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RADCUFFE COLLEGE UBRAK

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i#i- - iJl- ^^^/-^

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THE JLOYOUS ART
OF GARDENING

A BOOK OF FIRST AID TO THE AMATEUR

BY
FRANCES DUNCAN

inmMrBBB of couNcm women's national fabm and oaboen association

AUTHOR OF "mT OABOEN DOCTOB," ETC.

ILLUSTRATED

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
NEW YORK :::::::::::::: MCMXVII

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S3
V8

COPTBIQHT, 1917, BT

CHABLES SCBIBNEB'S SONS

Published April, 1917

\^(r^ V^«A

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TO
JOHN N. GERARD

WOBTHT 8UCC1»aOB AND KAMBiAKS OF JOHN GSRABD

THE 16th CKNTUBT BOTANIST, WHO

VBOH A SMALL GABDSN AND BCAJSTI LKXSUBB HAS TBT WON A WIDB

XXPBBIBNCB AND DEBT KNOWLBDOB OF PLANTS

THIS LITTLE BOOK

IS QBATBVULLT DBDICATBD

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PREFACE

This little book is designed to serve as First Aid to the
beginning gardener. It is arranged to be of use especially to
tbe owner of the small place who plans and makes his own
garden, and whose means and time are not unlimited.

Very likely the expert gardener can find dozens and dozens
of omissions, and will call to mind plant after plant which
might have been included, nay, even of the sort which Ev-
ery Garden Ought to Have. But the expert gardener is asked
to remember, that the book is meant especially for him who
is not yet a gardener, but would like to be — ^for Pilgrim start-
ing for the Delectable Mountains, as it were, rather than for
Pilgrim arrived — ^and that it is with plants as it is with children :
any one desirous of adding these to his establishment is safer
beginning with one or two, and these sturdy ones, than by
adopting a whole asylum of promising orphans.

Therefore, only those plants which are surest to grow are
properly within the compass of this book. Once the garden
is growing and it is easy enough to add the ^^silverbells and
cockle-shells, and all the pretty things in a row" that the
most bewildering seed catalogue may herald.

To the editors of the Century Magazine, the Ladies Home
Journal, Harper^a Bazaar, the Designer, and Country Life in
America, the author is much indebted for the courtesy of allow-
ing the use here of material which has appeared in the pages
of those publications. She wishes, also, to express her appre-

vii

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PREFACE

ciation of the advice and assistance of Miss Rose Standish
Nichols in the lists of perennials, of Mr. Robert Cameron of
the Harvard Botanic Garden, of Professor Sargent and Mr.
Faxon of the Arnold Arboretum, through whose kindness that
excellent institution always extends its facilities with the readi-
est courtesy to any one whose interest in horticulture is at all
real.

If this little book solves the commonest difficulties and
proves of real assistance in the Joyous Adventure of a First
Garden, its object will have been attained.

Frances Duncan.

Nbw Yobb; March* 1917.

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CONTENTS

I. Ix Praise of Gabdenino

n. SUBUBBAN GaBDENING .

m. Fitting the Gabden to the House

IV. The Gabden in Town

V. The Back-Yabd Fence

VI. Gabden-Making ....

Vn. What You can Do with a Lattice

Vm. COMFOBT IN the GaBDEN

IX. The Use and Abuse of the Pebgola

X. Why Gabdens Go Wbong .

XI. Gabden Boundabies .

XII. Planning a Gabden on Pafeb .

Xm. What to Plant ....

XrV. Planning a Sfiong Gabden

XV. The Old-Fashioned Gabden

XVI. How TO Pbune Youb Shbubs

XVn. How TO Set out Shbubs

XVlli. How TO Set out Plants

XIX. Cold-Fbames and How to Make Them

XX. How TO Succeed with Annuals .

PAGB

101

110

113

121

132

138

145

150

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CONTENTS

>Acn

XXI. How TO Have Success with Bobes . . . 159

XXn. How TO Make Sups and Cuttings . . 167

XXni. Gabden DiFncui/riES and How to Meet Them . 174

XXIV. Transplanting in Autumn 182

XXV. Winter Injury and How to Av^oid It . , 186

XXVI. The Well-Tempered Compost-Heap . . . 191

XXVII. Details op Garden Work 195

Charts op Annuals, Perennials, Bulbs, Flower-
ing Trees and Shrubs 203

annuals you can start in frames in march . 204
perennials which will bloom from seed the

FIRST YEAR 205

PERENNIAL PLANTS YOU CAN PLANT OUT EARLY . 206

A PLANTING CHART OP BULBS AND PERENNIALS 208

HERBACEOUS PERENNIALS BLOOMING IN MAY AND

JUNE 210

HERBACEOUS PERENNIALS FOR SUMMER BLOOMING . 213

HERBACEOUS PERENNIAIA WHICH BLOOM IN SEP-
TEMBER AND OCTOBER ..... 216

CHART OF FLOWERING TREES AND SHRUBS . . 217

FLOWERING TREES AND SHRUBS FOR BUMMER EFFECT 221

FLOWERING TREES AND SHRUBS FOR AUTUMN EF-
FECTS 224

FRUITING TREES AND SHRUBS FOR AUTUMN EFFECTS 225

TREES AND SHRUBS OP BRIGHTLY COLORED BARK

FOR WINTER EFFECT ..... 227

TREES AND SHRUBS FOR WINTER FRUITING EFFECTS 228

Gardener's Calendar 229

Index 285

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ILLUSTRATIONS

Old-fashioned treatment of a small suburban garden Froniispieee

PAoa

A lattice to screen the garden and drying-yard from the front
lawn and street Facing page 12

Ineffective and effective ways of securing privacy for a house
slightly above the street level Facing page 16

A shaded walk from the kitchen to the vegetable-garden

Facing page 18

The back-yard fence 45

On the roof of a city house ....... 51

Fruit-garden on a small lot 52

A little yard, 20x30 feet .54

An all-summer flower-garden . 55

"Ladder" trellis .58

Lattice-topped fence 60

Bamboo and string lattice for annual vines .... 61

Rose-trellis to form a screen 62

Breaking the monotony of a blank wall by latticework . . 63

Lattice-arch for a doorway 64

Portable screen of latticework 64

Curved seats under an apple-tree make a simple and charming
centre Facingpage 66

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ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGB

Built-in seat which fits into the bank and landscape Facing page 68

Long, low seat forming one side of pergola affords a delightful

view of garden Facing page 72

Seat shaded by dwarf fruit-trees terminating a garden path

Facing page 82

The dark lines show branches to be retained .... 122

Pruning for Hydrangea Paniculata ..... 124

Lilac in fairly good condition. Cut, leaving dark branches 124

Shrub crowded with ingrowing branches ..... 125

H. P. rose pruned for quality roses (cut out all except dark

branches) 127

Rose-bush pruned for abundant roses .127

Climbing rose. Leave only dark branches .128

Cut back a newly planted rose. The dotted line shows the depth

of planting 128

Approach to old-fashioned house . . . .133

Symmetrical planting ........ 133

Diagram of planting when approach is not balanced 134

Planting beside a kitchen door ...... 134

Planting an empty comer ....... 135

Shrubs at a driveway entrance ...... 135

Shrub screen on narrow space 136

Shrubs at path entrance 136

Planting for a narrow border along the side of a house . . 139

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PAGB

Planting for a hardy border on the sunny side of a back yard 140

A hardy border for the shady side of a back yard . . . 141

Planting along the front of a porch. A hardy border from May

until November ........ 142

Along the north side of the house, to bloom from May to

November ......... 143

How to work in perennials among shrubbery .... 144

When the wood is ripe — ^too soft for cutting .... 168

Water, sand, drainage 169

Abutilon and cuttings from it 170

Typical cuttings 171

Potting rooted cuttings ........ 172

Right depth in sand 172

Lifting rooted cuttings 173

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IN PRAISE OF GARDENING

"There be delights," says an ancient writer, "that will
fetch the day about from sun to sun and rock the tedious year
as in a dehghtful dream." Thus, and very much after this
manner, the charming old prose-poet, amiably garden-mad,
continues, page after page, to describe the "1,000 dehghts"
to be found in the "flowery orchard" of his century — describes
them with an abandon of happiness that suggests the rapture
of St. Bernard when hymning the New Jerusalem !

In fact, barring the equally ancient and alluring pastime
of going a-fishing, no hobby has a stronger grip on its devotees
than gardening. At four o'clock of a summer morning CeUa
Thaxter could be found at work in her radiant Uttle island
plot, a sister in spirit to old Chaucer when on his knees in the
grass at dawn to watch a daisy open. And these were not
exceptional, not extraordinary cases of devotion; they were
merely typical exponents of the true gardener's passion.

Nor is this tense enthusiasm fleeting. Not in the least!
It is no more transient than the bibhomaniac's passion, no
more evanescent than the collector's zeal, which only death
can quench. It is no sudden, youthful fervor; indeed, it is
rarely found in youth at the storm-and-stress period, while it
may be observed to be strongest in those for whom the days
of wild enthusiasm are over. The bachelor clergyman or the
quietest of spinsters, for whom other passion is non-existent,
will yet lavish on their gardens enough devotion to have won

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the heart of the most obdurate of persons, enough tenderness
to have sufficed for the mothering of a dozen Uttle ones. A
garden is the world of the recluse, the passion of the lone man
or woman, the diversion of statesmen, the recreation of poets
and artists of all ages — except, perhaps, musicians, who may
be overcareful of their hands. It is the plaything of mon-
archs, the solace of the prisoner; it is also the delight, of little
children.

No passion is more democratic than that of love for a
garden. The love of literature, of art, or of music can, it is
true, occupy mind and heart with equal completeness, but in
all of these the joy of creation is limited inevitably to the
gifted few. The passion for a garden, however, and the joy
of making one may exist alike in millionaire and washer-
woman; the day-laborer, returning from his work, betakes him-
self to tending his rose-bush, and so, perhaps, does the banker;
learned and illiterate may be alike in their devotion to their
gardens; to saint and sinner, otherwhere poles apart, it is com-
mon ground; ill-tempered and serene are one in their tender-
ness for their plants. "Oh, I forgot the violets!" exclaimed
Landor in a shocked tone after (according to tradition) hurling
his man servant through the window to the violet-bed below.

Since so much enjoyment is to be had in the cultivation
of a bit of ground, it is a pity that it is ever missed and that
the care of garden and grounds should become for any one a
perfunctory thing. Yet in suburb after suburb one sees lawn
after lawn whose treatment is wholly perfunctory; they are as
ready-made and imiform as the contractor's houses, made by
the dozen, that they garnish. These little yards reflect no
more the thought and personality of the owner than a sample
drawing-room or dining-room or bedroom fitted up in a depart-
ment store radiates charm and personality. Evidently the

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same nurseryman's agent has been about and sold to each
owner the same small evergreens.

Very noteworthy it is, that those to whom the garden is a
source of vivid pleasure do a part or most of the work of it
themselves. This practice seems to be a necessary precursor
to the happiness. A garden may make incessant demands on
the time and energy and patience of its author — demands as
exacting and continuous as those of a child on its nurse or
mother, and yet, like the child, its very dependence makes it
the more beloved.

For real enjoyment the garden must be considered as a
work of art, not as a ''chore," and one's plants as friends and
intimates, not employees. A garden on a business basis is
another matter. It may yield a certain amount of pleasure
and satisfaction, but never the joy of a garden grown just for
itself. The plants must conform to certain standards; defi-
nite results are expected, and failure to attain these means
disappointment and loss.

One may smile at a gypsy kettle filled with coleus, at a
boat marooned with its cargo of flowering plants in the midst
of a sun-scorched lawn, but none the less these express a defi-
nite, creative effort on the part of the author and are probably
the source of keen pride and enjoyment. The impulse is the
same as when the millionaire drags marble exedrse to an Adi-
rondack lodge and worries a rustic bungalow with a Florentine
well-head — and no more discreditable.

One of the sweetest characteristics of a garden — chiefest,
I think, of its "1,000 delights" — ^is that its charm is wholly
unrelated to the amount of money spent upon it. The sim-
plest of little gardens may have more of this lovely and en-
dearing quality of charm than the most pretentious of estates.
For garden art for the sake of aggrandizement always misses

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charm. The display may have cost thousands, but if the pur-
pose is to make as startling an effect as possible for the astound-
ing of the visitor or passer-by, rather than the pleasure and
happiness of the owner, such gardening must always miss
charm. Like the prayer of the Pharisee, it "has its reward"
and is seen of men. The kingdom of art, no more than the
kingdom of heaven, is entered into that way.

The garden art for which I hold a brief is within the reach
of every one who loves the plants enough to place them where
they can grow happily and be in harmony with the house, the
situation, and each other.

Much has been written about the beauty of wide stretches of
turf, about the wisdom of massing the shrubbery and "creat-
ing a park-like eflFect," which is an excellent thing when the
grounds are spacious enough to admit of such' treatment.
The wide greemsward framed in flowering shrubs and trees is
restful, indeed, to look upon and should be a part of every
place blessed with sufficient ground. But the garden which is
loved and labored in and enjoyed to the utmost is the flower-
garden — ^a flower-garden close enough to a man's house to be
lived in, not one which has for its purpose the making of an
effect from a distance. A rose is the same whether grown in a
nursery row or trained on a trellis around one's window, but
the latter becomes a friend and intimate and is beloved accord-
ingly, increasingly as the years go by. It is for this reason
that they never become really "at home," that the so-called
"bedding plants" are few in the gardens of real flower-lovers.
They are transients — outside talent brought in temporarily for
display — ^and so are not comparable in interest with the little
crocus that comes up every year in the grass and may be
loved and looked for.

To most amateurs the real fun of gardening is in the flower-

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garden, with its incessant claim on one for attention — ^inces-
sant, as I have said before, as that of a baby on its nurse or
its mother. And (like the infant) it yields to its admiring
parent "1,000 delights," although less-prejudiced observers
may fail to locate these. The tiniest garden has room for
infinite possibilities and gives room for endless experimenting —
now in the naturalizing of some wild flower, now in the cultiva-
tion of some garden sport. The sight in a pasture of a squat
little apple-tree, cropped year after year by cows until it is as
much of a shrub and more than a Japanese quince, suggests
that one might make a hedge of apple-trees. And how inter-
esting to try ! In his New Hampshire garden, an artist, Mr.
Stephen Parrish, clips his Sjnrcsa van HouUeiy after it has fin-
ished blooming, into as stiff a hedge as English holly, and it
finishes the summer as a formal background for gorgeously col-
ored phlox. Another artist-gardener has made house plants
of tiny hemlock-trees and used the common pine for topiary
work.

No less a gardener than Robert Cameron, of the Harvard
Botanic Garden, holds the theory — ^like that which some of our
most advanced psychologists hold in respect to human plants
— ^that it is among the "discards," those rated as probably
defective, and, in the garden, those weaker plants that are
pulled out when thinning is done to give room to their lustier
brothers — that it is among these that the genius, the new and
rare sort, will be found, and that for the plants as well as for
the human youngsters these are always worth tending in a
secluded garden comer, to see what they will come to.

Another of the delights of a garden is that it is as change-
ful as life, itself and as capable of experiment. In other arts
or crafts what's done is done. One may do better in the
future, but for the present work — there it is, and so it must

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stand. On the other hand, the peculiar charm of the garden
is that always one may change it, better it, shift this plant
where it will be happier, separate two whose colors quarrel,
plan some new effect here or there. To many a gardener there
is nothing more exhilarating than making changes, planning a
new pool, a new trellis, or steps; there is pure joy in thinking
what one will do next year. Always there is the "next year."
In this Ues the garden's long fascination.

In this America of ours we have large estates a-plenty and
some elaborate gardens, but of lovely little gardens we have
sore need. And sore need we have also for keeping what
loveliness we have inviolate. In every suburb the contractor
is busy wiping out the wild beauty with a baleful industry and
thoroughness which makes his progress like that of the army-
worm or the seventeen-year locust; not a tree or a bush is left
in his path which might hearten the gardening of some new-
comer; burdock and five-hundred-year oak-tree fare alike,
and instead springs up his ideal — the checker-board of treeless
streets lined with close-set houses, their outward form as
exactly alike as the clothes of asyliun orphans. It may be
progress, it may be improvement, and yet improvement, as St.
Paul says of science, is often "falsely so called." In a com-
munity where charming little gardens were the rule, such
activity would at least be modified in the interest of beauty.

Whoever is keenly interested in civic or social betterment
can begin in no better way than in making his own garden
lovely, for never did any one make a garden without being the
better and happier for it; and one of the sweetest effects of
gardening is that the art is both contagious and infectious.
I doubt if ever any one made a garden without some other
being minded to go and do Ukewise. Long before the roses
have covered his bare fence or even his bulbs begun to poke

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their noses above the chilly earth, some neighbor, who has
been watching, is sure to go a-gardening also.

"I go a-fishing," said St. Peter, and the inevitable response
is that of Thomas and Nathaniel: '^ We also go with thee !"

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Gardening in the suburbs is by no means as easy as it
seems. It ranks with "How to dress well upon a slender
purse," "How to entertain charmingly on a limited income,"
and other modem questions, which, when ingeniously solved
by folk of peculiar gifts, seem to the onlooker to present no
problem at all.

The owner of a large estate, or of a small place, if blessed
with an abimdant bank-account, may seek out a landscape-
gardener of approved worth and on broad and accustomed
shoulders lay all his responsibilities, while for himself there re-
mains only the pleasing and comfortable task of criticising.
But for the average owner of the suburban place there is no
such convenient refuge; either he must work out his own sal-
vation or let his place go gardenless.

The suburbanite is not left unaided or imencouraged in his
necessity; he is the recipient of much advice. It is he who is
constantly urged in large and easy phrase to "beautify his
grounds"; for him in horticultural papers appear plan after
plan wherein numbered circles stand for shrubs, and scallops,
like the marks of surf on the sand, for herbaceous "borders."
It all seems simple until he tries to apply the plan to his own
place, only to find, after repeated eflForts, that his mind begins
to wander under the strain, like a lost plainsman's after days
of thirst; for much lies between plan and performance.

When the suburbanite goes a-gardening he may have in

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liis mind a charming picture of what his place is to be — ^a veri-
table little Eden, rare and secluded, "all grace summed up
and closed in little." But how is he to accomplish this? His
may be a suburb where the street presents a pleasing and
uniformly "parked" appearance. Village improvement socie-
ties have bereft him of his fences, and dogs may work havoc at
will among the flowers. Then, too, when the street is " parked "
and the planting is much alike, there is very little seclusion,
and a suburbanite who, if he lived in the country, might
boldly experiment and perhaps achieve something wholly
charming feels a bit shamefaced about following his heart's
desire under his neighbor's scrutiny; for gardens, like children,
go through an "awkward age," when only the parent's eyes
can discern the coming beauty. So the dreamer sighs in-
wardly for his rose-arbor, and, hke his neighbor, plants Hydran-
gea panicvlaia grandijlora.

Besides the general aspect of the street, there is the neigh-
bor to consider; for how can a peacefully inclined suburbanite
plant crimson rambler roses on a trellis while within three feet
are grandiflorum rhododendrons, the magenta blossoms of
which will fight the roses as long as a petal stays on the bush ?
And if he plants to harmonize with his neighbor and the street,
where is the fun of gardening ?

The simplest way of meeting most of the diflSculty of the
street and the neighbor is to compromise — to divide the grounds
into the "street side" and the "garden side"; to "render
unto Cflesar the things that are Csesar's," and on the street
side plant to promote the general welfare, so that the house
may with some degree of grace take its place among its fel-
lows, while at the back of the house one may cheerfully en-
gage in the pursuit of individual happiness and, planting after
the imaginations of his heart, make his garden to suit himself.

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As for the practical ways of arranging this division, they
are various. When the space is small, a lattice or an arbor
with screening vines will serve; when the planting in front is
irregular, an irregular group of shrubs will make a barrier in
fact, while in appearance there is none. If the front space is
shallow, an opening in the barrier which gives a glimpse into
a garden beyond will make the street side seem more spacious
without diminishing the privacy of the garden side.

This separating of the front from the rear of the grounds
is a thing often done in older gardens not only in the South,
but about Salem, Newburyport, and near Philadelphia; for in
the older gardening the provision for privacy, the making of
the garden a place of quiet and retired enjoyment, was con-
sidered of greater moment than that the passer-by should be
impressed by the size and handsomeness of the estate.

The first task to which the suburbanite addresses himself
is the matter of making his house at home in its environment,
of "tying it to the site," as gardeners say, so that it shall seem
securely anchored and not likely to slip its moorings. When
he begins literally "from the ground up," then he seeks out a
landscape-gardener or an architect of gardening proclivities
and lays out the entire space — ^plans not only the house, but
garden, garage, or stable, so that all may fit together and
make a consistent and harmonious whole. This is compara-
tively easy.

But if, instead of building, he rents or buys or inherits his
house, he must make the environment fit the house, in the
achievement of which there are several uncharted rocks ahead
that may wreck his garden enterprise. Houses differ. One
can no more prescribe a treatment applicable to all expressions
of the builder's art than one can prepare a medicine which
will cure every human ill; although at the same time there

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SUBURBAN GARDENING

may be principles capable of wide application and decalogues
of gardening sins to avoid, just as there are simple and whole-
some rules which suffice to keep a person in ordinary health.

Roughly speaking, architecture in the suburbs shows two
widely differing types. There is the stately and imposing
"Colonial" house, by which designation nowadays is meant
a house of good proportions, balanced, of the square and
substantial type which held sway until about 1830. At the
other end of the architectural programme is the modern cot-
tage, picturesque and piquant, which, when seen at its best,
is a btdlding full of individuality and charm. These are the
two extremes, while between them are innumerable houses
partaking slightly of the nature of both, and leaning with more
or less definiteness to one type or the other.

