Thomson Widows and Widowers|volume=III|page=331|passage=I have a great notion that he lived in the Isle of Wight, somewhere near Brading, in a thatched cottage, half-covered with myrtles, and with suchflower-beds in front!
1880, w, Across the Zodiac Chapter , One field was bare, its surface of an ochreish colour deeper than that of clay, broken and smoothed as perfectly as the surface of the most carefully tended flower-bed.
1911, Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes Chapter , He stopped short and looked at the brick wall of the terrace, faced with shallow arches, meagrely clothed by a few unthriving creepers, with an ill-kept narrow flower-bed along its foot.
1952, Norman Lewis, Golden Earth, We stopped for a moment at the golf course to chat with members of the Consular staff, and then drove on to the Consulate, which was set upon an eminence, above evidences of landscape-gardening; a sweep of lawns, with coarse, whitened grass; flower-beds in which larkspur and nasturtiums fought against desperate odds.
