Garden bed

“ Now, in another picture the garden holds, things are somewhat altered. Instead of the big Tulip bed on the lawn there are a number of small cut beds with long beds behind them on either side of a new gravel walk. Instead of the older fashioned borders there are startling colour schemes of carpet-bedding in which the flowers are made to look more like coloured earths than anything. In the long beds, instead of the profusion of Hollyhocks, Sunflowers and bushes of Roses, a primness reigns. ”

“ What I should do if a Mutiny occurred I can't think! My bed with its mosquito-curtains stands like a little island in a vast sea of matting, and there are two large wardrobes, what they call almirahs, a dressing-table, and two chairs. It is empty and airy, and that is all that is required of a bedroom.
The four houses, as I told you, stand in a compound. It isn't exactly a garden, for there are lots of things in it that we would consider quite superfluous in a self-respecting garden. ”

“ In starting a wholly new bed, as you are doing, it is best to separate the tangled roots into small bunches, seeing to it that a few buds or "pips" remain with each, and plant in long rows a foot apart, three rows to a four-foot bed. Be sure to bury a well-tarred plank a foot in width edgewise at the outer side of the bed, unless you wish, in a couple of years' time, to have this enterprising flower walk out and about the surrounding garden and take it for its own. Be sure to press the roots in thoroughly and cover with three inches of soil. ”

“ How they will go into borders around the lawn, or else will be put into beds that really cover it and turn it into a little flower garden? A flower bed is truly a part of a garden, never a part of a lawn. If you have no place along which a border may run, therefore, plan a real little garden, and have several beds grouped together as the plan shows, rather than a single round one, or one shaped like a star or a half-moon. ”

“ The possessor of a garden, large or small, should have a seed-bed, where seeds of perennials and some of the annuals can be sown and grown until large enough to be permanently placed. Not only will this bed give great pleasure in enabling one to watch the plants from the time the first tiny leaf appears, but also when laden with blossoms in fullest beauty. The knowledge that you have raised them gives a thrill of pride in the result which no bought plants, however beautiful, can impart. ”

“ As a general thing, for the ordinary home garden a bed three feet by twelve is sufficient, but the added expense of a few additional feet is so slight and the use of a bed so appeals to one once one realizes its convenience, that it is seldom a mistake to make it too large as, aside from the sowing of seed, it may be used for starting roots of bedding plants, cannas, dahlias, begonias, tuberoses, caladiums ”

“ June 21. The rosary has been duly surveyed, staked according to the plan, and the border lines fixed with the garden line dipped in whitewash, so that if we only plant a bed at a time, our ambition will always be before us. But as yet no man cometh to dig. This process is of greater import than it may seem, because with the vigorous three-year-old sod thus obtained do we purpose to turf the edges of the beds for hardy and summer flowers that border the squares of the vegetable garden. ”

“ Even these can be improved by a broad edging of grass to every bed. Herbaceous borders are delightful; we cannot live without them, but we do want beds too, they are so brilliant, so useful, and so well-behaved. “Bedders” are the good children of the garden, herbaceous plants the wayward. To manage them is like playing a game of croquet with Wonderland Alice’s [Pg 79] live flamingoes for hoops and mallets; the plants have the same habit of taking their way, not ours, and this puts us more than ever in conceit with our little plots of green enamel, set with coloured flowers like jewels. ”

“ A bed facing the south is warmer and earlier than any other, hence it is sometimes liable to a set-back—if not actual injury—from a sudden sharp frost after the plants have started in the spring, and the litter should not be wholly removed until it is entirely safe to do so. An ideal bed for early bulbs would be one on the south side of the house, sloping slightly toward the south, with a frame around it somewhat higher at the back, over which a canvas attached to hooks could be drawn on cold nights and days. ”

“ Finish the work by trimming up all small dung on the ground around the bed, to the top; beating the whole on both sides firm and even; so that the bed now finished may assume the shape of the roof of a house, both sides forming steep slopes, in which the spawn is to be planted. ”

“ BED. A term usually applied to pieces of ground laid out in gardens for sowing small seeds, or for the isolation and better protection of small collections of plants in the reserve ground. The oblong is the best shape for this purpose, about 4ft. or 5ft. wide, somewhat raised, and having a narrow path on each side, so that the workman may attend to the plants or seeds without having to tread on the bed. Any one part of a flower-garden design, cut out in grass, or otherwise formed, is also generally termed a Bed. ”

“ But, like the rest of your garden, it will have to be made [251] before you can set to work to grow vegetables. Divide the ground into beds as long as space will allow, and not more than three feet wide, with paths between. Every bed must have a roof or shelter, consisting of matting or palm branches, fastened to uprights four or five feet high, and the earth must be well banked up so as to be quite a foot above the ground level. ”

“ But when the convenience of a hot-bed cannot be obtained, they will succeed very well if planted about the end of this month or first of next in the garden, in a bed of earth prepared for their reception. ”

“ When, however, the bed has totally ceased to produce, it will furnish a supply of spawn for other beds, and the dung will be excellent manure to wheel on the kitchen ground. Be careful in pulling it to pieces, to preserve the fresh good lumps of spawn, and lay them up dry, as formerly directed, till they shall be wanted for new beds. ”

“ The less formal a bed of this kind is the better satisfaction it will give, as a general thing. It is the flower that is in the bed that should be depended on to give pleasure rather than the shape of the bed containing it. ”

“ Let the bed be fully exposed to the open air, day and night, that its heat may come on gradually without burning; if excessive rains should happen, cast some dry litter at top, or spread garden mats, so as to shoot off the wet, lest it should perish the bed, or occasion it to heat violently and burn ”