Take first the difficulties which beset the Colonial house
in the suburbs, largest of which perhaps looms the problem
of a house on a lot too small for it. If newly built, its author
may have desired simply to put up as large a house as he
might on the ground at his disposal, building with a cheerful
indifference to the surroimdings. If an old house, probably
it once had its setting of stately trees and a fine old garden;
but other houses have encroached on its garden space, new
streets have been cut through, until its draperies and garden
accessories have been shorn like the clothes of the old woman
who fell asleep on the king's highway. Near Boston there are
many houses so afflicted. A low stone wall separates the
place from the sidewalk, and usually a curving path leads
across the tiny lawn to the doorway, or a semicircular drive
makes the approach and there is no walk at all. On each side
of the path or beside the door and against the house are groups
of shrubs and small evergreens, but the shrubs look futile and
inadequate in comparison with the house, and the grassed

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space is uncomfortably small. The reason for its discomfort
is not far to seek, for the chief beauty of a lawn, aside from
mere texture, lies in the contour of the land, the gracious curve
and sweep of the surface, the play of shadows which great trees
throw on the grass at their feet, excellences for which a lawn
twenty by fifty feet gives little room.

Now, a square and substantial Colonial house, if it be well
built and of good architecture, is not a cottage to "nestle," or
a Uttle bungalow to play at hide-and-seek among concealing
shrubberies; for it is too large to nestle becomingly, and co-
quetry is not its line. There is no reason why such a hous^3
should not face the world boldly and unashamed, and in the
period to which the best of Colonial architecture belongs — ^the
Georgian — ^that is precisely what it did. On country estates
the approach was a stately avenue of great trees; in the city
or town houses, a fence, the design of which was in keeping
with the house, formed the boundaries, and the whole space
inclosed was subordinated to the house.

If, therefore, the suburbanite indulges in a house of 1750,
he had better accompany it with a garden of the same period.
It is not necessary to search from Dan to Beersheba in nursery
catalogues to find the precise flowers that great-grandmother
used to plant, but the planting can be done on these old lines,
and house and grounds considered as a whole. If the house
fronts the street squarely, as it probably does, and is blessed
with a beautiful doorway, then have a broad, straight path
from that to the gate, as wide as is becoming to the door and
porch. This path may have a low edging of box or be bor-
dered by privet or lilac-bushes, anything one likes: the impor-
tant thing is the straight approach. On each side of the path
lies a little garden, so devised that it fits exactly into the space.
Its paths may be grass or gravel, the geometrical beds may

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be outlined in box or anything else one chooses; but the design
should be symmetrical. Here the formaUty stops, and within
the beds the planting may be what one pleases — ^taJl hollyhocks
and larkspurs, if the suburbanite stays in his house all sum-
mer; but if it is used in winter, then the beds are best out-
lined in box, with tree-box or slender, pyramidal evergreens
to accent important points in the little garden. They will
not interfere with the summer display, and will give an air
of comfort and well-being in winter. If the owner has suffi-
cient moral courage, he will put up one of the beautiful old
fences that are in keeping with his house.

Sometimes it happens that the house stands above the
street-level. Now, a house of a staid and dignified type does
not care to perch, as a bungalow might; it should have a broad
and ample site whereon it may sit comfortably. Therefore,
instead of having a gradual slope, it is better to make a ter-
race of sufficient depth to be becoming to the house, guarded
by a balustrade which, like the fence, will be in keeping with
the architecture of the house. Such a terrace lends itself very
readily to decorative gardening, and clipped evergreens or
pots of bay-trees on each side of the short flight of steps will
give the house a finished appearance.

At the opposite end of the architectural scale is the cot-
tage, which, in an ill-fitting environment, is capable of quite
as much suflFering as a Colonial house, although the cause of
its misery is difiFerent. Now, a cottage is by nature of a fem-
inine disposition: it craves accessories; it should be vine-
embowered and rose-wreathed; in verse it nestles rather shyly
amid its garlanding greenery. When an architect designs one,
he fondly depicts it framed by tall and protecting trees, its
porches and porticos embraced by abundant vines, and shrubs
nestling at its feet: all of which are to the cottage as appro-
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priate millinery is to a woman's face. Yet when his vision
materializes, there stands the cottage planted on a bare site,
quite bereft of alleviating shrubbery; its path may curve with
a futile coquetry, but it has not even a shrub to crook its
elbow about. Sometimes an even worse unkindness befalls,
and we see it placed on an unreheved elevation, where only
a building like the AcropoKs of Athens could stand the archi-
tectural strain of the position.

Such a house, to feel at all comfortable, ought to be fairly
embedded in green. The porches should have vines, the foun-
dations should be masked by shrubs, and there should be
shrubs or low-growing trees for the paths to curve about. If
the arrangement of the street permits, a hedge and a little
gate will be the gardener's first move, with a few tall shrubs
or low-growing, flowering trees behind it. A very little plant-
ing near the street will afford complete seclusion, for a com-
paratively low obstacle near the sidewalk is a better defense
from the eyes of the passer-by than a much taller one planted
near the house. The latter only obstructs the occupant's
vision. If the suburbanite may not plant a hedge, then a
grouping of shrubs will answer his purpose.

The chief charm of a cottage, it should be remembered, is
its individuaUty, and if, instead of being properly framed, it
stands between cottages of a totally dissimilar iypey this is
difficult to preserve. Therefore it is well to cut off also the
neighbors. I remember a little house on Long Island which
was charmingly managed in this respect. It stood on a long,
narrow lot far back from the street, with a neighbor on each
side not more than fifty yards away, and yet the little place
was absolutely apart and a thing by itself. The houses on
each side were of different types, but only their roofs were
visible. From the house one could not see the street, the

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SUBURBAN GARDENING

path to the gate losing itself in flowering dogwood and vibur-
nums. There was a stretch of lawn framed in blossoming
trees, but the boundaries were not "planted out" or otherwise
defined; instead, the flowering shrubs and low-growing trees
parted, giving gUmpses across the neighbors' lawns and the
eflFect of much more ample grounds than really existed.

It requires no small amount of skill to make an irregular
plantation look as if it had "just growed." Imitating nature
is another of the things one is advised to do, but this is not so
easy as it looks. Amateiu* gardeners have to remember chiefly
that in grouping shrubs one puts the taller-growing ones at
the back, and if any seem particularly uncomfortable, to dig
them up in the spring and plant them where they will be a
better fit.

Between the Colonial house and the cottage are, as I have
said, many kinds of houses, and the moral of all this is that, if
the house is dignified and symmetrical, it needs a dignified
and balanced approach; if irregular and inclined to be piquant,
then the planting should match it, fitting the house as the
punishment fits the crime.

Next comes the treatment of the outbuildings. Northern-
ers seem to feel the moral necessity of turning all the ground
about their houses into what gardeners call "dressed ground,'*
not permitting an incli of it to be in anything but "calling
costume." Though there would be as much reason for throw-
ing the house into one room and having the kitchen and laun-
dry tactfully concealed from the drawing-room by screens
and potted plants as for treating the various oflSces of the
home as if they did not exist and shutting the eyes firmly to
the fact that clothes should be dried in the air and sun. There
is no reason in the world why a well-enclosed drying-yard may
not be provided and ample space for linen to bleach on the

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THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

grass in the good old fashion, and no reason why washing itself
may not be done in a vine-covered arbor instead of a hot
kitchen. All of which would make much for the comfort of
life in the suburbs and the successful liming of that domestic
bird of passage, the servant.

A drying-yard, moreover, is not difficult to arrange. The
essentials are that it should be convenient to the laundry and
placed where it will not obtrude itself on the garden or lawn.
There are a score of ways of screening it — a lattice, a grape-
trellis, tall-growing shrubs, such as lilacs, vibumimis, or rose
of Sharon. A hedge of hemlock will give welcome protection
in the winter, but since this is comparatively slow-growing, a
trellis and vines would need to be employed as an understudy
until the hemlocks were ready to act their part. The lattice
is the simplest and most expeditious; on it may be trained
vines or climbing shrubs, and, so dealt with, it makes a de-
Ughtful background for the flowers of the garden. It may
even open into the garden through a fetching httle gateway
and the laundress, when hanging out clothes, may look down
a garden path and be blessed with the survey of a pleasing vista.

As for the outbuildings, while they should not occupy the
centre of the stage and the calcium light, they may certainly
be becomingly disposed in the background. On a lovely little
half-acre place in Charleston there are stable and servants'
quarters, chicken-runs and turkeys, all comfortably provided
for, with ample room besides for the most charming flower-
garden in Charleston. But the arrangement is very simple.
The house stands about thirty feet from the street and faces
east; on the south side are the piazzas, overlooking the lawn,
which runs between a vine-covered wall and the house straight
back from the street to the flower-garden. On the north, be-
tween the house and the boundary wall, are the entrance-

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gates, and the driveway leads direct to the stable, it being
assumed that visitors are able to walk the twenty or thirty
steps from the street to the house. Along this boundary
wall are the servants' quarters, a low brick btulding, then car-
riage-house and stable, then the chicken-run, which is narrower
and extends to the end of the lot. Between chicken-run and
garden is a woven-wire fence; in front of this there is a rose-
trellis. A Uttle arched gate at the end of one at the paths
across the garden admits to the chicken-yard, through which
the hens may look, as Moses into Canaan, but not enter.
Before the stable and behind the house is the service yard,
enclosed by a fence. Here there is a huge hackberry-tree,
and from this yard also a Uttle arched gate leads in line with
the rear door of the house and opens into the garden.

This is merely one way; there are many others. There is
no reason why a suburban place should not be adapted to the
convenience of its owner, why it should not have a tool-house,
a cold-frame, a little workshop; why the stable or garage
should not be conveniently placed. They need not be obtru-
sive, but they also need not skulk. In short, one should re-
member his Longfellow and his childhood:

" Nothing useless is or low;
Each thing in its place is best."

The crux of the matter is to get the thing into its right place,
which is what Mr. Longfellow did not tell us.

After the house is peacefully at anchor in its environment,
on friendly terms with its neighbors, and the outbuildings are
properly and comfortably disposed, the suburbanite, with a
sigh of relief, turns to his own preferred gardening. One may
have no end of amusement in a suburban garden. If horticul-
turally inclined, one will have his tiny greenhouse and cold-

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frames or a little experiment plot, try espalier fruit on his
walls, or specialize in some one thing and be happy. The
bird-lover has only to plant white mulberry and the white-
fruiting dogwood, and straightway the birds for miles around
will make his place their preferred hostelry. For what to
plant is like Dr. Johnson's advice on what to read — ^precisely
what one pleases.

Naturally, however, one chooses plants that will do their
prettiest when the owner is at home, and not be so impolite
as to bloom in his absence.

If the suburbanite is away all summer, if he has but little
time or small inclination to bestow what time he has on his
garden, it is wiser to eschew a flower-garden and turn the gar-
den space into greensward framed by flowering shrubs and
blossoming trees, with early-flowering bulbs in front of these,
and tucked away in comers, wherever there is room. In front,
if the place is open to the street, may be Rugosa roses, bar-
berry-bushes, and perhaps hawthorns, stoutly enough armored
to take care of themselves against stray dogs and children.

There are a host of exquisite early-flowering things which
are rarely planted, but which would suffice to keep a garden
as far north as New York abloom from February on until late
November, and then stout evergreens and scarlet-berried
plants to give cheer until the first touch of spring comes again
with the snowdrop and the darling blue of the Kttle Scilla, as
exquisite in color as October gentians.

So planted in shrubs and trees and flowering bulbs, the
garden will go on with as Kttle trouble to its owner as Tenny-
son's brook, though it is not so much fun as a flower-garden.

One of the advantages that a flower-garden has over the
mere skilful grouping of shrubs and trees is that while the
latter planting ** stays put,'* the flower-garden may be varied

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indefinitely. In fact, one of the most diverting things a gar-
dener can do is to move plants about in his garden and
change its scheme; as a remedy for the "blues" it is equal to
Mrs. Kemble's prescription of rearranging the furniture. For
gardens change; they alter, as children do. Larkspur and
phloxes must be dug up and separated; every three or four
years roses should be taken up and their beds made anew
for them, which ever tempts the gardener to making a difiFer-
ent arrangement. For unless the gardener interferes and sep-
arates his flowers, lovely and peaceable as they seem, they
engage in as bitter warfare as ever did rival powers for the pos-
session of disputed territory. If near the house, a small for-
mal garden ought to be on an axis with the house; when one
steps down from a porch, the garden, if just below it, ought
not to seem below. For the laying out of paths and beds
Saint-Gaudens had a beautifully simple method. He "tried
on" the garden dress; laid down laths to indicate where the
paths should be, moved them nearer together or farther apart,
to widen or narrow the paths, until they and the beds "looked
right." Carrying this neat and practical method a bit fur-
ther, one would stick up a bit of brush where a shrub is to
be. This trying on of the garden's dress may interest and
amuse one's neighbors, but it will save the amateur the mak-
ing of many mistakes.

As to what to plant, that depends upon climate and soil
and whether the garden is for all the year round or merely
for summer and autumn. If the place be Uved in during the
winter, then a hedge-Uke thorn, with its gay scarlet berries,
a few evergreens marking important points, and edgings of
dwarf evergreens or box will give no small amount of cheer
and emphasize the fact that the garden is not dead, but sleep-
ing.

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If you make a rose-garden, it is far more efiFective when the
roses have a setting of green. The thorn hedge I have just
mentioned would be excellent for this. It takes little from
the soil, would be dazzlingly white with blossoms in early May,
which would fall just in time that its leaves might make a
backgroimd of sober green for the roses; and in autumn again
would be brilliant, holding its berries well into the winter.
This would keep a rose-garden from looking bare and uninter-
esting during the "ofif season." In the Charleston garden
above mentioned, which is essentially a rose-garden, the owner
has a beautifully simple method of caring for his garden-beds.
There are rose-arbors, rose-trellises beside the paths, roses on
the garden walls. The garden-beds are as large as may be
conveniently reached, the cages are of wood, and when the
roses are past there are marvellous poppies and larkspur of
exquisite hue. When the time comes for remaking and enrich-
ing the garden-beds, the chicken-yard soil to the depth of six
inches is put on top of the beds. This is not only rich, but
full of seeds. The flowers spring up apace, the gardener pulls
up those that he does not want, and throws the stalks to the
ever-useful chickens. As Maeterlinck says of another device,
"It's curious, it's practical, and quite noiseless."

Another blessedness in a garden which suburban folk miss
more often than flowers is comfort, and rarely is there any
provision for this. Why should we not plant so that we have
shade in the summer when we want it, or give a path shelter
from a northeast wind if it is accustomed to freeze our mar-
row? Why should we strive frantically to make plants grow
imder a wide-spreading tree, when we might plant a comfort-
able garden-seat, and add to that a table where one might be
blessed with tea as often as a heroine of Mrs. Humphry Ward's ?
I remember a wide, low arbor at the rear of a Southern town

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house. Underfoot was a brick path edged with violets, over-
head were grape-vines, and on each side, half under the arbor
and half outside, were peonies and irises. No one thought of
calling it a pergola. It was merely the way to the kitchen-
garden, of which one had a glimpse through an archway in the
tall hedge of privet at the end of the path. The mere charm
of the arbor would tempt any housewife to go through it and
inspect the fresh vegetables.

We Northerners seem to plan our grounds to be looked at
from the porch, and not lived in at all; for which reason our
gardens pose; they seem as self-conscious as a child in unac-
customed new clothes. One longs to see them look as if they
were Kved in and played in, and made to fit the needs and
uses of their owners.

A small garden may be limited in scope, but it often has
possibilities of charm that a large place has not. A miniature
may be a better work of art than that portrait of his family
which the Vicar of Wakefield was imable to bring into the
house.

Charm is an exquisite quality in a garden, but as rare and
elusive as a hermit-thrush. It comes of itself when plants
are happily placed, feel at home in the garden, and begin to
be on terms of friendly intimacy with every one. Mere ex-
penditure is powerless to bring it in. The garden may be a
blare of color and an admirably arranged show-case of hand-
some plants, but it will be as sounding brass or a tinkling cym-
bal if the love for the plants is not there, while the simplest of
gardens may have an abiding and inescapable charm if the
gardener has a real love for it. When our gardens are loved
enough, there TviU be no question about their being charming.

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If the planting about one's house is to be to any degree
satisfying — a rare and blessed quality — ^it is of utmost impor-
tance that the house itself should be taken into consideration.
No woman, unless she be of unsound mind, buys a gown with-
out a thought of the size and complexion of the wearer, or of
the uses to which it is to be put; and, by the same token, no
gardener will plant his grounds without paying careful heed
to the house they are to adorn — ^what manner of house it is,
what its "complexion" (in the old sense of the word) and its
individual needs. A scheme of planting which may be ad-
mirable in relation to one house may prove quite "imbecom-
ing" to another. The gardening about an old farmhouse, even
if newly bought for a coimtry home, should not be identical
with that adapted to a modem suburban home, any more
than a variety of millinery appropriate enough for a yoimg
society woman is precisely the right thing for a dear old Quaker
lady. Every house has some degree of individuality — ^if it
hasn't it ought to have it, or it must borrow it from its owner
— and the planting should be in keeping with it.

All of which may seem apart from the "broad, practical
matters" of which we hear so much; but, more than any other
one cause, it is our present almost uniform custom of plant-
ing with a cheerful indifiFerence to one's house and one's neigh-
bors which makes our American gardening, especially in the

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suburbs, one of the things which try men's souls; while one
might almost say that in suburbs and villages the chief end
of gardening, as far as the home grounds are concerned, is to
take away the orphaned appearance of the house, to make it
look as if it belonged to some one who cared for it, and as
if the bit of groimd on which it is set down were really its
home.

The color of the house is another matter of which, in plant-
ing, the gardener should take notice. This, of course, may
be altered, and when having the house painted it is not a bad
idea to bear in mind its possibilities as a background for plants.
I once knew a worthy lady who painted her house to harmo-
nize with some magnificent rhododendrons which grew near it,
and every passer-by who admired the rhododendrons blessed
her unaware. Yet only around the comer, beside a house of
reddish brown, was an unhappy azalea — aflame in that crim-
son-magenta which, as far as quarrelsomeness is concerned,
carries a chip on its shoulder — and not even an evergreen be-
tween to break the violence of a color eflfect which would
almost have knocked down a Japanese gardener! Far from
enjoying the blooming of the unfortunate plant, one could
only be thankful when it was over.

In order to avoid such casualties I give a few hints for
some shrubs and vines which may safely be planted near the
house.

Fob a House of White Clapboards with Green
Shutters

Try some of the following:

VINES
Wild grape. Roses — ^Dawison or Debutante or

Wistaria. Wichuraiana.

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SHRUBS

Lilac. Upright honeysuckles {Lonicera

Syringa. Siandishii or L.fragrarUi88ima),

Spircea van HoutteL Rugosa roses.
SpircBa Tkunbergii,

As for the usual vines, the Crimson Rambler is too violent
a contrast, and after the blossoms are past the foliage is not
particularly pleasing. The Japanese honeysuckle {Lonicera
Halliana, as nurserymen call it), luxuriant as it is, hasn't a
"good-enough figure'* to stand the test of the white back-
ground, while the wild grape-vines with their rare beauty in
leaf and stem show to perfection. One should resolutely turn
one's back on variegated althaeas and weigelias, or red-leaved
Japanese maples. Nasturtiums also form too harsh a con-
trast planted directly against the house, but peonies, phlox in
shades of pale rose and salmon, larkspurs, Japanese anemones,
or pompon chrysanthemums would not quarrel.

If the House is of Red Bbick

VINES

Wistaria. Clematis panictdata.

Englishivy (if south of New York). Fruit-trees grown against the

walls.

SHRUBS

Snowball. Lilacs (paler shades, such as

Syringa {PkUadelpkua). Josikea).

Exochorda. Magnolias (conspicua or steUata),

Deutzia. Box (but not against walls).
Spircea van Houttei.

Flowers had best not be grown directly against the house,
though narcissi, lilies-of-the-valley, and pale-lavender irises
might find a place among the shrubs.

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Against a House op Colonial Yellow

VINES
Wild grape {V. Labrusca). Bittersweet (Cdastrua scandens),

Actinidia (a peculiarly rich green — Clematis,
grows fairly well in the shade).

SHBUBS
Any of the previous list, also Box (not close to walls).

Japanese snowball (Viburnum Kerria Japonica.

plicatum).

It is best not to grow flowers directly against the house
unless with box borders and plenty of green and white. Keep
away red-foliaged maples, red geraniums, and bright purple
asters; keep away, too, evergreens of a bluish tinge, such as
the Colorado blue spruce. Anything of a bronze-green will
be charming.

The Small Frame House Painted Dark Red

VINES

Actinidia. Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera

Boston or Japanese ivy (Ampelap- HaUiana).
sis tricuspidata or VeitchU).

SHRUBS

Box. Spirwa van HovUei.

Rhododendron maximum. Magnolia steUata.

Laurel. Lonicera Morrotoiu
Andromeda floribunda.

Such a house may be made to look charming in winter
with hedges of hemlock and its foundations hidden by soft,
rich evergreens, and window-boxes full of evergreens. Some
of the dwarf Japanese evergreens could be used. It will be

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better not to grow flowers directly against this house, but
plant early bulbs among the shrubs.

The Half-Tdibebed House

VINES

Virginia creeper or woodbine. Bittersweet.

Trumpet-creeper (especially good Clematis paniculata.
here).

SHRUBS

Almost any shrubs, provided they Berberis (Tkunbergiiaadvulgaria).

do not quarrel among them- Azaleas.

selves. Kerria Jajxmica plena.

Lonicera SuUivanti — an old vari- Lilacs.

ety of honeysuckle, but its gray- Weigelias.

green foliage is charming. Rugosa roses.

Almost anything may be planted beside such a house —
the flowers as gay as one likes, if they agree among themselves
and with the shrubs; only, if one indulges much in yellows or
scarlets, there should be an abundance of green in the plant-
ing. Nasturtiums are in order.

The House of Unstained Shingles

VINES

Roses — ^Dawson, Farquhar or Prairie rose.
Crimson Rambler (don't plant Virginia creeper,
them together). Boston or Japanese ivy.

SHRUBS

Rugosa roses.
Japanese quince.

