. 
What is right for a Beech-tree, in a garden, is right for a 
whole shrubbery. As soon as the plants can take care 
of themselves, the best and cheapest way is to turf up 
to them. 
On the other hand, if you desire to have a group of 
evergreen Oaks here, another of scarlet American Oaks 
yonder, and so on, with groups of one kind or of mixed 
kinds, there is another rule for them;—the gardener 
gets as many long poles, sharp at the bottom, as you 
waut plants in the group ; he whitewashes the poles as 
he would the walls of his cottage, and, may be, be will 
fasten a bunch or branch of the kind of tree to the top 
of each pole, and he sticks them in the ground just 
whore you want the group, and at such distance from 
each other as he thinks necessary for the trees to stand 
apart, and there they will remain for your honour until 
you can judge of them from the drawing-room windows, 
or from the front or back-door, or from a bend in the 
carriage-drive when you return from shooting. When 
you decide on the very places for the trees, or shrubs, 
the rule is to break-up and trench and heavily manure 
the whole space all round and between the white poles; 
the more irregular the outline, the more knowing your 
friends and neighbours will take you and your gar¬ 
dener to be ; for you must always bear in mind that all 
these improvements are carried on by vs and tee —no 
matter which of you is master. The right trees are 
planted, at the right time, where the poles stood, and the 
rest of the dug, or, rather, trenched ground, is planted 
with a mixture of evergreens and flowering shrubs,—■ 
perhaps Hollyhocks, and other tall, shrubby plants; all 
these will pay for trenching and for trees, and nurse 
up the principals to the bargain; but none of them 
are allowed to hurt the principals by roots or branches, 
or by shade; out they go, one after the other, as fast as 
they seem to be in the way of their betters—the prin¬ 
cipals; the turf proceeds from the outside just as rapidly, 
and in the same proportion, till at last there is none 
left to cover, all the temporary plants being removed, 
and no signs of a clump or shrubbery behind, except 
that the grass is more green where the ground was 
loosened; and for that matter, who knows but the very 
