Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 February 1884 — A Pretty Flower Bed. [ARTICLE]

A Pretty Flower Bed.

Last summer I saw the prettiest flower bed that I ever noticed. It was arranged to show flowers at good advantage, and very easy to keep free from weeds. It was in a lawn, close by a croquet ground. The form was a circle, about four feet across. A row of bricks was laid in a circle, and on the top of these were laid large bits of common quartz, which looked very white and pure along the side of the soft green grass. The inside was filled with rich loam, leaving about ten inches of this for the outside flower bed; another row of the white stones was laid and earth filled in, to raise it some six inches above the outside. In the center of this bed, a row of larger stones was laid compactly, and raised up about eight inches, forming a nice large flower pct. Growing in this was a splendid Happy Thought geranium, loaded with immense clusters of flowers. Sweet mignonette was growing in the crevices of the rocks. The middle bed was filled with China pinks of all varieties, and lovely balsams. The outside bed had roses, nasturtiums, pansies and other bright-hued flowers; and sweet alyssum grew in the crevices of the quartz. It was free from weeds, and the whole had such a lovely appearance that I thought it was a new arrangement, and was quite surprised to learn that it had been made three years, and was much easier to keep in order than it was the first year. In another part of the grounds there was growing a large clump of white petunias, completelycovered with pure, sweet, white blossoms. The secret of their wonderful growth was simply a bottomless earthen pot, sunk into the earth and filled with old chip dirt and stable manure, to within six inches of the top, the rest being filled with the earth taken from the ground where the pot was set. I never 'saw so large a growth of the plant, or such an abundance of bloom, and it kept its beauty till November. There were other equally pretty arrangements in other parts of the grounds.— Floral World.