Berberis,
Lilacs.

Here, also, the planting may be almost ad libitum — ^as far
as the house is concerned; dark-red hollyhocks are especially

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FITTING THE GARDEN TO THE HOUSE

charming. Orange and yellow tones are not quite so good
as with the foregoing house, nor is white; crimson is a bit
better.

The House Painted a Pale Brown

VINES

Wistaria. Clematis Jachmannii.

Aristolochia. Japanese honeysuckle.

Boston ivy.

SHRUBS

Weigelia LavaUei (a dark crimson) . Lilacs.
Lonicera Morrovni (an upright Rugosa roses.

honeysuckle with bright-red

berries).

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IV
THE GARDEN IN TOWN

Practical Suggestions for City Planting

In the country it is a simple matter to make a garden of a
sort. There Mother Nature is a complaisant, if occasionally
stem old deity, and the hampering petticoats of convention-
ality, as it were, are short enough to enable our worthy mother
to get about comfortably. She can do something in the gar-
den herself; and, despite the mistakes and misdemeanors of
gardeners, something is fairly sure to grow. Besides, she has
hordes of poor retainers over the fence ready to come in and
eat up the feast if the bidden guests are in the least reluctant.

In the city it is different. Here a tall sky-scraper cuts off
the light, there gas-pipes poison the soil; and Mother Nature,
no longer complaisant, sits aloof and eyes the would-be gar-
dener coldly and askance. Such conditions are not of her
making. If he can get a garden out of them, he is welcome;
but as for her co-operation, she will wait and see, being quite
of the worthy Franklin's opinion that Heaven should help
only those who help themselves, assistance being thrown away
on the other kind.

The city gardener has not only difficulties, but enemies.
First of these is the domestic cat. Now, the cat is to the
city gardener's endeavor as the uncloistered hen to the flower-
beds of the farmer's wife. He exhibits the same diabolical
interest in freshly sown seeds, in newly and most correctly
planted bulbs; also he is dowered with a cunning and craftiness

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THE GARDEN IN TOWN

far beyond the reach of any hen. The cat is indeed an enemy.
K the gardener is clever enough, he can frustrate the invader
and make his yard a very Gibraltar against feline attempts;
if he is not, he will have but a meagre garden.

In the matter of planting, there are breakers ahead. Far
more than the country-place garden does that in the city yard
need careful consideration, and rarely does it get it. There
is so small a space wherein to make mistakes, and mistakes,
when made, are so embarrassingly apparent! The city gar-
dener sows in hope the easy flowers which will bloom for any
one in the country; but these are usually those that need full
sunshine, which, if they grow at all, are brown and depressed
when he returns in the autumn. His roses during the long
winter months are clad in straw or wrapped in unhandsome
burlap, princesses in disguise, perhaps, but so completely dis-
guised that there is little joy in their presence; while at the
time when he most craves a bit of color and a breath of the
springtime loveliness in his Kttle garden, it shows only narrow
plots of bare soil, brown and uninspiring, with no glimpse
whatever of the good, gigantic smile that brown earth ought
to wear. It is imdeniably difficult for the city gardener.

But between what is difficult and what is impossible is a
difiFerence, slight, but certain — ^the difference between a peri-
lous harbor and no harbor at all; and even city gardening may
be managed well enough if one only faces squarely existing
conditions, looks carefully at every obstacle to determine
whether it is best to climb over or walk around it. As Brown-
ing puts it,

"The common problem ...
Is — ^not to fancy what were fair in life,
Provided it could be — ^but, finding first
What may be, then find how to make it fair
Up to our means: a very different thing."

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This is the proper mental attitude for the city gardener,
and with the right mental attitude much may be accomplished.

The first thing that happens is that the prospective gar-
dener sits down not only to coimt the cost, which may be
much or Uttle, but to catechize himself sternly in somewhat
this fashion:

Q. "What is a garden's chief end?"

A. "The chief end of a garden is to grace the house, to
give pleasure to them that look upon it, to them that walk
therein, to them that smell thereof/*

Q. "What are the names of the months wherein I look
upon my garden — July and August?"

A. "No. The months wherein I look most upon my gar-
den are September, October, November, December, January,
February, March, April, May, and June."

Q, "What plants may I set in my garden?"

A. "Those that will grace it during the months wherein
I look upon it."

Q. "What conditions are they whereto my choice of plants
must conform ? "

A. "The situation, whether the place be sunny or shady
or of partial shade; the soil, whether it be rich or poor. It is
not meet to plant sun-loving plants in the shadows, nor to
set shade-loving plants in the sun."

Farther on in his catechism he will reach the question:

"What are the most notable permanent features of the
yard?"

This question and answer, usually the last consideration,
are precisely where one's gardening should begin; for it needs
little study to perceive that the prominent architectural features
of a yard are the fence and the clothes-posts. The color comes
and goes, the plants wax and wane, but these remain unmoved.

S«

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"Clothe ugly fences with green," advise the gardening
magazines, "mass shrubs before them, let vines clamber over
and conceal them." Another paper, more rich in helpful
detail, urges one to "spread wire and let it be covered with
gay nasturtiums, and to stretch strings that morning-glories
may ascend."

This is well enough in summer, but frost acts upon the
greenery like the stroke of twelve upon Cinderella's raiment:
the leaves will fall; the branches show themselves brown and
dishevelled; nasturtiums, pale wraiths, cling to their support
like half -drowned sailors to a spar; while to the fore, by way
of decoration, comes their sustaining chicken-wire, and unless
the gardener is imusually energetic, there it stays, and the fence
is as visible as ever, and remains visible for six long months.

But why need the fence be ugly ? What is the moral ne-
cessity of a fence fashioned after the similitude of a bill-board?
Why'need the rear of a city house, in its contrast to the front,
ofifer a shock to the nervous system ? Is the house a lay figure
that its back must be unseen and unregarded? Why may
we not have a "street side" and a "garden side," different,
surely, but equally respectable and self-respecting? A fence
of beautiful design is not a difficult thing to compass — one
that may indeed be embellished by vines, but need not be
hidden to be endured. The older fences were better; some of
them were beautiful, and the plainest ones had lattice atop,
against which were trained Corchorus and snowball and other
shrubs in a very delightful fashion that we seem to have for-
gotten completely.* When blessed with a friendly neighbor,

' * Far better than a fence is the older, more substantial and self-respecting
wall of brick, if the house be of brick ; of stone, if the house be of stone. This
is not suggested because of its expense. A reader who can afford an eight or
ten-foot brick wall as a beginning to his gardening should invoke the aid of a
landscape-gardener.

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a gate between can be made a very pretty feature of the
garden.

Once the fence bettered, the city gardener attacks his next
architectural problem, the clothes-posts. To these the gen-
eral arrangement of the yard is usually subordinated, the pre-
vailing scheme being a ten or twelve foot deep space at the
end of the yard, a narrow bed along the fence at each side,
while the middle is occupied by an oblong of greensward, sur-
roimded by a flagged or concrete path and guarded by four
clothes-posts set in its four comers. Undoubtedly it is needful
to dry clothes, and the yard is the most convenient place; but
why make the posts a feature, and a dominant feature ? The
Romans, as Mr. Arthur Shurtlefif pleasantly suggests, may
have had their togas himg to dry in their town gardens, but
they were very pretty little gardens, none the less.

There are dozens of arrangements whereby a little in-
genuity can circumvent the insistence of the clothes-posts.
If tall enough, the fence-posts may lend themselves to that
use; a tree could serve as one of them. If the arrangements
of the garden are symmetrical, as befits so small a space, and
the posts are green-painted, and, instead of being treated as
part of the garden plan, are simply put where they will be
least noticed, the yard will have a wholly different character,
and the flowers and plants and pleasure of the owner will have
the first consideration, as is their right.

Freed from the tyranny of the clothes-posts, with a fence
that does not implore to be hidden, but can be looked on
with pleasure, even if it be in the nude, the prospective gar-
dener draws a breath of relief, and is able to look about him
with some degree of peace and comfort, and consider within
himself what manner of garden he will have. For, like his
house, a man's garden should fit his uses. If he is in town

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THE GARDEN IN TOWN

throughout the summer, then his garden should be to him a
place of pleasant refuge. He may not be able to compass the

"Rose grot.
Fringed pool,
Femed plot"

of the much-quoted poet, but at least he can make provision
for the simpler luxury of a green thought in a green shade/

Take a small, paved yard near one of the business streets.
Great oflSce-buildings cut ofiF the Ught; one has its inmiensely
tall brick back set squarely against the end of the lot, which
for only an hour a day is visited by the sunshine. Yet here
the semblance of a garden is not impossible. One could make
the tiniest of summer-houses to dwarf the yard, and make it
miniature instead of inadequate. Against the brick of the
tall building a small f oimtain might be set, for water is easily
had. There would be a broad shelf on each side of this whereon
plants in pots would stand, to be changed for others when
their glory has departed. If the soil is quite hopeless, then
it is best to grow plants in concrete boxes, in which the earth
can be replenished as often as needed.

Viewed in the right light, another seeming excrescence of
our civilization aflfords an opportunity for the exercise of our
city gardener's cleverness; this is the arrangement for drying
clothes with which many extension roofs are adorned. It is
made of "two-by-four" uprights set at the roof edge at about
six-foot intervals, stayed by longitudinal boards. Now, if, in-
stead of the defensive boards, there were a lattice of a twelve-
inch square, on the outside edge one could fasten boxes a foot
deep and therein plant vines — nasturtiums, morning-glories,
or gourds. Enough air will come through for the clothes;
there can be wide windows in the lattice. Except when uti-
lized of a Monday, this makes a pleasant outdoor room.

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These are a few instances of its use, but ingenuity is a
faculty which grows by exercise, and the city yard ofiFers prob-
lems enough to keep it in good condition.

I know one city garden half the size of the ordinary back
yard which yet boasted a tiny pergola that commanded the
whole domain, and here on summer evenings supper was
served on a table that swung from the overhead beams — a
table narrow enough to be darried laden through the doorway.
There were candles in sconces against the walls, a Japanese
lantern overhead, and, near enough for the lights to touch it,
a tiny fountain — and all this in a yard many people would
have thought impossible. It was small and shaded, with
little sunUght and poor soil. Near the house there was the
tiniest terrace, brick-floored, and divided from the garden
by a little balustrade. The pergola was hardly more than
eight feet long, in a little alcove of the garden, a spot which
a less-enlightened soul might have used for a closet for tools
or junk.

A place where one may sit in peace out of doors uninspected
by one's neighbors is in the city a peculiar happiness, and by
no means so diflBcult to arrange as it seems. In this matter
of seclusion, barriers of shrubs are futile, since it is from high
above that the batteries of eyes are trained; wherefore over-
head defense is eflfective with the efiFectiveness of a parasol
against the sun or an umbrella against the shower. If one
wishes comfort in his garden and not a great number of flowers
to care for, it would be easy to make into an arbor the whole
lower end of his yard by raising the fence-posts until they
were high enough for his overhead trellis. On this may grow
wild grape, wistaria, or, for hasty defense, gourds. The arbor
would be brick-floored, except for a narrow marginal bed at
the back for violets and other shade-loving plants, with seats

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THE GARDEN IN TOWN

at the ends against the fence, and a hammock swmig from
the overhead beams. Japanese screens, drawn down a bit
from the top, would give complete protection. From this
vantage-point a very simple garden would appear charming.
It would be a tempting place for sewing or reading or after-
noon tea, for it is the lack of overhead screening that robs the
city garden of its privacy. And if the family cared not to
use it, what a boon and lure to the servant, this out-of-door
sitting-room !

The all-summer sojourner who Ukes to work in his garden
would have his cold-frame, which is to a gardener as a
nursery to a mother of a family; also a tiny workshop of
good design at the end of a garden-path, where of a rainy
Sunday he might work at his potting-bench in peace and com-
fort. Such a one would devote his whole garden space to
flowers, outlining the beds in box for the sake of their winter
aspect.

As for the arrangement, that is a matter of individual
taste; but because the garden is small, because its shape is so
plainly visible, it is specially necessary that the scale be right
and the proportions good. "Naturalistic planting," as it is
called, is unsafe to attempt on so small an area. It is futile
to attempt disguising boundaries so plainly obvious. Shrubs
must go against the walls and at the back, except the few that
may be used for the purpose of definite accent. Set elsewhere,
they make the garden seem inconveniently small. The out-
line of the beds may be as simple or as intricate as one likes.
The geometrical designs of the older gardening are interesting,
or one may keep the traditional centre of grass, and fit his
flower-beds about it; but the usual grass oblong is too large
and out of scale, unless the paths are omitted and the turf
stretched uninterrupted to the flower-beds, while, instead of

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THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

the paths, tiles for stepping-stones may be used. One of the
easiest ways for the amateur to determine and decide on his
outhnes is to mark out the proposed beds with tennis-tape, or
the hke, then go to an upper window and look down on it.
He can tell at a glance whether the paths are too wide or too
narrow or if the beds are in the right relation, and it is a sim-
ple matter to have these tentative boundaries shifted until it-
"looks right."

A difference in level, even a slight one, adds a very definite
charm to a httle garden; also, it affords space for the kind of
decoration which the city gardener finds easiest to bestow.
There will be steps, at the side of which he may set plants in
decorative jars or pots. He can change them when their
charm is fled, and set sturdy evergreens in tubs in their place
in the winter. He may have a tiny terrace, a low wall against
which a sUght growth of vine or plant has real effectiveness.
It will open to him all the range of potted trees — dwarf fruits
and flowering plums and cherries. A tiny garden is an ideal
place for these.

And if the city man have the garden very deeply in his
soul, he will make at the foot of his yard, if the exposure be
good, or at the beginning, if that be better, a house of good
design, which may be glassed in completely in the winter. It
would not have other heat than that of the sun through the
windows, and here would be planted tender rhododendrons
and camellias. Violets and pansies would bloom cheerfully
throughout the winter.

One of the minor details which makes for charm in a city
garden is the matter of paths. If it is a possible thing, let
these be of gravel, for concrete or flagstone bring a reminis-
cence of the pavement into the garden which one would fain
keep out.

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But before the city gardener has gone very far in his gar-
den enterprise he is confronted by another of the high hurdles
that Madam Nature sets for his confusion — ^the soil. No
honest country soil is his, redolent of clover, with a breath
that is "blent with sweet odors." It may be as hard as the
heart of a wicked corporation, as poisoned as the mind of a
bribed juror, and^the city gardener, book in hand, looks at
the unKkely and unlovely, perchance ill-smeUing, material,
then at his book, and wonders if it be "loam," or a "light
sandy loam," or any of the other Christian soils he has read
about.

If one wants a real garden, and has only hard and doubtful
soil, it is better to dig out the entire bed to the depth of at
least two feet, put in stones or cinders for drainage, then fill in
with good, new, thoroughly respectable soil. But this is an
expensive process, though it might be pleasantly accompUshed
on the instalment plan.

Then there is a homoeopathic treatment, which is often
helpful. It is the "texture" of the soil, as the scientific farm-
ers call it, that is probably at fault. In which case, coal-ashes,
imlikely as they seem, well dug in, will serve as an inexpensive
and effective remedy. Wood-ashes will positively sweeten
soil that has grown sour and unpalatable to plants. There are
certainly other fertilizers, but this is to the city man the cheap-
est and readiest soil amelioration. Yet he, as well as his
brother farmer, is privileged to send a sample of soil to the
nearest State experiment station and get definite relief in a
complete diagnosis and prescription.

And then comes the planting. Very much as a theatrical
manager is besieged and beset by loveliness demanding a part
in his productions, the city gardener finds it diflScult to turn a
deaf ear to the importunities of the much-belauded garden

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beauties which are bepraised in catalogues and earnestly rec-
ommended to him by his friends.

"I'm so striking," urges the Crimson Rambler; "consider
how stunning a show on your fence I would make." "I know
it, my dear — ^annihilating," responds the gardener. "But
what about your foliage in the summer, and your habit of
ungainly sprawling? Little Wichuraiana is better for this
production; she doesn't go off in her looks the minute she's
finished blooming. Neither does Dorothy Perkins."

"Nothing is lovelier in a garden than we are," plead the
Tea-Roses.

"Too delicate," answers the gardener sadly. "If I were
far enough south, I'd have every one of you; but I can't have
straw jackets and burlap mufflers in the yard all winter. Be-
sides, who's to spray you and all that sort of thing? You
won't do."

"What's the matter with us?" ask the Pansies.

"Nothing, my dears, except that you have to be picked
every day; and if I'm away all summer, who's to do it?"

"Everybody admires us and everybody plants us!" claim
the Paniculata Hydrangeas.

"I don't," returns the gardener imperturbably. "You're
too big, you take up too much room, and you never know
when to drop your flowers. Go sit on a suburban lawn, if you
wish admiration."

"And I," said the Halliana Honeysuckle — "I'm the most
capable of vines — any position, any capacity, and I have a
wonderful digestion."

"I retain you only as *imderstudy,' " promises the gardener.
"English Ivy and Euonymus are both better for the part; if
the work's too hard for either of them, I'll put you in. But
you know you can't hold on to your leaves all winter.'*

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THE GARDEN IN TOWN

When finally given out, the parts are somethmg like this:

Wall or Fence (covering) : Anemone Japonica.

English ivy. Ferns.

Euonymua radicans vegeta. Evergreens:

Fence (for blooming) : Box.

Jasminum nvdiflorum, Retinospora,

Corchorus. Bulbs:

Viburnum plicatum. Scilla, snowdrop, Chionodoxa.

Shrubs: snowflake.

Androrneda floribunda. Narcissus poeticus.

Daphne cneorum, Darwin and May-flowering tu-

Iberis teneoriana. Hps.

Berberis dulcis. Iris pallida and L, DalnuUica,

Magnolia steUata, Florentine, English, Spanish

Azalea moUis. irises.

Caryopteris mastacantha. Madonna lilies.

Dwarf rhododendrons. Daffodils.

Perennials: In Pots:

Hardy chrysanthemums. Dwarf fruit-trees.

Foxgloves. Hydrangea hortensis,

English daisies. Box or bay.

Columbine.

In making up his stock company, it will be noticed that
the city gardener lays stress on what the horticulturists call
"habit," that excellence of form and character which is to a
plant what good manners are in the social equipment of a
person. Some of the plants most briUiant in their time of
flowering are not good to look upon in the "off season," and
there is no way of making them retire from the stage. The
narrowly limited space of the town garden demands a certain
finish, a correctness of demeanor; a loose, careless growth
wholly charming on a coimtry roadside is here out of place.

For this reason, many of the race of "broad-leaved ever-
greens," though generally but little planted, are peculiarly
welcome. There is Andromeda floribunda, which keeps its
laurel-like foliage in a summer luxuriance throughout the

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THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

winter, and in November puts out buds like liiy-of-the-valley.
There are a fragrant little Daphne — Daphne cneorum, which
shows stiffly upright rose-colored flowers in June and again in
September; an evergreen candytuft; an evergreen barberry,
with thick, shining, holly-green foliage and yellow flowers,
which open in spring at the earliest possible moment; and
mahonia, which turns crimson in October and holds its color
throughout the winter.

Deciduous shrubs one plants sparingly — only those the
branches of which are interesting in character when the leaves
have gone — such as the Magnolia steUatay which looks very
well, with pale-gray stems, and as many-branched as a haw-
thorn-bush. As early as January, furry buds, like overgrown
pussy-willows, appear.

For the care of the city gardener is to make the old year
forget itself, to prolong the autumn into the winter, and coax
the spring into the little garden at the earliest possible mo-
ment. Therefore the city yard should be rich in bulbs, its
Uttle grass-plot thickly starred with crocus in purple and gold;
there should be snowdrops wherever a warm corner can be
found — sometimes they are adventurous enough to push up
their hard, silver-tipped Uttle spears in January — and all the
exquisite race of earliest comers should have a place: snow-
flake and Chionodoxa, the color of April bluets; soft, dull-blue
spikes of the grape-hyacinth; Scilla, the tiny bells of which are
as deep in color as the fringed gentian; while for garden com-
pany they have the fragile and ethereal lovehness of the Mag-
nolia steUata and the pale-gold bells of the naked-flowering
jasmine. City-dwellers are usually utterly bereft of the ex-
quisitely delicate bloom of very early spring, which is the
rarest thing in nature. Following these lovely harbingers,
come in rapid succession irises, the palest and most delicate —

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THE GARDEN IN TOWN

pallida, Dalmaiica, pumila, the English and Spanish and Flor-
entines; lily-of -the- valley wherever there is a shady corner.
Jonquils, daffodils, and poets' narcissus are followed by May-
flowering and Darwin tulips, to which the snowball on the
walls acts as an accompaniment.

If the gardener meditates a summer in town, then he plans
for siunmer comfort. If he has an arbor at the foot of his
yard, then he adds an awning which cuts off the view of the
neighboring houses and gives him only the little garden for his
eyes to rest upon, or he screens it and makes of the place an out-
door Uving-room; while for the planting, when the crocuses
are abloom, he sows Shirley poppies and corn-flowers wherever
there is space, and sometimes where there is not. It is easier
to pull out superfluous plants than to transplant infant pop-
pies. When the poppies are past, he pulls them up and tucks
in dahUas or gladiolus bulbs. He has mignonettes for fra-
grance, and lemon verbena, and arranges for posies all summer
long. But if the gardener's dwelling in town be only a matter
of from September to June, then his planting is different. He
sets out chrysanthemums and Japanese anemones in the spring,
which in the autunm will give color in plenty. He tucks in
dahUa bulbs and sows marigold and cosmos and corn-flowers
for autumn blooming. When the garden is "reefed" for the
winter, these are cut down, annuals are pulled up, and hardy
evergreens in tubs or pots — Retinospora if one can afford it, or
common junipers if one cannot — take the place of the bay-tree
or Hydrangea hortensis. With ivy or Euonymus the walls are
as green as in summer. Andromedas are serenely indifferent to
the thermometer; here and there a brightly colored Japanese
evergreen gives a touch of gayety, and the little garden has not
only a comfortable but a really cheerful aspect, ready to wel-
come the first-comer in spring and make it feel at home.

