[POINTS]
1. Grow no plant which does not strike you as either beautiful or interesting.
2. Learn the requirements of every plant as far as possible before ordering it, and have everything ready before its arrival.
3. Do not overcrowd, but allow every plant to develop and display its own form of beauty. On the other hand, show as little bare earth as possible at every season of the year.
4. Have few beds and many and wide borders. It will often, however, be found convenient to grow in beds such flowers as Carnations, which require to be frequently replanted, and which will not tolerate the competition of other plants; but even with Carnations may be planted many bulbs, such as Crocuses, Tulips, Spanish Irises and Gladioli. In any case, aim at being a four-season gardener, and make your garden interesting in every part the year through.
5. The borders should generally be wide—where there is ample space not less than nine to twelve feet. They should be backed by a plant-covered trellis or wall, or by flowering and evergreen shrubs.
6. Cultivate the soil to a depth of two or three feet in the manner described in this book, and in dry weather supply abundance of water, and keep the surface mulched either with moss or manure, or with loose soil.
7. In arranging mixed borders, avoid dottiness, preferring rather to plant bold clumps or masses of individual species. Let the surface of the soil be carpeted by low-growing, surface-rooting plants, such as the dwarf Campanulas, Aubrietias, Arenarias, Silene acaulis, S. alpestre, Linaria alpina, Veronica saxatilis and the like. Let the taller growing plants be mostly towards the back of the border, and the smaller plants mostly near the front, but avoid primness by allowing an occasional clump of tall plants (especially those, such as Gladioli and Lilies, which need special care) to break the front margin, and by letting the dwarfer carpeting plants spread towards the back of the border.
8. Keep in a shed or in a corner of the garden a compost heap composed of two parts sand, one part fibrous loam (such as the top spit of meadow land), one part of two-year-old leaf mould, and one part of two-year-old stable manure. Whenever one is transplanting a herbaceous or other plant, it will be found very helpful to cover the roots with a few inches of this soil. Mixed with an equal quantity of sand it will also be useful to place round bulbs when planting them.