GENERAL REMARKS. 
15 
leaved of garden productions ; they give no tiv uble, and speedily 
form a beautiful screen against any offensive object. No flower 
garden should exist without abundance of monthly roses. 
It has often been a disputed point whether flower gardens 
should be intersected with gravel walks or with grass plots. 
This must be left entirely to the taste and means of the party 
forming a garden. Lawn is as wet and melancholy in the winter 
months, as it is beautiful and desirable in summer; and it requires 
great care and attention in mowing and rolling, and trimming 
round the border. Gravel walks have this advantage : the first 
trouble is the last. ..They will only require an old woman’s or a 
child’s assistance in keeping them free from weeds ; and a lady 
has not the same fears of taking cold, or getting wet in her feet, 
during the rains of autumn and spring. 
Many females are unequal to the fatigue of bending down to 
flowers, and particularly object to the stooping posture. In this 
case, ingenuity alone is required to raise the flowers to a conve¬ 
nient height; and, by so doing, to increase the beauty and pic¬ 
turesque appearance of the garden. Old barrels cut in half, tubs, 
pails, &c., neatly painted outside, or adorned with rural orna¬ 
ments, and raised upon feet neatly carved, or mounds of earth, 
stand in lieu of richer materials, such as vases, parapet walls, and 
other expensive devices, which ornament the gardens of the 
wealthy. I have seen these humble materials shaped into forms 
as pleasing to the eye, and even more consonant to our damp 
climate, than marble vases. They never look green from time, 
and are renewed at a very trifling expense. A few pounds of 
nails, and the unbarked thinnings from fir plantations, are the 
sole requisites towards forming any device which a tasteful fancy 
can dictate ; and a little green paint adds beauty and durability 
when the bark falls from the wood it protects. I have seen fir 
balls nailed on to these fonvs in tasteful patterns; and creeper 