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It is ingenuity that the city garden demands rather than
large expenditure, careful planning rather than hard .work,
and the happiness it yields is well worth the trouble.

In the country the garden is a pleasure, yet it is only one
of many "green delights." Without it are hills and brooks
and running streams to be had for the seeking; but in the
city the little garden stands for all of the country a man has,
and therefore the more dearly necessary.

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THE BACK-YARD FENCE

Don't let the back-yard fence spoil the effect of your pretty
garden. People have come to think it a necessary evil, but it
isn't; it can be reformed. There are dozens of ways of making
it over and here are some of the best and most inexpensive;
they cost brains and "gumption" rather than money, and
repay abundantly for the trouble and slight expense.

The first "exhibit" is the common back-yard fence, about as
unpromising in appearance as can be imagined, yet typical of
those fences which worry hundreds of amateur gardeners in
America. Your fence may not be just like this one, but per-
haps the solution of your problem may be had through the
adaptation of the suggestions given in the subsequent illustra-
tions.

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THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

The picture above shows the simplest variation of an old
fence. The boxed-in posts are finished by a square board, with
a ball placed on top of each for decoration. The upper fence-line
is curved to meet the upper stringer. A narrow moulding on
top serves as a finish. The important point in copying this style
is to get a graceful curve in the line at the top of the fence.

Colonial in design is the fence below. It is especially good
if a rather low fence is desired. It is also a good alteration
for a fence of which the boards run lengthwise. Tall, boxed-in

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THE BACK-YARD FENCE

posts, with ornamental tops and narrow palings, make the
height. In this and in the fence shown at the top of page 46
good proportion is very necessary.

A most decorative fence is shown above. The boxed-in
posts are eight inches square, with a square board on top.
The boards are cut down to the upper stringer, and an open
lattice is substituted. The posts may end at the upper stringer
and the fence be completed by a two-foot-wide diagonal lat-
tice. This is a type of fence very common in old gardens.

THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

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THE BACK-YARD FENCE

^^-iw^^ V^**»> yt>ini

To make the espalier shown at foot of page 47, plant
dwarf pear-trees, one at each post of the fence. The branches
are trained along wire stretched between the posts. There are
many ways of training branches for fence decoration — and it's a
fascinating work.

In the fence at the top of opposite page the blankness is
relieved by connecting two fence-posts with a trellis, on which
a pretty hardy shrub can then be trained. The arches are
made by converting the clothes-posts into square posts, boxing
the corresponding fence-posts, and adding the arch.

For the lower fence make a lattice of one-inch-wide strips
set far enough apart so that the squares are ten inches. Box
in the posts with eight-inch-wide boards, and place on top of
each a ten-inch-square board to serve as a finish. The lattice
and posts are painted green. This is a very satisfying and
very easy alteration.

Some of us possess yards in which plants will not grow.
For such the fence shown above is a happy solution of the
garden problem. Gay boxes of flowers are placed between the
posts and ivy or other vines in the boxes on top. The tubs
and pots of flowers can be replaced as often as necessary.

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VI
GARDEN-MAKING

A Garden on a Roof

Garden-making, where there is room for it, is interesting;
but garden-making where, at first glance, there is not room
for it, is even more interesting. The httle garden here illus-
trated is on a 14 X 21 tar-and-gravel roof of the rear extension
of a city house. Flower-boxes eighteen inches high and one
foot wide make the balustrade at the edge of the roof, which
is divided at equal distances by two higher boxes, a foot square
at the top; in these are planted small evergreens. At each
end of the "garden," against the side walls of the neighboring
houses, are flower-beds, the soil confined by boards eighteen
inches wide. These beds are filled with good loam, a layer of
finely broken stone being placed in the bottom for drainage.
The planting may be as one chooses; here it is simply eighteen
geraniums bordered by a row of dwarf alyssums for the bal-
ustrade, with white daisies and zinnias in the side boxes and
ampelopsis to climb the walls. The cost varies: the balustrade
and boxes may be the result of well-paid carpentry or of home
talent and found "lumber." If you have to buy the boxes
the cost would be:

Boxes $2.00 18 Geraniums $1.80

Loam 2.00 2 Junipers 70

12 Daisies 1 . 00 2 packets Alyssum 10

2 Ampelopsis 30

$7.90
This garden needs plenty of water.

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GARDEN-MAKING

On the roof of a city house

Strips of matting laid down will save a woman's skirts
from tar if one does not care to go to the expense of extra
gravel; tiles could also be used for flooring, and a brick floor
would be very delightful.

An awning adds much to the, comfort. Instead of this a
trellis or a pergola may be made overhead, and some long-
distance climber planted in the garden below — such as wistaria
— if one has time and patience. If one hasn't, there is the
Japanese Kudzu-vine (Pueraria Thunbergiana), which is a
cousin of the beanstalk of Jack the Giant-Killer and a near re-
lation of Jonah's gourd. It can do forty feet in a season. For
the support of the overhead trellis two posts will be necessary,
set where the little junipers stand. From the cross-beams on
right have Venetian screens. These will give complete seclu-
sion and make a porch that could be used for sleeping.

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THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

A Fruit-Garden on a Small Lot

In this little garden, 50 x 25 feet, the clothes-posts lend
themselves to beauty and an added usefidness by forming
part of a grape-vine trellis, somewhat after the fashion shown
in more detail on page 48; on each side two additional posts
are added, while the side fences form the other supports of the
trellises. Under the grape-vines grow primroses and violets.
A slender, wide-meshed lattice, painted green, separates the

Fruit-garden on a small lot

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GARDEN-MAKING

drying-yard from the little gaxden beyond; on this climb pole-
beans. Against the side fences, beyond the grape-vines — ^the
only possible place for them — ^are trained pear and apple
trees. Strawberries fill the border-beds, and in the long beds,
divided one from another by narrow paths of earth, is foimd
room for five each of blackberries and raspberries set four feet
apart, and for six currant-bushes. In the central bed are toma-
toes. Needless to say, the soil for this garden is fertilized
heavily.

During the first year, while the fruits are small, the beds
are edged with a single row of low-growing vegetables — ^rad-
ishes, carrots, beets, parsley, and the like. Here is the cost:

Trellises and lattice about $10.00 4 Blackberries $ .25

2 Pears 1.50 6 Currants 1.50

2 Apples 70 Vegetable Seeds 50

6 dozen Strawberries 2.25 6 Grapes 1.50

4 Raspberries 25 ilS A5

This sort of garden is well adapted to a small subiu*ban
lot and if irises are planted between the currant-bushes, and
tulips in the strawberry-beds, the little garden will be charming
in the spring, while its utility will not be in the least lessened.
The side beds may be filled with early-flowering bidbs. The
yellow tulips and daffodils will come out with the blossoming
pears against the wall for accompaniment, and apple-trees in
bloom with poets* narcissus at their feet make as pretty a
spring garden as one could desire.

Growing shrubs or treeiS against the wall and planting thickly
with bidbs is the easiest and most satisfying treatment of
cramped space. Against a wall, even such large garden in-
habitants as magnolias can be made to thrive. When the space
is very small, especially if the yard be shady, have the central
part of gravel or, if preferred, of brick.

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THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

A Garden of Limitations

This little yard is smaller even than the average back
yard, being only 20 x 30 feet. The walls are of brick and the
door at the foot of the yard opens into an alley. The yard is
bricked except for the narrow border-bed dose to the walls.

A little yard, 20 x 30 feet

A lattice is set in the upper part of the door, taking away its
alley-door character. Two Soulangeana magnolias are trained
against the walls.

Here is the cost of planting for the spring display:

2 Magnolia conspicua $3 .00

2 Forsythia 50

2 Apple 70

2 Lilac .50

Shrubs $4.70

50 Narcissi $ .50

50 Daffodils 1.50

50 Jonquils 50

100 Tulips 1.50

Bulbs $4.00

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GARDEN-MAKING

If summer blossoming were wanted, instead of a spring dis-
play, one might cover the walls with Japanese ivy for a green
background, and plant such perennials as platycodon, monk's-
hood, achillea, monarda, and the evening-primrose. These
could be planted in April and would give flowers from June
until October.

This sort of gardening is adapted to the smallest yard in
which there is a bit of sunlight.

An all-summer flower-garden
55

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An All-Summer Flower-Garden

The owners of this garden are blessed with a love of flowers
and a sunny back yard, 26J^ x 50 feet. Next to the house a
grassed space, used for a drying-yard and service-yard, is sep-
arated from the little formal garden by a screen made of bam-
boo poles cut in six-foot lengths, thrust in the ground like
bean-poles at intervals of one foot; these are secured by strings
run horizontally, making a square-meshed lattice; on this
grow sweet peas. The gateway is seven feet and a half high
and three feet wide. The little garden space thus secured is
grassed, except for the flower-beds which run beside the fences,
and for those which make up the little formal garden. The
beds are filled with stocks and China asters in dwarf varieties
and are bordered with sweet alyssum.

If the circidar garden seems a bit complicated, have, in-
stead, a straight grass path down the centre of the garden,
with a narrow, oblong bed on each side.

Here is the cost of planting:

PERENNIAL PLANTS ANNUALS (sEEDS)

24 Japanese Anemones $3 .00 Stocks $ .10

12 Hollyhocks 75 Asters 10

12 Larkspur 1 .00 Mignonette (}^ ounce) 25

li Perennial Asters 1 .00 Dwarf Alyssum (1 ounce) . .25

36 Pansies 2.25 Sweet Peas (1 ounce) 10

12 Monk's-Hood 3 .00 California Poppies (2

12 Sweet-William 1.80* packets) 10

12Boltonia 1.80

$ .90

$14.60 Bamboo Screen 3.00

If annuals only were used, or if the perennials were raised
from seed, the cost woidd be much reduced.

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WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH A LATTICE

One of the most valuable accomplishments for the amateur
gardener is skill in the making of a lattice.

Latticework, like charity, covers a multitude of sins. It is
the most convenient of defenses against ugliness; the prettiest
and most satisfying of supports for vines. For embellishing,
for covering any slight defect, it is as useful in the garden as
the arts of the toilet to the woman who needs them. Besides
its utiUty in dozens of situations, the making of a lattice is, to
the woman who can drive a nail, an exceedingly pleasant form
of "garden fancywork." In largeness of result, in interest in
decorativeness of eflFect, that other f ancywork done on a porch
and in a rocking-chair is not to be compared with it.

Latticework is to the garden as embroidery to a gown. It
gives a certain charm, completeness, and distinction. And
there is a very real satisfaction to its author in having done
the work herself.

The materials for this form of garden art are simple enough
and easily obtained. Any lumber-dealer will supply the strips
in exactly the lengths desired. So many lengthwise strips,
so many crosswise strips, may be provided, and if the measure-
ments have been taken carefully, the trouble of sawing is quite
eliminated, and the lattice goes together with a neatness and
exactness that is really soul-satisfying. (If an effect of light-
ness is desired, the strips should not be set too close together.

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A nine-inch square "mesh" is a good size for strips that are
J^xl inch, and a twelve-inch "mesh" if the strips are of
lumber ]/2 x IJ^ inches.) The lattice may be diamond or
square, according to one's taste. Square is a bit easier to make,
the diamond, perhaps, more decorative.

The easiest form of lattice on which to try one's " 'prentice
hand" is the "ladder," shown on this page. This is used as
a support for a climbing rose, for assisting
a vine up a piazza-post, and has many dec-
orative uses about the house.

Although apparently simpler of applica-
tion, the usual poultry-wire is actually far
more difficult for a woman to manage un-
aided than even an elaborate-looking Uttice.
To look well, the poultry-wire needs to be
stretched evenly and tightly between its sup-
porting posts. And to do this is by no
means as easy as it looks.

In Colonial times the lattice was very
much in use, and the Colonial gardens had
a charm which ours have not.
In these older gardens the lattice was very evident. There
were latticed summer-houses — ^such as that at Mount Vernon
— often a latticed well-house, latticed arches or arbors or
porches. These were simple in line, almost invariably beauti-
fid in proportion. Usually, in the Colonial gardens these struc-
tures were painted white, with the latticework in green. With
their complement of vines (for over them would be wistaria,
or perhaps the little oldrfashioned red roses), these arbors and
sununer-houses must have been charming settings for the
eighteenth-century damsels. For the purposes of romance,
they were far ahead of our electric-lighted porches or open

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"Ladder" trellis

WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH A LATTICE

lawns, however extensively the latter may be beautified with
shrubbery.

It is quite possible that the present decline of romance
may be in a measure the result of our mercilessly open grounds,
and the utter lack in the gardens of the "rose-grot" of the
much-quoted poet, or anything akin to it. Is a settee on an
open lawn, under the scant shade of a chubby young umbrella
of a catalpa, at all comparable in a young man's fancy with
sitting in a vine-clad arbor beside the admired one, while the
gold and green light sifts through and touches her hair and
the vines make charming shadows on her gown ? In fact, when
the young women of to-day awake to the romantic value of a
garden setting for themselves, it will mark a new era in our
gardening, and perhaps a new birth of romance.

The garden uses of the lattice are many and various. In
the older gardens, an arbor was often made by setting two
arches across a path at a distance of eight or ten feet apart,
connecting these with horizontal joists, and then covering the
whole structure with a diamond lattice. Inside, against the
lattice which served as a back, was on either side a long, low
seat. Over this arbor, of course, grew vines — roses or honey-
suckle. Such an arbor, at once shaded and airy, has proved
a charming play-place to several generations of children, and
it is far more in keeping with a rather simple garden than the
ubiquitous pergola.

On exactly the same plan, but narrower, the two support-
ing arches not more than three feet apart, was the garden
arch, common in Colonial gardens. This was almost invariably
used for cUmbing roses.

The covered seat, which is an excellent bit of garden fiu'ni-
ture, is made of a wide garden arch, two feet deep, with a low,
broad seat across, while at the back, as well as at the sides, is

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set a diamond lattice. Such a seat is especially adapted to a
place at the end of a path or the end of a terrace. Covered
with vines, it makes a very attractive corner in the garden.

That the lattice-topped fence, common enough in the gar-
dens of a hundred years ago, is rarely seen to-day is a pity.
The construction of it is simple — ^merely a two-foot-wide dia-
mond lattice on top of a plain board fence — and the fence,

so completed, makes a
delightf id background for
flowers or climbing plants,
and it is especially charm-
ing when, as in the ear-
- lier gardens, shrubs are
trained against it.

Another way of trans-
forming a fence is by set-
ting against it a square
lattice (see p. 48). This,
if covered with roses, will
quite transform it. And
if the lattice be three or

Lattice-topped fence

four inches out from the fence, the vines, having more air, wiU
thrive the better. For a grape-vine the treUis shoidd stand a
foot from the wall.

One of the easiest and prettiest of garden-trellises is of
string and bamboo. This lattice is not heavy enough for
permanent vines, but for annuals — sweet peas, nasturtiums,
scarlet-runner beans, and the like — it is charming. It makes
one of the most delightful of temporary divisions in the gar-
den, and for fencing off children's gardens, for the construc-
tion of kindergarten-size playhouses, nothing can be prettier
nor easier for the small gardeners to manage. The lightness

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WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH A LATTICE

of the bamboo and string make an admirable accompaniment
to the lightness and delicacy of sweet peas or morning-glories.
And sweet peas are of too poetic and delicate a loveliness to
be married to so prosaic a support as chicken-wire.

To make a bamboo lattice, have the stakes cut in six-foot
lengths (for a f airiy tall fence) ; set them in the groimd at six-
inch intervals. Then take a ball of common heavy brown
twine and stretch it across the stakes, tying at each stake, the
strings being just the dis-
tance apart that the stakes
are set. If the stakes are
straight, the strings
stretched evenly, this lat-
tice is quite Japanese in ef-
fect. Such an arrangement
of bamboo and string,
covered with annual vines,
is one of the best ways pf
making a quick and tem-
porary screen — such a one
as is most desirable in a
place that is merely rented
for the summer.

For a more permanent screen a small trellis is good. This
may be of any size you choose. (That illustrated is only six feet
wide.) Two posts should be set at the right distances with cross-
pieces to serve as stay and foundation for the screen of rather
close latticework. A climbing rose or a shrub trained against
such a trellis is a very attractive substitute for some bit of im-
loveliness that otherwise would obtrude itself into the garden.

In making a garden, the screening, or cutting off from view
some bit that would mar the charm, is quite as important as

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Bamboo and string lattice for annual vines

THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

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embellishing, and no readier defense is to be had than some
form of lattice. In this matter of worrying the garden, the
most persistent oflFender is the clothes-line. The flowers come
and go, but every Monday the weekly wash appears, triumph-
ing over any effort of the garden. And yet a drying-yard is
so easily managed one marvels that it is ever omitted from the
plan of laying out grounds. Although other ways of screening are
practical and possible, a lattice is by far the quickest and most
effective. When shrubs are used, one has to wait several years

^ before they are tall enough
to be adequate to the de-
mands of the situation; if wire-
netting and vines are tried,
these will only screen in the
siunmer-time, leaving the prob-
lem in winter where it was be-
fore. But with a lattice even a
slight growth of vines answers
the purpose, and the lattice it-
self, even unblessed by vines,
forms an excellent background
for any planting. If a doorway be made in the lattice wall, an
effect of distance and size will be given even to a small yard.
The structure should harmonize in color with the house and
should come up at least to the top of the lower windows.

Another place where the lattice screen is valuable is on a
porch, where more seclusion is desired than one has. Here a
very slender lattice, enclosing the more exposed end, gives a
delightfully complete feeling of being shut off from street or
neighbors, and yet neither view nor air is excluded and the vine
growth may be of the slightest. If a doorway or window be
made in the lattice wall, nothing of the feeHng of seclusion is lost.

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Rose-trellis to form a screen

WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH A LATTICE

To the amateur gardener, this retouching and modifying of
the house by a skilful use of latticework, is one of the most fas-
cinating uses of the art. In proportion to the expense and eflFort,
the results are so beautifully large, the improvement so definite,
it is like having an unbecoming gown altered by a clever modiste.

Suppose the side wall of your rented house is blank and
barren, having in it but one window and that too narrow.

Br^Jdng the monotony of a blank wall by latticework

In this case, if a simple "ladder" be set up on each side of the
window to a height level with the top of the window-frame,
a vine planted to climb the "ladder," the aspect of the win-
dow will be quite changed. And if the lattice be extended
and cover the wall to the height of the windows, the blank-
ness will be found to have completely disappeared, and the
house to have gained in breadth.

If the door is uninteresting, or even ugly, give it a latticed
porch, or even a latticed 'arch over the door wide enough to
afford room for a seat or bench on each side — ^and you have
a charming Colonial doorway.

These are a few of the uses to which the lattice may be

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THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

put. There are dozens of minor uses. A portable porch-screen
may be constructed by taking a box shaped like a window-box

(4 ft. X 1 X 1 is a good
size) and putting in the
centre a lattice four feet
high and planting in it
English ivy or some other
vine. Such boxes, set side
by side, serve for a tem-
porary hedge to a walk,
as a porch-screen, or for
many other uses.

The common three-
rail fence may be trans-
formed into a very credit-
able residential fence (and

a hen-proof one besides)
Lattice arch for a doorway i , . << i.

'' by making an appli-

qu6;" as needlewomen say, of lattice, using the rails as a foun-
dation and then planting nasturtiums. I have seen a very
charming fence of morning-glories
of which the foundation was an
ordinary barbed-wire fence upon
which was made a lattice of com-
mon brown string.

These are a few of the varied
capabilities of this useful form of
garden handicraft. It is no new
thing, the lattice. It is almost as
old as gardening. Yet among the
many devices that have come into
use since a man and a woman were Portable screen of latticework

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WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH A LATTICE

first put into a garden to "dress it" none has quite taken its
place, because none is quite able to fill it. Beside the quaint
and old-fashioned charm of the latticework, its rival, poultry-
wire, is commonplace, and the manufactured wire supports
harsh and unsympathetic. The next time you are thinking
of either — don't! Take hammer and nails and only lath, if
you must, and make a lattice instead.

ly'iU^P^

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VIII
COMFORT IN THE GARDEN

Comfort in the garden is almost as essential as comfort
in the house. To have one's garden so planted that it affords
no chance for a man to sit at his ease in the shade, to smoke
his pipe of contemplation if he chooses, to read, or watch the
bees among the flowers, and to survey the results of his labor,
is to miss one of the most legitimate joys of garden-making.

Never woidd Andrew Marvell have had his "green
thoughts," had not his garden been blessed with the "green
shade" to inspire them.

It was because of this liking for the "green shade" that
in the older gardens were the pleached alleys, the lime walks,
and the "carpenter work." At Middleton Place, in South
Carolina, most elaborate of the great estates of two hundred
years ago, the planting of the spacious gardens was so ar-
ranged that one might make a tour of the entire gardens, enjoy
them to the full, and yet none of the time, unless he chose, be
exposed to the sun — ^sometimes the walk would he between
walls of green, so close were the tall magnolias; sometimes
under great Uve-oaks where a wide expanse of river spread
just below, but at no time was there the necessity to "buy
the shade by going into the sun." This boon of shade is ap-
preciated keenly in a southern climate, and is a grace for which
many a visitor to a northern garden has sighed in vain.

With our clear skies and intense sunshine, coolness and
shade are eminently desirable in the gardens, but unless our

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COMFORT IN THE GARDEN

ancestors were thoughtful enough to plant them for us, we
Americans are not given to planting trees for ourselves, ex-
cept Norway maples and Carolina poplars for street trees —
and these in such positions that the telephone companies are
certain to chop oflf their heads. Perhaps, we lack the neces-
sary faith and patience to plant for posterity. Besides, pos-
terity may live abroad or choose some other dwelling-place —
so what's the use ? Yet there are beautiful trees — ^beech and
Oriental plane, linden and horse-chestnut, pin-oaks and white
oaks, and the friendly sugar-maples.