“ These boards answer several purposes, viz., keep people from walking on beds, elevates beds above paths, holds your mulching of leaves and adds to the appearance of your garden. After beds are made by placing the boards spade the ground about a foot deep all over the bed so as to work it up in good shape. ”

“ The most simple form of Horticultural structures, and one known in almost every garden, is the Hot-bed. To persons of experience in their construction and management, we cannot hope to give any important information, but having seen in many instances the operations of these beds imperfectly performed, we offer a few simple suggestions and directions which will be of advantage to the novice. ”

“ When the bed is made, thrust down some long sharp pointed sticks, two three or more, in each bed according to its length, and by drawing up the sticks two or three times a week, and feeling the lower end, you will be able to judge more readily of the working and state of the beds, for the reception of the spawn. ”

“ Fig. 83. Setting Plants in a Cold-Frame
No garden, even for home use, is complete without some glass sashes, and the garden will be all the more successful if there is a small heated greenhouse for starting plants that are afterwards to be set in the garden.
Hotbeds. If there is no greenhouse, a hotbed is an important help in the garden. The bed is made by digging a pit two feet deep, seven feet wide, and as long as necessary. [Pg 92]
Fig. ”

“ The bed itself should be dug down for several feet, a foundation of earth from six to ten inches should be laid, over which can be thrown a layer six inches thick of either broken limestone or chopped trap rock. ”

“ This opinion, and the cognate one that plants in rooms are always injurious, is prevalent still, and it operates most unfavorably in the case of the bed-ridden, or the invalid, by depriving them of a chamber garden which would otherwise make time put off his leaden wings, and while away, in innocent amusement, many a lagging hour. ”

“ When it happens that a bed disappoints our expectation, if, upon examination, the spawn appears in life and health, and smells well, you are not to disturb it too hastily, for sometimes, after remaining dormant several months, a bed will break forth all at once into considerable crops. To assist such beds we sometimes, in Winter especially, if the heat appears to be greatly declined, apply a quantity of moderately warm stable litter over the whole, having first some dry litter immediately next the bed, then the warm litter a foot thick over that ”

“ GOOD NIGHT
When the bright lamp is carried in,
The sunless hours again begin;
O'er all without, in field and lane,
The haunted night returns again.
Now we behold the embers flee
About the firelit hearth; and see
Our faces painted as we pass,
Like pictures, on the window-glass.
Must we to bed, indeed? Well then,
Let us arise and go like men,
And face with an undaunted tread
The long, black passage up to bed. ”

“ While here at home, in shining day,
We round the sunny garden play,
Each little Indian sleepy-head
Is being kissed and put to bed. ”

“ Did you not put your hand over my mouth when I audibly wished that my mauve thistle spare bedroom had been a more spacious chamber, where you could sit or stand at an angle immune from draughts, or from bumping against some aggressive article of furniture.
I often apologised for the one bathroom, small at that, and for the inadequate supply of hot water. Then you would point to the moss-grown terrace at the back, the cedar tree on the lawn, sloping to the winding river, and the delicate vistas beyond. "Oh yes," I said, "it is the only garden in the world, but the house could be improved on." ”

“ BEDDING PLANTS By bedding plants we mean those plants that are raised in great quantities under glass, and are put out into our gardens in May. To be sure, you hear of ‘spring’ and ‘summer’ bedding, because in the autumn, when you take up your summer plants, you can fill your bed with bulbs and spring flowers, such as Stocks, Wallflowers, Primroses, and Forget-me-nots. The principal of ‘bedding’ is, you see, to plant your piece of ground, so as to have a good display twice a year. Every autumn you throw away your summer plants, and every summer you throw away your spring ones. ”

“ In the centre of the floor-space six little cut logs were fastened down in the form of a hexagon, and the earth scooped from within the hexagon was banked against the logs to form a permanent and limited fireplace. The surrounding floor space was covered with a layer of fir-brush, then a layer of rushes, and finally, where the beds were to be laid, a heavy mattress of balsam twigs laid, shingle-fashion, one upon another, with their stems down. Thus a springy, comfortable bed was formed, and the lodge perfumed with a delightful forest aroma. ”

“ Two rows of the plushy branches overlapping along the middle, and a crescent of smaller plumes mixed with ferns and flowers for a pillow, form the very best bed imaginable. The essences of the pressed leaves seem to fill every pore of one’s body, the sounds of falling water make a soothing hush, while the spaces between the grand spires afford noble openings through which to gaze dreamily into the starry sky. Even in the matter of sensuous ease, any combination of cloth, steel springs, and feathers seems vulgar in comparison. ”

“ The bough-bed, the cook-fire, and the wall-tent.
Bough-Bed
Tips of balsam broken off with your fingers about fourteen inches long make the best of beds, but hemlock, spruce, and other evergreens can be used; if they are not obtainable, the fan-like branches from other trees may take their place. Of these you will need a large quantity, [58] in order to have the bed springy and soft. Always place the outdoor bed with the head well under cover and foot toward the opening of shelter, or if without shelter, toward the fire. ”

“ With some help I have completed the little flower beds, which I intend to be so pretty next spring—they are intermixed with grass-plots, and are made up of good, fresh earth, properly prepared for the plants they are to contain. Mary, who seems to have a great deal of knowledge, has assisted me—for I find that much of the art of gardening consists in suiting the soil to the nature of the plants. In my jonquil bed, she advised me to put abundance of sand, and no manure. ”

“ Beds should be well covered before the sun has left them in the afternoon, and not opened in the morning until the sun is well up. Seeds of vegetables for early planting, and those of annual flowers may be sown, and cuttings of green-house and bedding plants started in pots. Such a bed will also be a favorable place for the propagation of grape eyes, in which an experienced person will often succeed better by this humble means, than with the best designed and most conveniently arranged propagating house. ”