1. Rustic Box.
Rustic Baskets.—There are perhaps few things over which the alchemy of taste has more power than the apparently worthless materials of which these elegant ornaments are constructed, An old cask, a few pine-cones, and a few pieces of rope, combined by skilful hands, will produce an almost magical effect. The baskets at Dropmore were all constructed in this manner from designs by Lady Grenville. As an example of what may be done with the commonest materials in this way, Fig. 1. is an old Chinese tea-chest, with part of a tree sawn through as a pedestal, and some pieces of rope nailed on as decorations. Fig. 2. is an old basket with all its interstices stuffed with moss. Many other articles might be devised, which any person of taste and invention would find it an agreeable occupation to design, and to superintend the execution of. In addition to these rustic baskets, a few wirework frames might be designed of much more elegant forms than those commonly sold, which an intelligent gardener might be easily instructed to make at his leisure hours; and indeed a lady with two pair of small pincers would find no great difficulty in twisting the wire herself. The great point is to exercise our own skill and ingenuity; for we all feel so much more interested in what we do ourselves than in what is done for us, that no lady is likely to become fond of gardening, who does not do a great deal with her own hands.
2. Moss Basket.
Fountains.—Though fountains are more suitable to a hot country than to a weeping climate like that of England, yet it must be confessed they are generally a great improvement to garden scenery. The first thing to be considered before erecting one, is where to make the reservoir; as on the elevation which that is above the garden, depends the height to which the water of the fountain will ascend. The length of time which the fountain will play depends on the quantity of water contained in the reservoir, but this has nothing to do with the height to which the water will rise. If a cistern be formed on the top of a summer-house, ten feet and a half high, and a pipe from that be carried down a sufficient depth into the ground to secure it from frost, and thence horizontally to the orifice which is to form the fountain, that orifice, if it be only half an inch in diameter, will throw up a jet of water ten feet high, and will continue playing till all the water in the cistern is exhausted. The conducting pipe for such a fountain should be two inches and a quarter in diameter, and it should be furnished with a valve or stop-cock, which may be turned at pleasure, and by which the water may be either suffered to ascend through the orifice, or retained in the conducting pipe. The reservoir cistern must be kept full by a forcing pump, or hydraulic ram; or, in the neighbourhood of London, by high service from the water company which supplies the dwelling. Any cistern, sufficiently high above the garden, will do. Where a cistern in the roof is supplied with a high service pipe, a fountain with a jet thirty or forty feet high, according to the height of the house, might be had in the garden at no other expence than that of fixing descending, and horizontal conducting pipes.
The water in a fountain may be thrown up in various designs, which are formed by little tubes of brass, called adjutages, which are screwed on the orifice of the conducting pipe. Some of these designs imitate a convolvulus, some a wheat-sheaf, some a basket, and some a globe. In short, they are very numerous, and after exhausting the fancy of the English plumbers, a variety of different and very elegant designs may be obtained from Paris.
CHAPTER XI.
WINDOW GARDENING, AND THE MANAGEMENT
OF PLANTS IN POTS IN SMALL GREEN-HOUSES.
The management of plants in rooms is extremely difficult, from the want of proper light and pure air: though this latter want may, in some measure, be obviated, by opening the window in front of which the plants stand, whenever circumstances will permit. It should never be forgotten that fresh air is almost as essential to plants as water; and that they are seriously injured by being forced to inspire air at their breathing pores that is in an unfit state for them. I have often observed the healthy appearance of plants belonging to cottagers; and I believe it arises principally from the habit that most poor people have, of setting their plants out in the rain whenever there is a shower. This not only clears the leaves of dust, and opens the stomata or breathing pores, but gives the plant abundance of fresh air. Without a sufficiency of air and light, plants will soon become weak and sickly, and their leaves will turn yellow; but if a little fresh air be given to them every day when the temperature is not too cold, they will grow quite as well in a room as in a green-house.