If the contractors, in their march through the Georgia of
newly captured territory, could be persuaded to leave only
the trees they might leave with no possible hurt to their pockets,
many a suburban garden would be infinitely the richer for a
stately oak or beech. But the majority of folk in small sub-
urban places have not sufficient courage or vision to plant
for more than twenty-five years ahead — ^possibly by that time
the suburbanite hopes to have his country estate. Doubtless,
the most satisfying trees for a suburban gardener's planting
are fruit-trees. These, even from their infancy, are charming,
and though he may never have the pleasure of seeing them
through maturity, he has the pleasure of watching for flower
and fruit every year. One of the prettiest of garden boimd-
aries is a dry stone wall with apple-trees looking over it: and
if a walk be next the wall, with a three-foot flower space
between, it will be just shaded enough to be pleasant, and
the flowers will have a charming backgroimd.

Grape-arbor and orchard were an essential part of the
older gardens — and a very lovely part. Our grandmothers'
contentment with the lack of verandas with which every sort
of a modem coimtry house is abimdantly supplied, is explained
by the arbors and summer-houses which their gardens were

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THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

sure to possess — ^these and the near-at-hand orchard. Surely,
it would be a joy and a rest to the farmer's wife if the way
to the kitchen-garden were through a grape-arbor. For a
single summer, a most useful "pergola" covering the same
route could be made of bean-poles and their vines. And
the housewife would have a shaded walk which would tempt
her or her maid to go to the garden itself for fresh vegetables.

If a woman has not leisure to walk among the flowers —
and many a farmer's wife has not — ^the obvious thing is to
border with flowers her necessary walks. In a qhanning little
garden in Charleston, S. C, garden peas grow side by side with
sweet peas, and who must pick the one for his dinner is also
tempted to feed his soul by picldhg the other. And the way
to both is through an arbor overgrown with roses.

If, instead of taxing his brain to find flowers that will grow
under a tree, the gardener should abandon the problem and
plant instead a comfortable garden-bench, many a visitor
would be glad of the chance to sit down and call him blessed.

In construction, garden-benches should be simple in line,
heavily and substantially built, that they have not only an
appearance of stabiUty, but do not need to be rushed to shelter
in case of rain. They should be able to stand wind and weather.
Also they are much better home-made. A bench or a seat of
rough construction, if suited to the place, is almost invariably
far more pleasing than a manufactured one, which never can
win the look of having been "born and growed" in the place.
In a Connecticut garden, where a pool and beyond it an old
apple-tree terminate the central garden-path, there two curved
benches, forming a semicircle, with the apple-tree at their
centre, make a delightful place to sit and survey the garden
and, although comparatively new, give the feeling of having
always been there.

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o
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COMFORT IN THE GARDEN

One of the most delightful instances of fitting a garden-
bench to a tree is at Mr. Stephen Parrish's place at Cornish,
N. H. Here a curving grass path leads to a giant pine-tree,
from which one has a wonderful view of valley and river and
mountains and far-stretching blue hills. Across the path, just
the right distance from the tree, a long, curved seat is fitted into
the bank. It is stained a dull green and brown imtil it looks
as if it were almost a part of the moss and pine-needles.

The built-in seat in the garden has somewhat the same
charm as a window-seat in a house. Some of the most in-
teresting examples of built-in seats are at Cornish. The pergola,
also, at Mr. Stephen Parrish's which forms the northern boun-
dary of his garden, uniting house and garden, has a long, low
seat against one side and is a most delightful loimging-place.
From it one looks across a radiant little garden with a pool in
the centre, which reflects the colors and yet gives a sense of cool-
ness on any day.

The stone seats built into the four-foot-high dry stone wall
of Miss Rose Nicholas garden are very attractive, shaded as
they are by dwarf fruit-trees. Admirable in their talent for
fitting the place are the four curved seats which surround a
shaded pool and make it the centre of the garden.

There is nothing occult in the placing of garden-benches.
Very often, it is true, marble benches or their similitude in
concrete or stone are placed in purely decorative positions,
where they "balance" and give a certain finish to the garden.
But these are analogous to the chairs in the 1830 parlor, placed
in strategic positions, on which no one was expected to sit.
As Bacon says, they are among "the things that make for
state and magnificence, but add nothing to the true pleasure
of a garden."

Where should a garden-seat be? Precisely where one

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THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

wants it. Usually this will be in the shade, because sitting
in the shade is pleasanter than in the sun; and it should, if
possible, command a charming prospect, because it is far more
agreeable, when one is sitting resting, to have something goodly
to look on than not. For these reasons at the end of a path
is a good place or where there is an exceptionally fine view.

No great expense, either of time or money or labor, is re-
quired to make a garden comfortable — ^merely that in making
it the gardener have an eye to his own comfort, as well as that
of the plants. And when our gardens are more comfortable,
they will be Uved in more and loved the better.

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THE USE AND ABUSE OF THE PERGOLA

The pergola in America is both sinned against and sinning.
It appears in the same ease with Longfellow's heroine who had
the little curl —

"When she was good, she was very, very good.
And when she was bad, — ^she was horrid!"

With the idea of the pergola — ^that of a shaded, vine-covered
arbor through which one may walk — no one has any quarrel;
it is the expression of the idea that is at times appalling.

The pergola is, as I have said, more sinned against, and
the chiefest of its misfortimes is due to the lack of what in
another sphere would be called social tact on the part of its
author; wherefore we constantly see pergolas, excellent in
themselves, brought into close association with buildings of
a type with which they should not have had even a bowing
acquaintance. A pergola almost classic in its severity of de-
sign must suflFer sorely when set down beside a careless, ram-
bling house of the bimgalow order and a garden which is quite
as informal and even more coquettish than the house. Pre-
cisely as out of place find imcomfortable is a rustic pergola,
obtruded into the decorous shadow of an old Colonial house.
The architect in either case may be serenely unconscious of
having done anything amiss; yet the primary impulse which
deters a man from completing with an evening coat a cos-
tume of tennis flannels or golf trousers, should have restrained

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THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

him. These things ought not so to be; yet unfortunately
they are; and they are of such frequent occurrence that a
pergola that is in perfect harmony with the house is lurer
than one that isn't. Yet it should not need much wisdom
to see that, if there is any architecture in the garden, it ought
to echo the architecture of the house.

Another sin against the pergola Ues in placing the un-
fortunate structure where it is absolutely futile and has no
reason whatever for its existence. William Morris's dictum
holds good in garden craft: there should be nothing beautiful
which is not useful. Now a pergola naturally is doubly use-
ful: it affords a support for vines, and it provides a pleasant
and shaded walk; it answers the purpose of the "pleached
alley*' of the older gardens for the shade of which one has
to wait a number of years imtil its trees are grown. But the
first duty of a walk is to lead somewhere; also there is no
possible reason for the existence of a supporting structure
unless there is something for it to support. Yet for all this
it is not imcommon to see an unhappy pergola marooned in
the centre of a wide lawn with not even a vine wherewith to
bless itself.

Aside from- the misplacement — ^though that is the worst
sin — ^the pergola itself is often faulty in construction. This
is a light error to that of being in a place where it has no right
to be at all. Proportion is, in its construction, of first impor-
tance; very often the pergola is altogelier too narrow for its
height. Eight feet wide, eight feet high, and eight feet be-
tween the posts is a satisfactory distance in every way. .

Another cause of suffering to those who have to look at
it is the lack of overhead vines. It's well enough to have
crimson ramblers grow up the sides — ^if you like them, though
there are better roses — ^but, unless there are enough vines

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THE USE AND ABUSE OF THE PERGOLA

overhead to make a really eflFective shade, the structure with
its heavy unoccupied beams will suggest a section of an ele-
vated-railroad-trestle, which in a garden is an unfortunate sug-
gestion.

Unless the garden is very elaborate and very definitely
separated from the house — ^though no good garden should
be — ^the pergola ought to be constructed in relation to the
house; it need not be closely related, but some degree of re-
lation it should have. Its architecture should, as I have said,
echo the architecture of the house, or at least be in keeping
with it. If one's house is Colonial, then it is wisest to forego
the pergola and content oneself instead with the long, wide,
low arbor which belongs to that period.

When seen at its best and in its most comfortable position,
the pergola extends from the house along the Unes of the house,
and makes a shaded place from which one may look out upon
the garden; or else it forms one side of the garden, perhaps
arching the boundary walk; usually it "leads somewhere" —
to a pool with seats about it; a statue or sundial is at the end;
it opens on a beautiful vista or leads into a charming path.
It is well to supply the visitor with a reason, however slight,
for taking the walk besides the undoubted value of exercise.
I remember a charming arbor — ^I dare say it would have been
styled a "pergola" in the North — ^in a little garden in Colum-
bia, S. C; this led wisely, conveniently, and pleasantly from
the rear of the house to the kitchen-garden.

In this country some of the most satisfactory pergolas
have been designed by Mr. Charles R. Piatt, who is pecu-
liarly gifted in the matter of relating the house to the garden.

Pergolas may be useful as well as ornamental. Another
useful one, simple and rough in construction, designed by George
F. Pentecost, Jr., for the tradesmen's entrance to a coimtry

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house — a hundred-yard-long driveway. On both sides of this
road were originally a long line of grape-vine treUises. The
architect took the cue, left the vines undisturbed, but put taller
posts and overhead crosspieces. The vines quickly covered
them, not only making a completely shaded road, but screening
chicken houses and yards from the lawn on the other side
of the road. It was this same landscape-architect, who made
another cleverly useful pergola — this one on the estate of John
Wanamaker, Jr. Besides its legitimate use, this pergola serves
as a back-stop to a tennis-court; fine wire-netting is on the
outside to stop a chance ball, but a heavy lattice is also pres-
ent so that the netting is unnoticed; there are seats whereon
interested folk may sit and watch the game. The wood of the
structiu^ is varnished with spar varnish and the choice of vines
is pecuHarly good — ^trumpet-creeper and bittersweet, if I re-
member correctly — ^both rich in the orange tones that harmo-
nize well with the color of the spar varnish.

The character of the vines wherewith a pergola is adorned
does not receive half the attention it ought to have. I do
not believe it is the place for roses; their flowering season is
brief; their foliage rarely dowered with enduring charm; the
winter protection, often necessary, is unsightly. Then, too,
covering or embellishing the sides of a pergola is, as I have
said, comparatively unimportant; it is the overhead vine that
matters — ^the varying shadows cast by leaf and stem on the
brick walk below are very charming and a lovely thing to
watch — ^yet rarely is this considered. In this matter of shadows
and overhead shade, the wild grapes are pecuHarly lovely;
their heavy foliage gives dense shade in the summer when
one craves it; the exquisite character of leaf and stem in earliest
spring, the charm in October of the ripening grape-clusters —
all of this makes it a vine much to be desired. Another vin^

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THE USE AND ABUSE OF THE PERGOLA

rarely beautiful overhead, is the wistaria; it is lovely in May,
when in full bloom, lovely when the petals are falling; it has
a gracefulness and a poetry that the Crimson Rambler never
thought of. There are other pergola vines — ^Virginia creeper,
bittersweet, clematis, trumpet-vine — ^but none for overhead
effect compare with these two, the wistaria and the wild
grapes; that is, for northern gardens. In the South there
is a wider range; here roses as pergola vines are perfectly
possible, even admirable. Especially is it true that if the
pergola have any beauty of structure and grace of line, this
ought not to be obliterated by a rank growth of vines as if
it were a back-yard fence, for which reason again the overhead
vines are desirable.

Undoubtedly the present enthusiasm for a so-called Italian
garden is responsible for the frequency with which this long-
suffering pergola is haled into gardens with which it has noth-
ing in common. There is a prevalent impression that if one
has a pergola, one has an Italian garden. But a pergola does
not make an Italian garden any more than the single foreign
garment that a heathen proudly assumes, arrays him com-
pletely in the garb of civilization — ^though in either case the
one may be a part of the whole. But if, instead of haling into
our garden by the head and hair, as it were, pergolas and
marble exedrse, we should bring from the gardens of Italy
a sense of their beauty of proportion, their balance and sym-
metry, a touch of the skill and exquisite perfectness with which
the Italian garden is fitted to the landscape and the character
of the coimtry — ^it would be a blessed thing for American gar-
dening. For these are things that, like the Kingdom of Heaven,
should be sought first, and then pergolas like the other good
things may safely be added unto them.

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WHY GARDENS GO WRONG

Bringing up plants is very much like bringing up children.
There are folk who understand the matter instinctively — ^but
not many. To embark suddenly on a large garden enterprise —
to begin with a wide variety of trees and shrubs and plants,
expecting them all to prosper — ^is like adopting an entire
orphan asylum and then wondering why each individual
child doesn't do one credit.

Therefore, for one's peace of mind and for one's credit in
the community, it is better, when making a first year's gar-
den, to bid valor wait on discretion and choose the strongest
and most easily grown plants, turning resolutely from extraor-
dinary novelties as from so many temptations of the devil.

There are, in gardening, obvious evils for which there are
definite remedies, such as when insects descend or when disease
thins the ranks; but when, with no apparent cause, one plant
or another simply does not flourish, here are some of the pos-
sible causes:

When Shrubs or Trees Do Not Succeed

Wrong Planting. — ^The hole may have been neither wide
enough nor deep enough, in which case the roots were cramped,
perhaps broken. Not only should the hole admit the roots
comfortably, but there should be room enough for a shovelful
of manure in the bottom to give the plant-roots some incentive
to go down. In planting, look for the earth-mark on the stem
and plant it precisely as deep — no deeper.

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WHY GARDENS GO WRONG

Starvation. — ^More plants snflfer from this than is supposed,
for to many people soil is an imknown and unknowable ele-
ment — ^the thing that one covers roots with, and anything will
answer. It is on new places and where grading has been done
that starvation for garden or lawn is especially immanent.
Contractors have a distressing habit of burying the good top-
soil several feet deep, while the hard-pan is put on top; which
labor-saving process makes a good lawn or garden impossible
for several years. Another situation in which plants are likely
to starve is when planted near a pergola or a piazza. Vines
here are rarely given enough to eat. If a wistaria, for instance,
is to flourish, remember the distance it is to travel and pro-
vision its new home accordingly. It should have a hole dug
four feet deep, a yard square, and the space filled in with good
soil well mixed with manure.

Too Mich a Diet. — ^Perhaps the shrubs have had the other
extreme; they have had too much manure. When they "run
to leaves," as gardeners say, and do not flower, they may
have been overeating. Any manure used must be well rotted
and not fresh, and well mixed with soil. The roots must not
come into direct contact with it or they will suffer.

Planted Too Late. — If trees or shrubs have been planted
when coming into leaf, they have a hard time of it; they are
like people who begin to work directly after an operation,
omitting the period of rest and recovery.

Shrubs planted when leafing out should be cut "hard back"
to enforce rest after the shock of transplanting, so that the
roots will have less to feed while making their connections
with suppUes. If this was not done, and the newly planted
shrub left with all its leaf-buds to care for, the poor thing
was subjected to a severe strain, and may well have shown
the effects of it.

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Overcrowding. — ^It is customary to plant shrubs and yoimg
trees closely for immediate eflfect, with the praiseworthy in-
tention of thinning out later, but the thinning is rarely done,
and there is no way for the shrubs to secure the space they
need but the jimgle method of killing one another imtil only
the strongest survive. If, therefore, the plants are too close
for comfort, dig them up in the early spring, while still dor-
manti and set them at a peaceable distance from one another.

If Your Flowers Don't Grow

They May Be Too Near Trees. — Gardeners have a quite im-
necessary panic if the bole of a tree is not hidden by shrub-
bery, and if nothing whatever is planted beneath, and yet
half of a tree's beauty is in the outline of stem and branches
balanced by the quiet stretch of greensward beneath. If
grass will not grow, the trees when left to themselves will
usually provide a very charming carpet of brown dead leaves
and little hardy ferns; but to attempt flower-beds underneath
them is a mistake — ^both trees and plants will be unhappy,
and the trees will do their best to prevent you. Elms wiH
eat up everything within reach and send their roots fifty feet
if necessary, and to plant such "heavy feeders" as roses or
dahlias near them is but to plant disappointment for oneself.
But you can plant lilies-of-the-valley, and tuck into the ground
any quantity of early flowering bulbs which will come up
year after year in the grass. This is more satisfactory to all
concerned.

Plants in the Wrong Place, — ^Be sure to find out the situa-
tion a plant likes before sowing the seed or setting out the
root. It is useless to expect sun-loving plants to bloom in
the shade; they won't do it; but there are many plants that
not only like but require partial shade, such as tuberous

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WHY GARDENS GO WRONG

begonias, many varieties of lilies, petunias, Coreopsis, Cali-
fornia poppies. And mignonette has no objection to it. If
there are shady places which must be planted, you can always
put in ferns or liUes-of-the-valley, Monarda, German iris,
pansies, or forget-me-nots.

Wrong Soil. — ^Any one knows that some flowers grow wild
in moist, shady places, others in dry, barren spots; therefore
one cannot expect that within a garden all will like the same
diet. The wise gardener will do one of two things; either he
will plant such things as will like his soil, or else he will fit his
soil to the plants he wants in his garden. With a stiflf, clayey
soil and plenty of manure, one can have roses, dahhas, zinnias,
in abundance; with a light, sandy soil one can have poppies,
nasturtiums, and tea-roses in luxuriance, but not sweet peas.
Therefore, before planting, find out what maimer of soil your
plants prefer, and whether you can meet their preferences.

Wrong Watering. — ^AU plants like to have their leaves
sprinkled, but to sprinkle the soil about them as a means of
giving the roots a drink does very Uttle good, and a thorough
soaking once a week is infinitely better than a sUght daily wet-
ting. When flowers or vines are planted near a house they are
in especial danger of suffering from lack of water and should
have much more than in other situations. Among the plants
which are heavy drinkers are dahlias, heliotrope, forget-me-
nots, Japanese iris. Nasturtiums and poppies both will starve
and go thirsty contentedly, only blooming the better.

Overcrowding. — ^This is a frequent cause of ill health. Prob-
ably more plants fail to reaUze the gardener's expectations
from lack of thinning in early life than from any other one
cause. When sweet peas turn yellow and look bhghted, over-
crowding in infancy is almost always the reason. It requires
quite a Uttle heroism on the part of the gardener to properly

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thin plants, a Brutus-like firmness to pull up the infant an-
nuals that their fellows may have enough to eat.

Lack of Picking. — ^It is the seeding, not the flowering, that
exhausts a plant's vitality, and many flowers — sweet peas,
corn-flowers, pansies — ^will bloom continuously if kept picked
and not allowed to go to seed.

These are a few of the rocks wheron one's gardening ad-
venture is most like to meet shipwreck, and to note dangers
beforehand is one of the surest ways of avoiding labor and
sorrow.

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GARDEN BOUNDARIES

In the matter of garden boundaries, there are two widely
diflFering view-points. The folk who hold that a garden should
be a thing apart —

"All grace summ'd up and closed in little,"

a charming picture, but a framed one, house and garden to-
gether making one architectural whole — ^these wish a defibaite,
plainly indicated boundary for the enclosed garden. Of these
the late John Sedding is one of the best exponents.

The other view-point is that the garden should simulate
a natural or rather accidental planting, that the "made"
garden should melt imperceptibly into the surrounding coun-
try; so that, while the natural scenery about the house has
been embellished, the fact that it has been designedly em-
bellished should not be evident. Very much as a woman may
resort to various devices to enhance her natural endowment of
beauty, yet it is not desirable that one may detect where the
natural leaves off and the artificial begins.

For the folk who hold this view of gardening the only
boundaries possible are irregular plantations of low-growing
trees or shrubs or tall perennials. Or else, if there be a more
definite boimdary — ^a fence or wall, or the like — ^it is concealed
by planting.

This type of boundary, although it seems easy — ^as draw-
ing seems easy, as "acting naturally" on the stage seems
easy — ^is really exceeding difficult. Unless very skilfully done.

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"naturalistic" planting is as sure to look artificial as rouge
on a woman's face. I remember a place on which the owner
had spent miUions, where an irregular "natural" boundary
was interpreted by a succession of huge scallops, purple Prunus
Pissardii at the points, golden elder in the centre, where a
"loose undergrowth of rhododendrons" was represented by
stuffing the space under lovely roadside trees with highly
colored hybrid rhododendrons of wildly dissimilar colors, as
tightly packed as bunched asparagus. To imitate nature
isn't the simplest thing in any art. In gardening as elsewhere
it requires rare skill.

Sometimes these differing view-points are imited, and we
have the grounds harmonized with the landscape by skilfid
planting, while next the house is the garden proper, definitely
enclosed (with hedge or wall or whatever one likes best), while
from the outside the fact that it is enclosed may be disguised
by planting.

The chief value of the "naturalistic" planting lies in con-
cealing the limitations of a place and making it look far more
extensive than it really is — ^in making one feel that the grounds
are closed in by woodland into which one might go if he liked,
rather than by the hard and fast borders of a "lot." In this
veiling and enhancing of distances the Japanese are past
masters, and it is from them that we shall have to learn the
art.

In making an irregular boundary the important considera-
tion is. How far from the house is the boundary? How
dressed, in character, are the grounds ? Because planting that
looks admirable from a distance seems near at hand ragged and
unkempt, while a planting of shrubs well enough for a fifty-
foot suburban yard is hopelessly inadequate at a hundred and
fifty yards. The Judas-tree, for instance (which some land-
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GARDEN BOUNDARIES

scape-gardeners consider diflScult to manage because of its
color), "carries" beautifully from a distance of two himdred
yards or more. Grouped with the white dogwood, which
slightly precedes, and the Halesia, which follows, it is very
lovely. Even alone against the background of green, or among
other trees not yet awakened it has a rare beauty — ^the whole
tree from the ground to topmost twig flushed with deep rose-
color that is a quarrelsome magenta near at hand, but from
a distance not a bit too strong. The eye picks it out as it
picks out a scarlet maple in a swamp — ^with the same delight.
But the Judas-tree in a group of shrubbery ? Oh, no !

