Summer flower beds

From Gardening Wiki

The formal summer flower bed, beloved by mid-Victorian grandfathers, is now no longer in favour among the high priests of gardening who seek to set the horticultural fashions of the moment. It is anathema, is despised and re- jected, and in their eyes is altogether abhorrent and antiquated.

William Morris, the Socialist poet, wrote of "that aberration of the human mind, carpet bedding " ? He had before him, doubtless, a mental vision of an elaborately shaped bed of brick-red geraniums, yellow calceolarias, and blue lobelia, and it would go hard indeed with the man who, in these aesthetic days, expressed dissent from this contemptuous outburst.

However there has been a revolt against the formal carpet bedding system which prevailed half a century ago, we still have with us, happily enough, the red geranium, the yellow calceolaria, the blue lobelia, and the white marguerite, and though we do not press them into the service with such monotonous iteration as did our forefathers, they still find an honoured place among the wealth of decorative material which is at our disposal as we plan our summer flower beds and borders. Simultaneously with the revival in popularity of old-fashioned, homely hardy perennials, there has grown up the system which for want of a better term is called " mixed bedding."

This is a comprehensive enough classification which permits of the employment of a large variety of half-hardy or tender plants for filling beds in the flower garden during the summer months. It allows a fair amount of latitude to the gardener hi the direction of satisfying individual taste in harmonious grouping and in the arrangement of colour schemes, and it is an altogether admirable system, since it can be adapted with the most satisfactory results either to the park-like gardens of country mansions or to the modest little plot that adds to the amenities of the suburban villa or the country cottage.

The size of the garden will of course determine the number and the dimensions of the beds which it is intended to devote to summer bedding plants. It will not however necessarily affect their shape.

This will depend largely upon personal idiosyncrasies. But a moment's consideration will demonstrate the utter un-desirability of the adoption of elaborate and fantastic designs. Five-pointed stars, crosses, and crescents, worked out with geometrical precision, are sometimes recommended to the amateur gardener, but if he be wise he will reject them unhesitatingly.

Such elaborately designed beds are not easy to construct, and even after they are made they involve an expenditure of time and labour in preserving their outline, and in keeping the rampant growth of their occupants in check, which might be utilised with far better rewards in other directions. Simple circles, ovals, squares, diamonds, and oblongs are infinitely more serviceable than fantastic designs. Let " Use before ornament " be the guiding principle in the shaping of flower beds.

For the sake of appearances, and also because it has a utility of its own in that it promotes good drainage for the many bedding plants that do not thrive well in over-moist situations, it is a good plan in constructing flower beds to have the soil raised above the level of surrounding paths and stretches of lawn.

If the existing soil is of a heavy, retentive nature it had better be removed to a depth of eighteen inches ; the base of the bed be covered with six inches of pebbles, stones, or brick rubbish for drainage, and the surface soil be composed principally of sound turfy loam. The excessive use of manure should be avoided, since in the case of such plants as zonal pelargoniums its influence would be merely to produce an undue amount of foliage and few flowers.

As in nearly all the rules that are laid down for the guidance of amateur gardeners, there are exceptions which call for the exercise of judgment and discrimination. Plants that are grown chiefly for their fine foliage require rich feeding, and in constructing a bed in which such objects are to secure a home it will be found worth while to incorporate with the soil a generous supply of organic manure and to bury it deeply, so that the roots may be induced to thrust themselves downwards in their search for sustenance and thus help to keep at bay the ravages of drought in hot, dry weather.