218 HORTICULTURE [PLAN OP GARDEN. The ground should also be trenched to the depth of 3 feet at least, but the deeper the better, provided the good soil be not buried under a mass of inferior quality. In this opera tion all stones larger than a man s fist must be taken out, and all roots of trees and of perennial weeds carefully cleared away. When the whole ground has been thus treated, a moderate liming will, in general, be useful. After this, supposing the work to have occupied most of the summer, the whole may be laid up in ridges, to expose as great a surface as possible to the action of the winter s frost. Argillaceous or clay soils are those which contain a large per centage (45-50) of clay, and a small percentage (5 or less) of lime. These are unfitted for garden purposes until improved by draining, liming, trenching, and the addition of porous materials, such as ashes, burnt ballast, or sand, but when thoroughly improved they are very fertile and less liable to become exhausted than most other soils. Loamy soils contain a considerable quantity (30-45 per cent.) of clay, and smaller quantities (5 or less) of lime and humus. Such soils properly drained and prepared are very suitable for orchards, and when the proportion of clay is smaller (20-30 per cent.) they form excellent garden soils, in which the better sort of fruit trees luxuriate. Marly soils are those which contain a considerable per centage (10-20) of lime, and are called clay marls, loamy marls, and sandy marls, according as these several ingredients preponderate. The clay marls are, like clay soils, too stiff for garden purposes until ameliorated ; but loamy marls are fertile and well suited to fruit trees, and sandy marls are adapted for producing early crops. Cal careous soils, which may also be heavy, intermediate, or light, are those which contain more than 20 per cent, of lime, their fertility depending on the proportions of clay and sand which enter into their composition ; they are generally cold and wet. Vegetable soils or moulds, or humus soils, contain a considerable -percentage (more than 5) of humus, and embrace both the rich productive garden moulds and those known as peaty soils. Subsoil. The nature of the subsoil is of scarcely less importance than that of the surface soil. If an unsuitable subsoil has to be dealt with, it must be removed or ameliorated. An uneven subsoil, especially if retentive, is most undesirable, as water is apt to collect in the hollows, and thus affect the upper soil. The remedy is to make the plane of its surface agree with that of the ground. When there is a hard pan this should be broken up, and if of bad quality the material should be removed altogether. When there is an injurious preponderance of metallic oxides or other deleterious substances, the roots of trees would be affected by them, and they must therefore be removed. When the subsoil is too compact to be pervious to water, effectual drainage must be resorted to ; when it is very loose, so that it drains away the fertile ingredients of the | soil as well as those which are artificially supplied, the compactness of the stratum must be increased. The best of all subsoils is a dry bed of clay overlying sandstone. Size. 3. Size and Form, The general size of a garden adjoining a mansion is from 4 to 6 acres ; but in many places the extent varies from 12 to 20 or even 30 acres. A garden of 2 to 3 acres, enclosed by walls and surrounded by slips, will, however, suffice for the supply of a moderate establishment. Plan. In laying out the garden, the plan should be prepared j in minute detail before commencing operations. The form of the kitchen and fruit garden should be square or oblong, rather than curvilinear, since the working and cropping of the ground can thus be more easily carried out. The whole should be compactly arranged, so as to facilitate working, and to afford convenient access for the carting of the heavy materials. This access is especially desirable as regards the store-yards and framing ground, where fermenting manures and tree leaves for making up hot beds, coals or wood for fuel, and ingredients for composts, together with flower pots and the many necessaries of garden culture, have to be accommodated. In the case of villas or picturesque residences, gardens of irregular form may be permitted ; when adapted to the conditions of the locality, they associate better with surrounding objects, but in such gardens wall space is usually limited. The distribution of the garden area in walks, borders, and compartments must be partly regulated by the out line of the ground. In general, a gravel walk, 6 or 8 feet broad, is led quite round the garden, both within and with out the walls. A walk of similar dimensions is often con structed in the centre of the garden in the direction of the glazed houses, and this is sometimes crossed by another at right angles, which is far preferable to having the walks led diagonally from the corners, since this throws the enclosed plots out of the square. The space between the wall and the walk that skirts it is called the wall-border, and is commonly from 15 to 20 feet broad. On the interior of the walk there is usually another border 5 or 6 feet broad, which is generally occupied by fruit trees, trained either as espaliers, as dwarfs, or as pyramids. The middle part of the garden is divided into rectangular compartments for raising the various culinary crops. It is advantageous to have several small beds, in which to cultivate the less bulky subjects, such as basil, sage, tarragon, &c., which, in large spaces, are apt to be overlooked or neglected. A considerable portion of the north wall is usually covered in front with the glazed structures called forcing- houses, and to these the houses for ornamental plants are sometimes attached; but a more appropriate site for the latter is the flower garden, when that forms a separate department. It is well, however, that everything connected with the forcing of fruits or flowers should be concentrated in one place. The frame ground, including melon and pine pits, should occupy some well-sheltered spot in the slips, or on one side of the garden, and adjoining to this may be found a suitable site for the compost ground, in which the various kinds of soils are kept in store, and in which also composts may be prepared. As the walls afford valuable space for the growth of the choicer kinds of hardy fruits, the direction in which they are built is of considerable importance. In the warmer parts of the country the wall on the north side of the garden should be so placed as to lace the sun at about an hour before noon, or a little to the east of south ; in less favoured locali ties it should be made to face direct south, and in still more unfavourable districts it should ""^ T ,,%=li f a a face the sun an hour FlG - l -~ Plan of Garden an acre in area. after noon, or a little west of south. The east and west walls should run parallel to each other, and at right angles to that on the north side, in all the most favoured localities ; but in colder or later ones, though parallel, they should be so far removed from a right angle as to get the sun by eleven o clock. On the whole, the form of a parallelogram with its longest sides in the propor tion of about five to three of the shorter, and running east and west, may be considered the best form, since it affords a greater extent of south wall than any other. Mr Thompson, in the Gardener s Assistant, gives a figure which is nearly in this proportion (fig. 1), representing a small garden 272 j feet by 160, and therefore containing exactly an acre. This figure admits of nearly double the number of trees on the south aspect as compared with the east and west ; it allows a greater number of espalier or pyramid trees to face the south ; and it admits of being divided into equal principal compartments, each of which forms nearly a square. The size of course can be increased to any requisite extent. That of the royal gardens at Frogmore,
(South.)