For boundary planting at a distance, young trees and
trees of secondary growth are invaluable. Young white birches,
yellow birches, the delicate hemlock with hazel for its pale-
yellow bloom in November, the black birch, which is never
sung but which is an exquisite thing in early spring, the poplar-
leaved birch — these make a lovely bordering plantation for
a dry soil; for lower ground, the young swamp-maple, dog-
wood, scarlet-berried alder, Halesia and Judas-tree, Amelan-
chier and cornel-tree. They arrange their branches themselves,
if let alone, and will have f ohage to the grass. With them, there
is no need for the gardener to distress himself about filling in
and stuffing the interstices with shrubs — ^the space takes care
of itself. But here, at their feet, at the margin of your toy
woodland, is a wonderful place for naturaUzing bulbs and all
sorts of lovely wild things.

For nearer planting the considerations are different. The
orders are plain enough, "the planting must be natural,"
"keep an open centre," "mass the shrubbery" — ^well enough.
But the grass is not in a natural state; it is smooth-shaven,
and the shrubs, instead of being picked out by the eye in their
brief season of splendor only, the rest of the time relapsing

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into an indistinguishable greenery, are in evidence the whole
time. Like the actors in a Chinese theatre, they do not leave
the stage when their lines are said. It is not only the color
that counts. There are other qualities and characteristics quite
as important; the habit counts, the foliage counts, whether
the shrub combines well with its fellows or is dissimilar counts.
Wherefore, with a smooth-shaven lawn and a position near
the house, a more polished character is necessary in the shrubs,
and especially an all-the-year-around interestingness.

Here again the low-growing trees are exceedingly desirable.
Among the best for planting at close range are the magnolias —
Soidangeana conspicua and S. LennS. These are graceful and
interesting when not in bloom, charming in their winter buds
and gorgeous in April and May. There is nothing lovelier
for a close-range planting than Magnolia consjncvki with, at
.its feet, Scilla and crocus spreading out into the grass. An-
other magnolia, M. stellata^ is one of the loveliest, but it does not
group well — ^it is compact and symmetrical in habit, and is
better planted by itself or against a hedge of dark evergreens.
The Comus florida^ the red-flowering variety or the white,
combines well, if low-branched and not "trimmed up" with
others of the Cornus, C, Amomuniy C. candidissima. With the
lilacs, plant Exochorda, which is very graceful and follows just
after their glory is departed. Combine Forsythia viridissima
with Spircea Thunbergii; Forsythia suspensa with Spiroea van
Huttei or Deutzia gracilis. Rose-colored or crimson weigelia
can be put with the first group; the forsythia has finished
blooming before it appears, and in habit it is not unlike.

For the north side, rhododendrons, which are best by them-
selves, or, if combined, they should be with Ghent azaleas or
the native A. calendukeceay which follows. Auratum liUes thrive
well in the bed with rhododendrons. Andromeda floribunda

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GARDEN BOUNDARIES

or A, CatesHi does well when a lower-growing plant is needed
with the rhododendrons.

As to how the planting is done, how the coast-line is made
irregular, the easiest way is this: When trees are to be planted,
take tall stakes, six feet, perhaps, stick them in the ground
where you think you want the trees, then go oflf at a distance
and look. The trees must not advance on your domain as a
solid phalanx, but as pine-trees from the pasture come in and
take possession of neglected mowing-land; when together in
a group they grow bolder and encroach farther, making httle
capes and promontories into which the green sea of the meadow
extends, until you cannot tell where the wood leaves oflf and
the meadow begins. When very well done, this may be lovely,
but rarely is it well done.

The other type of boundary, though considered more am-
bitious, is really simpler; the most extreme form is the high
wall which belonged to all the old gardens, coming from the
days when defense was necessary and the garden must needs
be an enclosure if it was to be garden at all; the walled gar-
den, frequent enough in Europe, is rarely seen here except in
the South — ^which is a pity, for it has a charm of its own, and
if in the city it were the rule, instead of the omnipresent bill-
board-hke partitions between the back yards, our small city
gardens could attain a permanent beauty. There is a beauty
in an old wall which a board fence cannot, by any stretch of
the imagination, claim:

"Oh, the old wall here, How I could pass
Life in a long midsummer's day.
My feet confined to a plot of grass.
My eyes from the wall not once away !**

But would Browning or any one else sing thus enthusiastically
of a board fence? Besides, do what one will to conceal it, it's

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there, it's ugly, you know it, and during eight months in the
year it shows plainly and every one knows it. For city gar-
dens there should be walls of the same material as that of
which the house is built. If the house is of wood, then a fence,
if you like, but one of good design, not a bill-board to be hidden.
Some of the older fences were dignified and admirable, with
pilasters of good proportion, tall enough to give a good eflfect.

Some of the best garden walls and fences in this country
are to be seen in Charleston, S. C. Here is sometimes a wall
relieved by blind arches — ^the bricks in the intervening spaces
being only one foot thick and covered with plaster, and against
the walls are blossoming fruit-trees, pomegranates, Japanese
plums, roses, and oleanders, and over them grows ivy — ^it's a
lovely setting for a city garden.

As a substitute for the wall or the fence comes the living
wall of green — ^the hedge. In this coimtry we have no hedge
that exactly takes the place of the English yew, which cannot
endure our variable chmate. In fact, the chief objection to a
hedge in America is a climatic one — ^that there may be a day
of judgment when two or three plants of a twenty-year-old
hedge are, after living so long, killed in an imusually dilQSicult
winter. And then there is the hole ! To find plants of the same
size is not easy, unless one has planted and maintained a re-
serve for just such an emergency.

The usual hedges in the North are arbor-vitse, spruce, hem-
lock, California privet. The Japanese holly, of which much
was hoped, is not altogether trustworthy north of New York.
In the South, where a much wider range is possible — ^ilex or
magnolia can be used. A wonderful hedge could be made of
cameUias, though I never have seen them used for such a pur-
pose.

At Cornish, in New Hampshire, Saint-Gaudens made tall

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hedges of the common white pine; it was rapid, easily trans-
planted, growing in poor soil, and has there made a very satis-
factory boundary; of its permanent value, one cannot be sure
— ^immediate eflfect and permanence are not always met to-
gether, and we Americans are not fond of planting for posterity.
On summer-places it is odd that deciduous hedges are not
used oftener. Beech makes an excellent tall hedge, as any
one can see who has been to the Harvard botanic garden.
Another tall hedge which would be admirable in the North,
and very sure to grow without diflSculty, is the native thorn —
Crataegus — in some of its many varieties. This is very lovely in
May, when its white bloom would make an exquisite setting for
the early bulbs, and when green again it would be as suitable a
background for the flowers as any privet, and in the autumn
it would be gay with scarlet berries which would hold their hfe
and vividness long after the last chrysanthemums had gone.

For the remodelled farm one of the simplest of garden
boundaries, and one very much in keeping with farm sim-
pUcity, is the low stone wall with a close-set row of fruit-trees
behind it. This makes both a definite boundary for the gar-
den and a very charming background for the flowers, while
on the fruit-tree side will be the kitchen-garden, the orchard,
or field.

The windbreak often becomes a garden boundary on a
farm. The windbreak, as every one knows, is a row of close-
set trees planted about fifty feet from the house on the wind-
ward side and the cold side, whichever that may be. It serves
as a shelter for the flower-garden or the kitchen-garden; also,
it sets it oflf; it materially reduces the furnace bills. The
windbreak may be of any trees that grow well in that locahty;
if made of thorn or honey-locust, it will keep out cattle as well
as barbed wire. In the bleak, wind-swept New England towns

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of the Atlantic coast windbreaks would be a godsend to the
gardens and no small blessing to those who work therein.
Why since the time of the Pilgrim fathers, for nearly three
hundred years, the good folk have gardened without them,
and exposed both their bushes and their persons to the bleak
North Atlantic winds, is diflScult to understand. It can only
be accoimted for by the New England preference for dilBScul-
ties and the Puritan aversion to a life of ease for themselves
or their flowers.

A grape-arbor or even a grape-trellis of single posts does
well for boundary purposes on the farm. It is a division; it
affords a setting for flowers, and yet to its back may be fas-
tened wire-fencing stout enough to keep out cattle; or if,
instead of heavy wire, the homely but useful chicken-wire is
stretched, the hens can be securely excluded, which on a farm
is no slight achievement.

With the treUis one comes to the other form of garden
boundary which Bacon calls "carpenter work."

In more elaborate designs, the pergola makes a peculiarly
appropriate garden wall. But a pergola is not a thing to be
rashly set up in one's garden. If it doesn't fit, it is one of the
most distressing of garden adjimcts. It should be in relation
to the house and architecturally in harmony with it; there-
fore, whoever plans one had best consult the architect who
built his house.

The grape-arbor is a humbler form of pergola, more unas-
suming; in fact, it has no architectural pretensions. It seems
to differ from the pergola in being of simpler, ruder construc-
tion, utilitarian solely, and it has lateral supports; narrow
strips running lengthwise, two feet apart perhaps, are conve-
nient for training the vines, which should make a lateral growth
as well as an upright one.

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As for the mechanical side of garden boundaries, the all-
important consideration with the living ones, whether hedges
or irregular planting, is that the trees or the shrubs should
grow, and that speedily.

In a bordering plantation near the seacoast or for a wind-
swept garden it is necessary to plant closely at first, yet not to
make a solid wall of trees that will offer a broadside to the
wind and so be easily demolished or seriously injured. The
gales should be met head on by small groups of trees standing
shoulder to shoulder, one a bit behind the other, in a kind of
wedge-shaped formation, so that the foreground ones in any
stress of weather lean back on their brothers and do not take
the brunt of the gale alone. Whatever the desired form of
the tree-belt on the garden side, this should be the formation
for the windward side. Later, when the trees are well estab-
lished, they will close up and form, if you wish it, a solid wall
of green for the garden boundary, but these broken groups
are the speediest way to establish it.

The soil should be, of course, well prepared and deeply
dug; especially is this necessary for a hedge. If during its
early years the hedge is clipped hard back, it will be thick and
bushy at the bottom, where thickness and bushiness is espe-
cially desirable. If this has not been done, no amount of
cutting back in later years will make an evergreen hedge throw
out branches at the base.

In an irregular shrub-and-tree border the most important
care is rarely given, and that is adequate thinning. Many a
landscape-gardener makes his plantation with an eye to imme-
diate effect, intending, of course, to thin later, when the trees
are fairly well grown, but he never has the chance to do it,
and the owner of the place either neglects it completely or
else, if aware something should be done, is afraid to touch it;

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but whatever the motive, the result is the same and the shrubs
become choked, the young trees stufiFed with the undergrowth.
The lightness and airiness it might have had at close range,
while presenting from a distance the outline of varying green,
is wholly absent.

The other type of boimdaries need, of course, practically
no care, except occasional paint if they are of wood. It should
be remembered, however, that vines near a pergola or a fence
need especially good soil and plenty of water, for the ground
there is sure to be drier than elsewhere.

Some of the best vines for planting on walls are, for a year-
roimd beauty, the English ivy, the Etumymus radicans vegeta,
and, for summer decoration, wistaria, Ampelopsis Vetchii,
trumpet-vine, and Clematis panicidata. The best pergola
vines are wild grape and wistaria.

The setting of the garden may not seem as important as
the garden proper, but it is important for the plants. A charm-
ing song may be marred by a poor accompaniment — ^an inade-
quate, ill-suited frame is an affront to a beautiful picture; no
woman, however lovely, can look her best when her face is
framed in atrocious millinery. So with a garden. One of slight
pretensions suitably framed will have a charm and individu-
ality of its own and a satisfyingness which the most preten-
tious and expensive planting, if seen wholly without a setting,
may not possess.

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PLANNING A GARDEN ON PAPER

It is weD that "a man's reach should exceed his grasp,"
but when a woman's does (and most amateur gardeners are
women) the result is likely to be a case of nerve-exhaustion.
Therefore it is well, above all things, that the garden be small
enough or the planting of one's grounds simple enough to be
maintained in comfort both to one's self and to one's pocket-
book, that gardening may not become a weariness but re-
main a pleasure, and the garden be a dehght to the eyes in-
stead of a visible evidence of things undone.

There is no garden like the prospective garden. In the
mind's eye it blossoms like the rose of the most expert florist;
it is untouched by the terror of the cutworms which devour
in darkness, of the drought that wastes it at noonday; its flowers
bloom even as the rhetoric of the seedsmen.

Now, in order to realize this pleasing vision, there are cer-
tain homely details which, before she buys her seeds and de-
cides upon her summer's planting, the prospective gardener
would do well to consider, such as these: What sort of diet
can be provided for the plants? Is the soil rich or poor? If
poor, where can well-rotted manure be had ? How much can
be spent on fertilizer ? What water-supply is possible ? What
position can be given the plants: shade or sunshine, exposure
to wind or shelter?

And here are a few "Don'ts" for beginning gardeners:

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Don't try for bargains in plants. Get good, carefully
packed stock from a trustworthy, well-established firm.

Don't send In your order the last minute and expect to
get the choicest stock.

Don't begin your garden experience with extraordinary
novelties. Such plants usually require expert care to bring
forth anything but disappointment.

Don't try too many sorts nor plan too large a garden; a
few plants well-grown and a small garden well cared for are
better than many unhappy plants on a large area untended.

Don't slight the preparation of the ground.

Don't economize on manure.

Don't use any but well-rotted manure; if that is not avail-
able get commercial fertilizer.

Don't fail to find out all you can about the soil.

What You Can Do in the Winter

The time to read practical garden books is the winter. If
such books aren't available, excellent cultural directions are
usually foimd in the catalogues of the best seedsmen and
nurserymen, who know to their cost that, if things go wrong
because planting is not properly done, it is always (in the cus-
tomer's mind) the "fault of the plants." One must consider
well whether the garden is to have adequate care or but languid
attention. If but little time and energy be the portion of the
gardener he had best plant hardy vines beside his porch, give
the preference to shrubs rather than flowers, and select for his
flowers those complaisant ones which are fairly indifferent
to matters of diet and situation.

Plan the whole place carefully. If all can't be done or af-
forded in one year, why, patience is possible — "first the blade,
and then the ear " is good gardening as well as Scripture. Above

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all, make friends with some working gardener. You need not
take his advice on planting schemes, but you can learn to know
by the "feel" of it and the look of it if the soil is right, and how
the tiny seedlings may be pricked out and transplanted in
safety. If one remembers to have plenty of green in the gar-
den, to buy seeds of single colors instead of mixed sorts, and
to introduce violent and belligerent colors only with the ut-
most caution, nothing very dreadful can happen. And then
mistakes may be noted and misfortimes laid up in one's mind
for future profiting, becoming in this way very valuable.

The Way to Go About It Is This : Make a plan of the place
on paper, locating house and outbuildings, paths and drives,
existing trees and shrubs — the whole done to scale. Do this
on a good-sized sheet of paper, allowing, say, a quarter of an
inch to a foot. The squared paper used by architects greatly
facilitates this plan-making. Then, if there are unsightly spots
that must be shut oflf from the view by planting, mark them
down. It will be a convenience also to note the situation,
such as "shade" or "partial shade." Put down also the points
of the compass, that you may not forget and try to grow roses
on the north side of your house.

Next Consider What You Want If you prefer having a
display from the street, why, plan for it. If, on the other hand,
you care most for seclusion, for a place where one may have
tea and a chat in quietude, arrange to have it. This is difficult
to achieve in a suburb, but it may be done. One good lady
of my acquaintance has her porch so screened from the street
by shrubs that she can breakfast there in comfort of a June
morning, and have a glimpse of her garden the while, in as un-
vexed privacy as if within doors.

If there are children, then plan a playground where there
will be no restrictions; or, if the place be too small for that.

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restrict the plantings to shrubs and trees and vines that are
not likely to be trampled on.

Before indulging in any garden fancies, however, one must
make provision for the common, obvious needs of the house,
such as that here the coal is put in; here the ash-can must
stand; nor should one hide one's head ostrich-like from the
vociferant fact that the weekly washing is no rare exotic but
the hardiest of perennials, which, whether the flowers bloom
or not, can be counted upon to appear on the lawn of a Monday
with a very definite degree of certainty — ^and it is not decora-
tive. A drying-yard should be screened by shrubs, by a tall
hedge or a vine-covered lattice. It will add more to the ap-
pearance of a suburban place than many flower-beds.

Some Common Mistakes in Planting Are These: 1. Trees
too close to the house. This causes dark and damp rooms in
the upper stories by excluding air and simlight, and defeats
the purpose for which they were set out, since the shade is
cast on top of the house, not on the lawn; it also spoils the
effect of the tree, for the stem is so close that it gives the ef-
fect of a musket held against the shoulder; the foliage is too
near to serve as a frame. Fifty feet from the house is quite
near enough. In the suburbs, where the distance from house
to street is but slight, plant the shade-trees beside "tiwr side-
walk, not inside the grounds.

2. Scattering shrubs over the lawn. The smaller the space
the more necessary it is not to "clutter*' it. Keep an open
grass space and put your shrubs at the borders, taller-growing
shrubs at the back, and your grounds will look larger and be
more restful.

3. Filling up the space under trees with shrubs. Although
necessary sometimes, when one must have a close screen,
such planting spoils the effect of a tree which does not need

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such garnishing, and the shrubs rarely do well because of in-
sufficient soil-nourishment.

4. Breaking up the lawn space with flower-beds. In the
North, from October imtil June — eight months in the year —
such beds are brown, unsightly objects. "Bedding out" is
the most expensive and most exacting form of gardening.
The same flowers planted near the house, against a background
of vines, or in border beds with shrubs behind them, are in-
finitely more at home.

After one has arranged the planting so that the house and
grounds look as if they belonged to each other, next comes, if
you are to have one, the garden proper. If it be at a little dis-
tance there is less need of having it a "good match" for the
house. If you select a slightly sheltered situation, with pro-
tection of some sort from the heaviest winds, you can begin
your planting earlier and many of the plants will find it more
comfortable.

If the place is not brand-new and expressionless there are
likely to be some features — ^tree or shrub — ^which stand squarely
in the way of one's best-laid plans. Now, a good landscape-
gardener thinks a long time before obliterating any "feature,"
for the obstacle which blocks his path may prove (as in the case
of Balaam) an angel unawares: something which will give
character and individuality to the whole place. Therefore
first see if the garden can't be planned to fit the objection
and the obstacle become an essential part of the plan. Much
good gardening has resulted from having to put up defenses
against ugliness.

At a dehghtful place in Vermont an old apple-tree, which
very nearly had sentence passed upon it, now gives an at-
mosphere to the whole garden. And yet, on the other hand,
one should remember that the position of a shrub or tree is

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not as irrevocable as an act of Providence. If you are sure its
present place isn't the right one, if last year its color jarred
with that of its neighbor, why, dig it up carefully and put it
where it will comfort the eyes instead of worry them.

Then, with the pl&n before you, take your list of flowers
and shrubs and "plant" them. Write down "deutzia,'* "iris,"
and "poppies," and the like, where you think you will have
them go, and see how they fit as to situation, as to time of
blooming, and whether the colors are going to clash with one
another; if you foresee trouble change them about or select
something that will do better. Sometimes it is easier to make
three plans, one for spring, one for summer, one for autumn,
and arrange your planting on these. For a flower-garden one
often makes a plan showing the color scheme for each month.
If you are to be away all sunmier, use the space for autumn
and spring flowering plants, and in the summer let the garden
go bare as Mother Hubbard's larder. If it is a year-round
place, be sure to plan something that will give a bit of cheeri-
ness in the winter.

Impromptu Gardening

One's first instinct when ensconced in the average new
suburban home is to plant something at once — anything;
for real-estate syndicates, when "opening up" property, run
a kind of improving flat-iron, as it were, over the face of Mother
Earth until no natural feature, no tree or hillock, is left;
all is as smooth and expressionless as a pail of lard. About
the house there is no shrub or vine to bless the landscape,
no architectural features but the four clothes-posts in the
back yard. Into this hungry space one thrusts tree or shrub
or flower-bed — ^anything— to relieve the utter blankness. But
here the trouble begins.

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DorCt Plant in Haste to Repent at Leisure. — ^Under such
circumstances it is hardly possible that the planting is done
otherwise than in haste, and planting in haste is repented at
leisure. The selection is made hurriedly, the result of a rapid
visit to a near-by nursery, or at haphazard from a catalogue,
or from a vague remembrance of what some one else has
planted; the position of the shrubs and trees is determined
only when the plants themselves are lying on the ground with
roots exposed, and the laborer, shovel in one hand, plant in
the other, pauses to inquire: "Where shall I put it, ma'am?"

One can't make the inside furnishings of a house individual
and instinct with the personality of the owner, as every house
ought to be, by a single hasty descent upon a department
store; nor, "by the same token," can the surroundings of a
house — ^the garden — ^be arranged by a like proceeding. It is
because of this hasty selection and planting that so many
lawns look like bargain-counters in assorted shrubbery, though
their owners really "know better." The worst of hurried
buying is that it prevents more careful choosing.

Unless all has been carefuUy planned, it is far better to be
content for the first summer with temporary, inexpensive
planting. One can have an abundance of flowers by the sow-
ing of annuals, enough to last from mid-June until frost;
while the permanent planting — ^that is, trees and shrubs and
hardy perennials, which when once set in the ground are sup-
posed to stay "put" — may be left until the autumn.

Landscape-gardeners can make plans in January, but the
amateur is much more likely to know whether or not he wants
a f orsythia when he sees a shrub as golden as a patch of sun-
light on a neighbor's lawn than when its brown branches
alone are in evidence.

Therefore, instead of buying, look around and plan. If

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you are in the country, go into the woods and fields and find
out for yourself what manner of plants thrive in your locality.
K you are near the city, visit parks and botanical gardens.
K you are near Boston, don't miss the Arnold Arboretum at
Jamaica Plain; visit near-by nurseries — ^nurserymen don't
mind in the least your coming, whether you buy or not; in
this way you can make a personal acquaintance with the plants
at their season for receiving visitors. Many of the loveliest/
spring-flowering trees and shrubs are not so expensive as are
those one sees everywhere repeated to tiresomeness.

