This is the proper season to lay down box-edgings. To make them properly, the soil along the line of the edge should be first dug, and then trod very hard and firm, so that it may sink evenly together, or the line will present ugly-looking undulations in time. Rooted plants should be employed; cuttings are sometimes used, but frequently die out in patches; a good edge can rarely be made from them. The plants should be set pretty low down, leaving the plants, when set, one or two inches above the soil, according to their stocki-ness. Sometimes box edgings are laid around beds formed in grass. When so, a few inches of clear ground should be kept clean between the grass and the box, or the weeds will be so intermixed with the box, alter awhile, as to render it a nuisance.

Walks should now have their spring-dressing - the verges cut, and a thin coating of new gravel laid on. Before putting on the new, harrow up the face of the old gravel with a strong iron-toothed rake." Roll well after the new is laid on.

Ornamental hedges judiciously introduced into a small place, add greatly to its interest. No easier method offers whereby to make two acres of garden out of one in the surveyor's draught. The Arbor-vitae (Chinese and American), Hemlock, Holly, Beech, Hornbeam, Pyrus japonica, Privet and Buckthorn may be applied to this pur pose.

Shrubs are not nearly enough employed in planting small places. By a judicious selection a place may be had in a blooming state all the year; and they besides, give it a greater interest by their variety than is obtained by the too frequent error of filling it up with but two or three forest trees of gigantic growth. Plant thickly at first, to give the place a finished appearance, and thin out as they grow older. Masses of shrubs have a fine effect on a small place. The center of such masses should be filled with evergreen shrubs, to prevent a naked appearance in the winter season.

Many things that appear frosted a little at the tops should be severely cut down; it will prevent disappointment in the end. Shoots that are injured in winter - especiallyin the case of the rose - will often have just sufficient vigor left to enable them to put forth leaves, and sometimes even go so far as to attempt to flower, and then die off suddenly under the first hot sun.

Pruning of roses and other flowering shrubs will be the first operation in order. The "summer" roses, or those which bloom only once in the season, the rule is to thin out the weak shoots and leave the stronger ones, merely shortening their tops. If pruned severely in the usual shortening style, they will not bloom freely. The hybrid perpetual roses, if wanted for early flowering, should also be served much in the same way; but as their chief value is as fall flowerers, a severe pruning now produces a vigorous growth, bearing large and luxurious blooms. The Tea, China, Bourbon and Noisette roses which flower best on young wood, should be well cut in.

Paeonias, Dicentras, and other hardy herbaceous plants that have been two years in one situation, should be taken up, divided and reset in new soil, if the finest flowers are desired. There is a growing revival of the taste for beautiful herbaceous plants, which the Frenchy fashion of growing a few kinds in masses for mere gaudy display had well nigh annihilated. Herbaceous plants take a little more tying and fixing through the summer, but make up for it by variety and peculiar interest.

Chrysanthemums are now indispensable for autumn decoration of the flower garden. Now is the time to procure a supply. They do well in any rich garden soil that is not too dry. The Lilliputian, or Pompone class is still popular for conservatory or pot culture, but the large-flowering kinds still remain the gems of the open ground.

Whenever it is prudent to work in the half dried ground, hardy annuals may also be sown; the earlier they can be started, the finer they flower. Sometimes, after sowing, cold wet weather ensues, when the seed, if it is started at all, is liable to rot. It is best to save a few seeds in each packet, and in two or three weeks after sowing, go over and scatter in the places where the other portion was sown. Every place where seed is put in should be marked, and with the kind; when the border plants are then set out the annuals will not be disturbed. A change of soil, as we have often said, is beneficial to the flower border. With some kinds of flowers, the Verbena for instance, a new soil is a great luxury, for which they will be very grateful to you. The first two inches of the surface soil of an old pasture, mixed with about a third of the surface soil of an old wood, makes an excellent medium to grow border plants in. Not the mere rotten leaves from a wood, but the dark, black humus in which the roots of the trees, and other rank vegetable roots have already began to run riot among.