Therefore, look and make a tentative list. The children .
will enjoy the fun of such "choosing" immensely, when the
catalogue form is beyond them. Take a large piece of brown
paper and put a plan of your place on it, tack it up somewhere,
then, as you see shrub or plant, mark each name down on your
plan just where you think you would like to put it. So much
for the prospective garden. Now for the temporary one.

Temporary Gardening

K your soil is poor and you care to have a lawn that will
be the despair and admiration of your neighbors, you can do
nothing better than to plough the whole place, fertilize it, and
for this one summer turn riotously to vegetable-gardening;
grow corn and peas and beans in rows in your back yard; and
if you have enough indifference to public opinion to do the
like in front, plough and harrow as in the rear and sow crimson
clover; then border your front path with white Drummond's
phlox, so that the effect of the whole will be fairly good. There
will be no lawn-mower to menace your leisure, passers-by will
stop to admire the gorgeousness of the display, and in Septem-
ber you can plough it under, seed to grass, and you will have
saved enough on fertilizer and made enough on vegetables

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to pay for many plants, and your next summer's lawn will be
worth while. The crimson clover, by the way, should be
mowed after blossommg, before it seeds.

What to Plant and Where to Plant It

Against the house use annual vines, and plenty of them—
tall nasturtimns, Cobaea, Maurandya, the wild cucumber
{Echinocystis lobata) — and you will be sure of something;
especially lovely are the Ipomoeas, which may be had in a
wide variety of colors (the seeds of the great white moonflower,
by the way, are very hard, and to hasten germination it is
well to file a notch in the seed before planting — some Ipomoeas
need to be soaked in hot water before planting).

If your lot is directly against your neighbor's, with not
even a fence between, screen it by planting rows of com with
the tall and rather coarse white of the tobacco-plant (Nicoiiana)
in front of it, and deep-blue corn-flowers; this would give you
a pleasing combination. Rows of tall sunflowers with dwarfer
varieties in front to keep them from looking ungainly would
do as well; castor-beans would also be an effective screen, if
you like them. None of these screens would cost more than
thirty cents. Or put up a fence of chicken-wire, and on this
grow vines — ^wild cucumber, Ipomoea, Cobeea, or scarlet or
maroon nasturtiums. With only dark-red nasturtiums and
the greensward the plot would look very well.

If the grass is not good, which is probably the case, have
against your fence no striking color, only the green of the wild
cucumber and the green and white of the balloon- vine, and
make the rest of your garden frankly a picking-garden with
flowers in rows that a cultivator may run between — ^have
China asters in abundance, stocks, corn-flowers, poppies,
dahUas, marigolds, coreopsis, mourning-bride.

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If you like color schemes, African marigolds, orange and
yellow mixed, would be charming against a green background;
or zinnias — ^maroon, salmon, pink, and white varieties planted
in rows of five or six.

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WHAT TO PLANT

Many gardeners miss having some of the most delightful
plants just because they have got used to limiting their garden-
ing to sowing seeds of annuals in the spring and setting out
bedding plants a bit later, and the growing of perennials and
biennials seems a serious undertaking. Now these are not
difficult; the only difference is that they will not be hurried.
To borrow a simile from the kitchen, they are to annuals as
things made with yeast are to those raised with baking-powder:
they must be "set overnight" — that is, the seed must be sown
one season if the plants are to bloom the next. With many
perennials this is best done in July and early August for the
simple reason that this is the "natural method," that at this
time one may have the freshly ripened seed instead of last year's.

After the last transplanting is done in June the seed-bed is
made ready again, enriched with a little sheep manure, and
here are sown in narrow rows perenniab and biennials, which
in September will be ready for transplanting to their permanent
homes.

BiENNiAiA WmcH May Be Sown in Late July and Eakly August
FOB Next Year's Blooming, Peepbrably Before August 1 —
The Small Plants May Be Set Out in April or October

Biennial Evening-Primrose (CEnotkera biennis, variety Lamarck-
tana) grows to the height of three feet, and in late June and early
July bears a profusion of delicate lemon-yellow flowers. It will thrive
in any ordinary soil, but needs the sun.

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Canierbury-BeUs (Campanida medium). — ^The plants vary in height
from two to four feet and are a mass of bloom in late Jmie and July;
the flowers are white, pink, and blue, and very effective. Campanulas
require good soil and sunshine.

Foxglove (Digitalis), — ^A most comfortable plant for a new gar-
dener; it will grow in sun or half-shade, has no objections as to poor
soil, a northern exposure, or nearness to a stone wall. The flower-
spikes reach from two to three feet; both white and pink varieties
are charming, but the white is the most striking. Z>. gloxirundes is
the best variety.

Hollyhocks (Althea rosea). — ^Every garden should have its tower-
ing stalks of hollyhocks which are abloom in July and August. Give
them a rich soil, plenty of sunshine, and an occasional watering with
liquid manure. The best varieties are the dark maroon-red, salmon-
pink, white, and yellow.

Iceland Poppies {Papaver nvdicale). — ^These are charming little
reddish-orange flowers which bloom in early spring and again in late
autumn.

Sweet-WiUiam (Dianthus harbatus). — ^An old favorite which makes
a charming edging. The plants are about a foot and a half high,
and the flowers are in the gayest shades of pink and red, and also
in white. Once started, sweet-williams will sow themselves and need
little other care, thriving in any ordinary soil, but they need sun-
shine.

Wallflowers (Cheirardhus cheiri). — Golden-brown and yellow flowers
of delicious fragrance. Require protection in winter, a good soil, and
plenty of sun.

Perennials Which May Be Sown in July and Early August
— ^The Small Plants May Be Set Out in April or October

Columbine (AquUegia). — A well-known flower of charming colors
and rare delicacy of form, growing from one and one-half to three
feet in height. It is best grown from newly ripened seed, sown in
July and August. The seedlings should be kept shaded until the
plants are mature. Columbines thrive in ordinary soil, sun or half-
shade. There are many varieties which bloom in succession from
May until August.

English Daisies (Bellis perennis). — ^A charming Httle plant about
foiu" inches in height, with rosettes of heart-shaped leaves surmounted
by clusters of pink or white flowers, which bloom their best in early

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spring, continuing more or less throughout the summer. Delight-
ful when combined with forget-me-nots and tulips. These little
daisies need sunshine and good soil.

Pansiea ina.Y be sown now for winter-blooming in the frames.
They need a rich soil and prefer partial shade.

Larkspur (Delphinium). — ^A color exquisite in the garden, best
grown from freshly ripened seed sown now. The best varieties are
D. hyhridurriy D. jormosum^ and D. coelestum.

Homed Pansy (Viola comuia), — ^Especially good for carpeting
rose-beds, since it likes the same sort of soil, but has roots which do
not strike deep and rob the roses.

These are a few of the most important. There are many other
perennials which can be started in July and early August.

Garden Lilies Which Must Be Planted in August

Most lilies should be set out in October, but here are a few
which are positive in their preference for August. For lilies
the bed should be deeply dug — two feet at least; unless the
subsoil is of gravel, put in a layer of broken stone for drainage.
The soil is a very important factor. It should be composed
chiefly of muck and leaf-mould. Don't use manure — ^lilies hate
it as rhododendrons hate limestone; in fact, the two like very
much the same sort of soil. To avoid any chance of intimate
contact with soil they dislike, the lily bulbs are often placed on
a little cushion of sand. Set the bulbs twelve inches deep,
tipped on one side. Lilies should be protected in winter with
a mulch of leaves or straw litter at least three inches deep.

American Turk^s Cap IMy, — ^This is one of the lilies which should
be set out in August. It is a most striking plant, growing five to seven
feet high and bearing thirty to forty of the brilliant flowers with rich
orange petals, spotted with black and tipped with red. A clump of
them in July and August makes a blaze of color in the garden. This
lily is easily cultivated in rhododendron beds or naturalized among
wild flowers. It prefers half-shade, but grows well in the sun. There
is a Eiu*opean variety with purplish-crimson flowers, but the Ameri-
can is better.

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Canadian BeUflower IMy, — ^A June-blossoming lily which grows
wOd throughout New England and is strikingly decorative. The
clusters of nodding, bell-shaped flowers, yellow spotted with black,
are borne in spikes two to three feet high. Plant in a sunny location
in clumps of four or five. There is also a red variety; both are ex-
cellent for naturalization in a wild garden.

Madonna IMy {IMium candidum), — ^This is the piu*e white lily
of exquisite form which the early Italian painters often introduced
into their pictures of the Annimciation. The fragrant flowers are
clustered on spikes two to three feet high. It flowers in June, at the
same time as the larkspurs, with which it makes a very lovely com-
bination. One of the secrets of growing this lily is to set out the bulbs
in August.

The Bedding-Out Plants

These are those tender plants which may only be summer
visitors in the garden, since they are bom and raised in the
tropical climate of conservatory or greenhouse, only leaving it
in June to return to it in early October, unless they are aban-
doned to their fate and left out to die. Their chief end is to
be "eflPective" during their brief visit.

Much has been written against the "bedding-out" garden,
and with reason. It is usually more of a "show-garden" rather
than that of a flower-lover. In the North it means vacant
spaces of brown earth from October to July. Its chief sin is
that here a flower "degenerates into a colored ornament."
Plants are treated merely as an assemblage of colors — a bat-
talion in which, if a single member falters, the ranks must
instantly close.

That people misuse them is not the fault of the plants, and
if in June one's gardening is not begun, the "bedding-out"
plants in their character of summer visitors or "accommo-
dators" (as the pleasing Boston phrase characterizes women
competent to fill any and all deficiencies who come in when
the household service has gone wrong or vanished) are a very

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WHAT TO PLANT

present help, although Gi^e the aceommodators agam) they
are more expensive than their fellows, which can be cheaply-
raised from seeds one could have planted in April or May.
The following are the most important "bedding-out" plants:

Ageratum is a tender annual usually started in February under
glass and set out in June. It has soft, fluffy flowers of a vivid blue,
and has suffered much from being almost invariably planted with
red — a combination as popular and distressing as that of bright blue
on a red-haired girl. Blue in a garden requires plenty of green.

Begonias are best in a bed by themselves, so are fuchsias, though
they can sometimes be combined with other flowers — forget-me-
nots or pansies. The best bedding geraniums are Mrs. E. ELawson,
a single variety of a rich, glowing scarlet with sUght crimson shading
on the upper petals; Bicard, semi-double, bright vermilion, and Beaut6
or Madame Pointevine, the popular double salmon-pink variety.

Heliotropes may be had in dark or light shades. They combine
well with either geraniums or carnations.

Lobelia makes an excellent edging and keeps in good shape for an
unusually long period.

Lemon Verbena is grown for its fragrance, but its foliage is good.

Salvia is effective used as a low hedge on either side of a path,
but because of its vivid color it should never be planted near any-
thing but white flowers.

For a Ttoo-Foot-Wide Bed in Front of a Piazza try one row each
of heliotrope and geraniiuns, the plants being set out about six inches
apart; or fuchsias and begonias might be used in the same fashion,
the begonias at the edge.

To arrange a three-foot- wide border of salvia set the plants about
a foot apart; in alternating rows six to twelve inches apart.

What to Plant in Half a Dozen Beds

The following beds are supposed to be from three feet
and a half to five feet in width; if wider, a fourth row can be
added either of lower plants at the front, or of taller plants at
the back. Sweet peas could be used at the back of any of the
borders given below. For a wide border use cosmos; for one
to be seen from a distance, sunflowers are good.

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I. Zinnias (salmon-pink and
maroon).

Shirley Poppies and Corn-
flowers.

Edging of Dwarf Sweet
Alyssum.

n. Sweet Peas.

Mourning-Bride.

Yellow and white annual
Lupin.

Edging of Dianthus Sal-
mon King.

For the first bed sow the zinnias so that the seedlings will
be six inches apart; after the poppies and corn-flowers have
gone by, pull up the stalks and move forward the alternate
zinnias so that they stand a foot apart. For the second bring
forward the seedlings of mourning-bride after the lupin has
passed.

ni. Coreopsis atrosanguinea.
White Petunias.
California Poppies (edg-
ing).

IV. Double row of Gladioli
(pink and white and
pale yellow).

White or pink Balsam.

Edging of PhloiP Drwni-
mondii.

The third bed is for a shady place. For the fourth, when
double rows are used, as with the gladioli, set the plants al-
ternately — so:

xxxxxxxx

X X X X X X X

Nicotiana (Tobacco-Plant)
Dwarf Nasturtiums (ma-
roon-red and yellow).
Edging of Dwarf French
Marigolds.

VI. African Marigolds (yellow

and orange).
Blue and white annual

Larkspur.
Edging of Mignonette.

The fifth bed will grow for anybody. The sixth is perhaps
the most difficult. After the larkspur has gone by push for-
ward the surplus marigolds, which will bloom imtil frost,

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WHAT TO PLANT

Some Flowers That Will Grow for Anybody

Although the plants of the lists given are noted for long-
suflPering, I do not mean that they prefer neglect or that they
will thrive under any possible treatment, but they will bloom
under conditions that other plants would find hopeless.

For the gardener who is "unskilled, unpractised" here
are plants which will insure safety from disappointment:

PERENNLIIS ANNUALS

Bee-Balm (Monarda didyma). Balsam.

Evening-Primrose {(Enothera fru- California Poppy.

ticosa). Coreopsis.

German Iris. Marigolds, African and French.

Globeflower {TroUius asiaticus). Moming-Glory.
"Golden-Glow" (Rudbeckia). Nasturtium.

Japanese Bellflower {Platycodon Portulaca.

grandiflora). Sweet Alyssum.

Michaelmas Daisy {Aster Novas

Anglue),
Pearl Achillea {Achillea ptarmica,

variety "The Peari").
Tiger-Lily.

Plant the German iris against the wall, or where it will
have the shadow of a tree in summer. The bee-balm, in a shady
comer, will flame out in color almost equal to the cardinal-
flower's. If there is a dry, bare, sandy, sun-scorched spot,
that is the place for portidaca, which nothing in the way of
drought seems able to discourage. Next to portidaca in its
endurance of thirst come the nasturtiums — ^both the climbing
and the dwarf sorts. If morning-glories are blessed with the
early sun they seem to require little else but that their seed
be put in the groimd.

Tender Bulbs and Tubers

These are the joy of the belated gardener. A goodly num-
ber of gladioli planted in May will give a radiant display from

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THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

late July until frost. Some of the best and easiest of the
tender bulbs are as follows:

Gladidi. — One of the easiest bulbs to grow is the gladiolus and
one of the most encouraging, since it gives more bloom to the square
inches of ground it occupies than almost any other plant I know.
Gladioli need plenty of sun and rich soil, but the roots should not
come in direct contact with manure. Plant the bulbs three inches
deep and six inches apart. Planted about May 1 (in the latitude of
New York) they bloom continuously from the end of July imtil frost.
It is not necessary to buy named sorts but pink, scarlet, and red shades,
oranges and yellows, and the new blues and purples, come in separate
mixtiu*es and should be kept apart. The reds and scarlets are least
desirable — they rarely harmonize with other flowers.

Red-Hot Poker Plants, — ^Tritomas or "Red-Hot Pokers" are strik-
ing. The tall spikes of orange-red flowers stand bolt-upright above
the foliage (two and a half to five feet, according to variety). This
plant requires sim and good soil, and its rather sensational character
suggests that it be planted with discretion and a suitable backgroimd.

Montbretia, — ^Another rather strident plant. Its late-blooming
starry flowers, orange, red, and yellow, are striking — so much so that
it is rarely combined with any but white flowers. Needs good soil,
plenty of sunshine.

Dahlias. — ^These have been wonderfully improved of late and are
now a valuable addition to any garden. The most important classes
are the cactus, decorative, show, fancy, and single dahlias, and there
are hundreds of named varieties of each. The most beautiful perhaps
are the cactus dahlias. These vary in height from three feet to four
and a half, and the colors are indescribably charming — striking reds,
iridescent salmon-pinks, rich maroons, and piu*e yellows. Some of
the best varieties are these:

Clara G. Stredvrick — three feet; salmon, shading to yellow.

Mrs. Freeman Thomas — three feet; clear yellow centre, shading
to orange toward the tips of the petals.

J. H. Jackson — ^four feet; rich maroon.

Lord Roberts — ^four feet; white.

Britannia — ^four feet; salmon, pink, and apricot.

Countess of Lonsdale — ^rich salmon-red.

Mary Service — ^four feet, pinkish heliotrope, shading into yellow.

The flowers bloom in from six to eight weeks after the tubers are
set out. For dahlias the soil should be deep and rich and spaded to

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WHAT TO PLANT

the depth of at least a foot. The tubers are set out two to three feet
apart and four to six mches deep, but covered at first with only one
to two inches of soil. Each plant should be allowed to send up but a
single stalk, and when this is well above ground the earth should be
spread over it gradually, keeping the ground level. The soil should
be kept loose and must be frequently and thoroughly stirred up with
a stick. Water once a week, not oftener, and loosen the earth about
the plant next day. Plant dahlias in late May or June. After the
flowers begin to bloom then the groimd should not be disturbed more
than an inch in depth. At this time a mulch of fine, decomposed
stable manure will prove beneficial. Dahlias require open sim.

Cannas. — ^Like the dahlia, the canna has recently been greatly
improved, and was in much sorer need of improvement. Now there
are many better sorts than the old-fashioned canna, whose small
flower of an unpleasing red and whose bronze-tinted foliage and tropical
appearance almost invariably struck a jarring note in its usual northern
environment. The best of the new cannas are the Crozy varieties.
These grow from three to four feet in height, and bloom, if set out
early in June, during the late summer and until frost. For cannas
the soil should be light, rich, and deep. An occasional watering with
liquid manure will be a benefit.

If you will take time and the calendar by the forelock cannas
and dahlias can be started in flower-pots in the house or in frames
for early blooming; I prefer to have them blossom in the late summer
and autumn, when there in not such a profusion of flowers as in July
4Uid early August, so I always plant them in the open ground in June.

A Plant That Every Gardener Ought to Know: Ismene, a charm-
ing though almost unknown plant, should be a joy to any amateur
gardener. It has the pleasing habit of blooming from two to three
weeks after the bulb is put in the ground; the flowers are lily-like,
large, and white, the foliage not unlike that of the iris, the plant about
two to two and a half feet in height. Bulbs may be set out in late
May and June, in holes from four to five inches deep. Ismene requires
no peculiar treatment, only plenty of sunshine and ordinarily good
sofl.

A Good Foliage Plant, — One of the best foliage plants is Caladium
escidentum. Its immense leaves measure two feet and a half wide
and from three to four feet long. The plant is especially effective
for a position near a pool or fountain. Plant late May and early
June. Caladiums require only common garden soil, may be planted
in the sun or in half-shade, but should have plenty of water.

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XIV
PLANNING A SPRING GARDEN

Autumn is the Time to Make a Spring Garden

Any one may have a spring garden. Flowers in July and
August are had at the expense of much weeding and warfare
with insects, but from March until the end of May flowers
may be had for little more than the putting of bulbs in the
ground.

If ever was given a prodigal return in beauty for a small
expenditure of time and labor and money, it is by this same
blessed race of spring-flowering bidbs. For city folk and
suburbanites, for folk on northern farms, where the long,
hard winter seems as if it would never end, the blossoms of
the early spring which seem to come of their own accord are
a peculiar delight.

What Bulbs to But

Catalogues show a bewildering range of varieties. It is
cheerful for the gardener with a modest pocketbook to re-
member that the inexpensive old sorts are often not only the
safest, but, moreover, the best. The low price itself is due
to their being extremely easy to grow. The fact that a flower
is "conmion" does not make it the less lovely — the sky and
the sunshine and the green grass are common also. One may
have a wealth of poets' narcissus in May — and once in the
garden it "lives happily forever after" — ^for the price of a few
expensive hyacinths, which are by no means so hardy nor so

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PLANNING A SPRING GARDEN

easily grown and "run out" in a few years. The common
daffodils (both double and single) are very lovely, and if given
half -shade are a yearly delight.

The common snowdrop {Galanthiis nivalis) is much more
delicate than the named varieties and spreads happily with
no care at all, while the more expensive sorts are uncertain
and difficidt. Crocuses may be had at three or four dollars
a thousand if one gets single colors, and it is unnecessary to
buy named sorts. Among the best all-round tulips are the
Due van Thol varieties for early ones and the Darwin for
late; the latter may be had in a mixture for two dollars a
hundred.

Where to Plant Them

Aside from the show-beds, which are not so easy to manage
and, unless just right, are disappointing, there are many de-
lightfid uses for bulbs. Plant crocuses at the foot of shrubs
or in colonies in the grass. Take up a piece of sod and set
the bulbs in irregular patches, then replace the sod. They
should be three inches deep and about four inches apart.

Instead of trying to make grass grow under a tree and sun-
loving shrubs eke out an imhappy existence in the shade,
plant the pips of lily-of-the-valley and they will carpet the
ground in a surprisingly short time. On the north side of
the house, where the grass does not grow well, plant snow-
drops in it just as you planted crocuses. All the care needed
is to refrain from the use of the' lawn-mower until the leaves
have wilted. In a hardy border set your daffodils and poets'
narcissus (which cost five dollars a thousand), putting the
bulbs of the latter six to seven inches deep and only three
inches apart, to make strong clumps, and you will have plenty
to cut and bring into the house. (Cut when half opened and

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you do not exhaust the bulb.) If you plant also the poeticus
omatiis, which blooms earlier, you will have flowers all of
May. Poets' narcissus is also good as an edging to a bed,
and after it is done flowering annuals may be sown. The
lovely little SciUa Siberica and Chionodoxa, if planted in little
colonies, will delight you in March with flowers of an exquisite,
almost gentian blue. One Princeton professor has a bit of
ground against his house abloom from May until mid-June.
Against the house are trained Jasminum nudifiorum and Daw-
son roses. In front are planted poets' narcissus and daffodils.
In late March the Jasminum blooms, then the daffodils, next
the narcissi, next the roses, and then the professor goes
away.

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The charm of old-fashioned gardens lies not so much in
the fact of there being in the flower-beds this or that plant
which our great-grandmothers used to grow as in a certain
delightful quality of homelikeness. In the old days the gar-
den was almost invariably planned in close relationship to
the house. A wall or fence formed three sides of the garden
enclosure, the house the fourth side. In the smaller of the
southern gardens and in Colonial gardens in the North the
wide hall went directly through the house to the garden, and
the broad central path of the garden was directly in line with
the hall. Or, if the garden w ere at the side of the house, then
it was under the livirg^oom^window^ "" '" "^

CSnEfie Colonial days the first consideration was not that
the garden should make a notable show from the street and
present to the rapt beholder a marvellous and astonishing
color scheme; rather, it was a place of retirement, of unvexed
quietness, whither one might go to enjoy "a green thought in
a green shade.*' And if Nature had not been thoughtful enough
to provide for this, then arbors were constructed as substitutes.

Whether by choice or by necessity, therefore, the old-time
garden was usually a garden enclosed. Either there was a
wall or fence or else there was a tall hedge of hemlock or of
privet. In the old southern gardens — city gardens, that is —
the walls were ais high as in the English gardens, built of brick
or stone; sometimes the eflPect was lightened by "blind arches,"

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and against the walls were trained roses or fruit-trees. Usually
the posts of the typical Colonial fence are tall, siumounted
by an ornament in the shape of a ball or the pineapple of wel-
come; between the posts the intervening pickets are graduated,
forming a dip like a crescent. But the chief merit of Colonial
fences is their excellent proportion. In the simpler gardens
of city yards a common type was the high board fence, very
much like our present back-yard fence, but the two-foot-wide
lattice which surmounted it, and the vines and shrubs trained
against it, took away the reproach of its ugliness.

Within the garden the beds were outlined with box or
bordered with violets or thyme or sweet-william — any con-
venient edging; sometimes they were outlined with bricks
or tile.

The Plan of the Old-Time Garden

The old-fashioned garden was planned to fit the garden
space. Sometimes the beds were laid out in elaborate geomet-
rical designs, but the geometry was in the lines of the beds,
not in the planting; within their box borders the flowers
bloomed with so cheerfid a luxuriance and so careless an aban-
don that when the flowers were in blossom the lines of the
beds were practically unnoticed; only in winter, when the
flowers were gone, would the "pattern" of the beds become
evident, when — outlined with fat and comfortable borders
of box — ^it made a sight more pleasing (to my thinking) than
the bare brownness of empty flower-beds.

Being close to the house, the garden was naturally ar-
ranged in relation to it. As gardeners say, it was "on the
same axis with it," which means that, looking from the house
door, the garden-paths do not appear askew. If the door at
the rear of the house or at the side of the house (the garden

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side of the house, as the English books call it) opens on the
garden, from it one looks down a main path, if not thei central
path, in a line with the hall.

Very often an arbor stood in the centre of the garden with
paths radiating from it; sometimes a sun-dial had the place
of honor. At the end of the garden farthest from the house
one would be quite likely to find a Uttle summer-house, an
arbor, or at least a covered seat.

Arbors and Sun-Dials Were Much Used

There wai^ almost always an arbor in the Colonial garden.
Usually, when it stood in the centre of the garden, it had a
circular top and was covered with grape-vines or else adorned
with roses. From this arbor radiated equidistant paths;
very often each was spanned by an arch covered with roses.
Another very prevalent form of arbor, and at the same time
one of the simplest and best, was the "arch-arbor," or "bower."
This was of two arches, or a series of arches, which spanned
a path. Sometimes the top was roofed to exclude the rain,
sometimes top and sides were latticed, or, if a more open arbor
was desired instead of the lattice, lengthwise strips,- set about
a foot and a half or two feet apart, connected the arches and
supported the vines. Inside, a wide, low seat ran along the
sides. In one southern garden a wide, low arbor arches the
path from the rear door to the kitchen-garden; the path is
of brick, and in the flower-beds on each side of it, half-shaded
by the arbor, German irises are growing contentedly. Grape-
vines or roses were the vines in commonest use.

Arches, whether in an arbor or out, were very frequently
seen in the older gardens. They were always strongly made,
of good proportions, and on simple lines. At the head of steps
or over a gateway was a favorite position for an arch. Some-

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times four arches, set at equal distances from the centre,
formed the central feature of the garden. Over an arch roses
were usually grown.

Sun-dials were present in the old gardens, but by no means
inevitable. The chief point to be observed in placing them
is the obvious one of their being in the sun, and being where
one may easily look at them. A good place for a sun-dial is
at the convergence of several paths, or — ^if there is some other
central feature — ^at the end of a path.

The Planting

In the first place, if the traditions be at all correct, our
great-grandmothers seem not to have been troubled in the
least by our nervous anxiety about the color schemes — ^ap-
parently the garden didn't have any. Nor did they stand by,
trowel in one hand and Uttle plants of ageratum in the other,
ready to pull up hyacinths or tulips the second they stopped
blooming and insert a substitute. With the comfortable green-
ery of the borders of box or the flowering borders of sweet-
wilUam or grass pink, it was no very dreadful occurrence if the
centres of the beds did stop blooming for a minute. There was
always something to watch for in the garden — a leisurely, con-
tinuous performance was kept up, as in all gardens that are
loved and Uved in, but it was not the lightning-change of a
moving-picture show.

Also the vegetable-garden was not held a thing which must
blush unseen. It was frankly intermixed with the flowers.
In a deUghtful old garden in Morristown the currant-bushes
alternate with the clumps of irises; and on one side apple-trees
border the garden.

Quite as important as what to plant in an old-fashioned
garden is what not to plant. First to avoid are these: highly

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colored maples, variegated evergreens, trees such as the weep-
ing mulberry {Catalpa Bungeii), Crimson Rambler roses, golden-
glow. Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora^ and cannas. These
woidd spoil the atmosphere of an old-fashi9ned garden as
conclusively as a gas-range would spoil the eflFect of a Colonial
kitchen.

Less beUigerent, but still quite unsuitable if one is to make
a sure-enough old-fashioned garden, are the following, which,
although present in the earUer gardens, were there in a form
so modest that the modern representatives of the family would
hardly be known for the same plants: China asters, gladioli,
nasturtiums, pansies, phlox paniculaia, sweet peas.

Shrubs and Roses in Old Gardens

Shrubs did not figure so conspicuously in the older gar-
dening as they do to-day. They were considered as objects
of art introduced into a garden with some care and circum-
stance. Most important were these:

Barberry {Berheris vtdgaris). Rose of Sharon — ^althea {Hihis-

The common barberry. Not B, cus Syriacus). The single-flower-

Tkunbergii. ing kinds.
Box. Syringa, mock-orange (PhUa-

Cornelian cherry (Comas mas), delphus coronariiis).
Bridal-wreath {SpircBa pruni- Snowball. Viburnum optdus

folia), (The newer Spircsa van sterUis is the variety. Don't use

Houttei sometimes figures as the Japanese V. plicatum, which

"bridal-wreath," but is, as St. is of later origin.
Paul said of science, "falsely so- Lilacs. Get the common lilac —

called.") Syringa vulgaris — ^and the white,

Sweet shrub, Carolina allspice S, vtdgaris alba.
{Calycanthus fl^yridus) .

There were plenty of roses in the older gardens, and rose-
growing then was a simpler matter, for gardens and gardeners

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THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

were apparently unvexed by the insects and diseases that try
the soids of modem rose-growers. Among the older roses
that are still to be had are these:

Cabbage-rose {Rosa centifolia).

Cinnamon rose.

Common China rose, or month-
ly rose.

Sweetbrier, or eglantine {Rosa
ruhiginosa). The single-flowering
form is the one to get.

Scotch rose {Rosa spinosissima).

York and Lancaster.

Damask rose.

Yellow roses were the Austrian
yellow, the Persian yellow, or
yellow-wreath rose, and the yellow
Scotch rose.

White rose {Rosa alha).

Maiden's-blush, or blush-rose.'

Common moss-rose.

Perennials and Annuals to Choose

Columbine. The common
variety.

Carnation, or clove-pink {Dian-
thus caryophyllus) , This is the out-
door carnation commonly grown
in England and, although rarely
seen here, easy enough to secure.

Forget-me-not {Myosotis palus-
tris).

Hollyhocks. Both single and
double hollyhocks can be used in
white, rose, and dark red.

Oriental poppy. Get the blood-
red sort with the black centre.

Monk's-hood. The dark-blue
color is the one to have.

Peonies. Old varieties which
may still be had are rubra flore
plena, rosea flore plena, and rosea
superba.

Polyanthus {Primtda polyan-
thus). The cheaper strains are
nearer to the old polyanthus.

Iris.

Primrose {Primula tnUgaris).
This is the English primrose.

Violets {Viola odorata). Used
as an edging in the gardens.

Horned pansy {Viola comuta).
The Colonial form is a pale-blue
flower.

The following are among those annuals — or perennials
which may be treated as annuals — ^which may be had to-day
and are still fairly true to their old form:

Amaranth {Gomphrena). Once Bluebells {Campanula rotundi-
popular for winter bouquets. folia).

Annual chrysanthemums (C Candytuft, both the rocket and

coronarium), the colored candytuft.

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Catchfly {SUene pendula).

Double buttercup {Trollius
Europeus).

Four-o'clock (MirabUis Jcdapa) ,

Fringed pink {Dianthus superba) .

Giant reed (Arundo donax).

Flora's paint-brush (Cacalia
coccinea).

Love-in-a-mist (Nigella Damas-
cena).

Love-lies-bleeding (Amaranthus
caudatus),

London pride {Lychnis Chal-
cedonica).

Marigolds, both French and
African.

Mignonette {Reseda odorata).

Mourning-bride {Salpiglossis) ,

Perennial flax.

Scotch or pheasant's-eye pink.

Peach-leaved bellflower {Cam-
panula persicifolia) ,

Sweet alyssum.

Sweet sultan {Centaurea mos-
chata). The yellow variety, C
suaveolens, was most popular.

Veronica.

Valerian, conunon.

Jacob 's-ladder.

Rose of heaven {Agrostemma
cceli-rosa) and rose-campion {A,
coTonaria).

Suggestions for Biennials, Bulbs, and the Herb-Bed

Snapdragon, English daisy Sweet-william, the single, fringed

(Bellis perennis). Much used for variety,

borders. French honeysuckle.

Canterbury-bells .

The following list of bulbs will be good to work from:

rose {Helleborus

Christmas
niger).

Crown imperial {FritiUaria im-
perialis).

Crocus. The common crocus.
Also Crocus Moesiacus and the
cloth-of-gold (C Stisianus),

Grape-hyacinth {Muscari
botry aides).

Daffodils, the smaller-flowering
daffodils.

Hyacinths, the more inexpen-
sive sorts.

Iris. Spanish and English iris.

Narcissus. The poets' nar-
cissus, not poetaz varieties.

Jonquil.

Ranunculus {Ranunculus Asi-
aiicus). The red variety.

Scilla, or squill {ScUla Siberica).

Snowdrops, the common snow-
drop, not the enlarged sorts.

Tulips {Tulipa suuveolens) and
the common tulip {T, Gesneriana).
Round-p)etalled forms they did not
have, but almost everything else,
having passed through the tulip
craze. Darwins and cottage
tulips, although not among those
present in the older gardens,
would not violate their spirit.

Madonna lily.

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The following seeds and roots may be obtained for use
in the herb-garden:

Hardy Annuals. — (To be sown plants.) Balm, catnip, hore-
outdoors as soon as danger from hound, hyssop, lavender, penny-
frost is past.) Anise, borage, ca- royal, pot-marjqfam, rosemary,
raway, coriander, dill, pot-mari- rue, sage, winter avory, tansy,
gold, marjoram, saffron, summer thyme, mint,
savory. ^weet basil is a tender annual

Hardy Perennials, — (Obtain a and must not be sown in the open

root, or sow for next year's until the weather is settled.

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XVI

HOW TO PRUNE YOUR SHRUBS

When gardening begins most of us feel that we are not
performing our full duty by our shrubs unless we "do some-
thing" to them. If a man is brought in for a few days of gar-
den work, the shrubs are usually deUvered over to his mercies,
and it is fairly certain that he will "fix them up" in a summary
fashion. It makes no diflFerence whether they are spring or
summer or autumn flowering, whether they are valued for
foUage or flowers or berries: all are treated aUke to the simple
process of beheading, like corn-stalks fed into a chopping-
machine.

But shrubs are not ahke, and therefore should not have
like treatment. The usual effect of beheading is that numbers
of shoots hasten to take the place of the ruined top, and the
shrub becomes more than ever choked with needless branches.
And if the shrubs are spring-flowering ones, their beauty and
gracefulness at blossom-time is completely wrecked. Until
after they are done blooming no one should be allowed to cut
off the heads of the following shrubs:

Corchorus. . Upright Honeysuckle (early-

Deutzia. flowering.

Flowering Almond. Spirwa prunifolia (Bridal-

Forsythia. Wreath).

Japanese Quince. Spircea Thunbergii.

Jasminum nudiflorum, Spircea van HouUei.

Lilacs. Weigelia.

Snowball. Wistaria.

Syringa.

121

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THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

The Spring Pruning

But there is pruning, and plenty of it, that can be done

in early spring. First, have good tools : a pair of sharp pruning-

shears, a thin little pruning-saw, and some

paint or grafting-wax or tar to cover the

larger cuts. The cut should always be made

just above an "eye," or bud. The last

"eye" left should be an outside one. The

reason for this is that a plant always sends

6ut a branch from the last "eye," and it

should be encouraged to branch out, not in,

keeping the branches outside, where they

can have light and air. Any branches

broken during the winter should be cut smoothly close down

to the next outward branch.

When removing a branch cut closely (see illustration).
Never leave a "stub"; this causes decay and aflFords an at-
tractive lodging-place for insects. Any cut larger than half
an inch should be painted or tarred over. When you are not
sure how to prune a plant leave it alone. The
plant will fare far better.

Shrubs of Drooping Habit, — Such shrubs as
Deutzia gracilis, Spircea van HovUei, Forsythia
suspensay should be pruned as in the illustra-
tion. All upright shoots which detract from
the character of the plant should be cut oflF.
The dark lines show branches to be retained.

Newly Planted Shrubs and Trees, — Irrespec-
tive of their seasons of bloom, these always
benefit from being cut back one-third or one-half of last year's
growth. Transplanting inevitably reduces the roots, and,

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The dark lines
show branches
to be retained

HOW TO PRUNE YOUR SHRUBS

unless the top is cut back to correspond, the roots have more
to do than they can quite manage, and the plant is likely to
be exhausted. Autumn-planted trees and shrubs should be
cut back in spring.

Shrubs You Can Prune in Early Spring

AUhcBa, or Rose of Sharon, — ^This shrub usually has its figure
completely spoiled by a yearly beheading. Thin it. Don't
cut oflF the top. Or, if it is so tall that some cutting is neces-
sary, prune in a bold and resolute fashion as shown in the
hydrangea diagram (p. 124). Branches always start just below
the cut, therefore cut so that it will branch out low instead
of starting branches five feet from the groimd.

Clematis Panicuiata should be cut back in spring, but only
enough to keep the vine where you want it.

Barberries. — If grown as a hedge, Berberis Thunbergii
should have spring pruning, but it needs very slight pruning —
merely the removal of an occasional branch. The common
barberry, Berberis vulgaris, may need a little thinning, but it
is natiuuUy more graceful than you can make it by pruning-
shears. Best let it alone.

Spirceas. — Summer-flowering spiraeas, such as S. Bumalda
and the little S, Anthony Waterer, should be cut back rather
closely in early spring, to make them bushy.

Dogwood, — ^Red-twigged dogwood and other dogwoods
grown for the beauty of their stems are usually allowed to
spread and make a thicket. They should be cut down to the
ground, for it is the young growths that have the vivid winter
color.

Hydrangea Panicidata Grandijlora, — ^This shrub is apt to
grow ungainly with years unless given a rather drastic cutting

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THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

Pruning for Hydrangea Panieulata.

back each spring. It flowers on the new growth, and the more
cutting back the more new growth. Don't leave stubs.

Evergreen Hedges. — These
should be trimmed in eariy
April before growth begins and
at no other time. Evergreens
need practically no pruning.

Pmef.— Newly planted hedges
of privet should be cut back to
within six inches of the ground.
This seems discouraging, but an
essential excellence of a hedge is
that it should be well furnished
at the base, and this close cutting
back is the only way to secure this.

Rhododendrons and Kalmias should have the last year's
seed-pods removed if they are still on. This ought to have
been done after blooming. No other pruning is necessary.

Bush Honeysuckles, Tatarica, Morroivii, and other August-
fruiting sorts may need a Uttle thin-
ning, but don't give them much.

Tamarix. — Cut out ungainly
branches. If carefully pruned in
its youth for symmetry, tamarisks
need httle or no care in middle
hfe.

Azaleas. — ^Watch the named va-
rieties of azaleas for suckers, and if
you see them take them oflf.

Lilacs.— Keep suckers out of
your lilacs, but otherwise don't
prune in spring.

124

lilac in fairly good condition.
Cut, leaving dark branches.

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HOW TO PRUNE YOUR SHRUBS

Making Old Shrubs Young

Sometimes through neglect a shrub becomes choked with
dead branches and suckers so that it is a pathetic object in
winter and blooms but faintly at its appointed time. In this
case the only thing possible is to cut it down, leaving only four
or five of the most promising sucker-like shoots. Cut out the
old branches, almost down to the soil, until you reach sound
wood. Paint the cuts. Cut back the
young shoots left and they will quit
their lank, sucker-like habit, branch
out and make the bush into a credit-
able shrub. This treatment is shown
in the illustration.

Where the shrub or small tree is in
fairly sound condition it is enough to
cut out interfering branches, suckers,
dead wood, and those branches that

spoil the natural outline by growing Shrub crowded with in-

, . ^ growing branches,

inward or at cross-purposes. Some-
times, to make it symmetrical, the top should be reduced, but
don't cut it oflf squarely. Make the cuts just above an outward
branch.

Then (since the new growth pushes out from the "eye"
or branch just below the cut), if terminal "eye" be on the
outside, the shrub will branch outward, increasing the flower-
ing surface. Cutting so that the shrub branched inward was
one cause of the troubles of the unfortunate f orsy thia illustrated
above. It should be cut to the dark branches.

The Rest-Cuke for Shrubs
Winter-Killed Shrubs. — When shrubs have been apparently
injured by the winter, scrape the bark slightly with thumb

125 Digitized by Google

THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

and finger nail, and if it shows green underneath, the plant is
alive, no matter how dead it looks, but it should be cut back
"hard." The reason for this is not far to seek: the shrub is
exhausted — ^has become anaemic, if one may use that expres-
sion of a plant — and the less top the less work the roots have
to perform. Therefore cut it back, mulch heavily with manure,
and it will come back to health and usefulness much more
quickly than if allowed to blossom the approaching season.

Treatment of Invalid Shrubs. — Shrubs that are suflFering
from "general debility" should be treated in the same manner
and cut back hard. Their illness may be due to late planting
the previous year and not having been pruned when planted,
so that the unfortunate shrub had to try to blossom as usual
though struggling for its mere existence. The only remedy
in such a case is cutting back and giving the plant a kind of
"rest-cure."

How TO Prune Roses

Most important of the early-spring pruning is that of the
roses. In the South the pruning of roses is done in the winter-
time — ^usually in January; in the North it should be done
before the second week in March — ^before the sap begins to
run. In fact, if at that time your roses are not pruned it is
better to let them alone for another year.

First cut* out every dead branch. To make sure that the
branch is dead scrape the bark slightly with your thumb-
nail; if a greenish tinge shows underneath it is alive, however
appearances are against it. Always cut off a branch close to
the stem, even if you have to push back the earth to accom-
plish this. When stumps of dead branches are left — ^the usual
practice — ^they make most attractive places for the board
and lodging of insects. Make a clean cut, don't tear the bark

126

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HOW TO PRUNE YOUR SHRUBS

H. P. rose pruned for
quality roses (cut out all
except dark branches )

or split it down — ^a clean cut heals easily. Rub a little fresh

earth on the cut.

Next come the "suckers." Many of the finest roses and

most named varieties of azaleas and lilacs are grafted or budded

plants, that is, the root of the plant —

the "stock" — ^is of a sturdy, common

sort; the top of another, rarer sort.

Even on the stem of a very old plant it is

easy to see where the budding has been

done; catalogues often give a diagram

showing this. Anything that grows up

from below the bud is a "sucker" and

should be promptly cut off — ^it saps the

vitality of the plant and is not the sort

you wanted. Although budded roses are

more vigorous and long-lived than those

grown on their own roots — that is, with

root and top both of the fine sort — most nurserymen prefer to

sell "own root" roses to amateurs for the uncompUmentary
reason that the buyer rarely knows a sucker
when he sees it, and that, if he does, he
will not be likely to keep them cut out,
and then he will complain, "I bought such
a variety of rose, and now look at this
thing." It is in order to discourage
"suckers" that folk are urged to plant
budded roses with the bud three inches
below the soil.

Dead wood and "suckers" out, then
comes thinning. If you care more to have

large rose-bushes than to grow fine roses, then much thinning

is unnecessary — simply cut out interfering branches. But if

127

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Rose-bush pruned for
abundant roses

THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

Gimbing rose. Leave
only dark branches.

you wish very beautiful roses, then thin
the plants, leaving only five or six stems
on a hybrid perpetual rose, three or four
stems on tea-roses.

Finally, shorten the stems, cutting
back the hybrid perpetuals to five or six
"eyes " from the ground, while the " teas "
should be left with three or four. The
last "eye" should always be on the out-
side, that the rose may branch out, not
in. Gather and burn the pieces — unless
you wish to make cuttings. Then spray
your roses with the lime-sulphur wash to
prevent scale.

For roses of fine quality prune as on

page 127. All of the branches which are not black are taken

ofif. Make a smooth, clean cut, just above

an outside "eye." This is the way to prune

Crimson Rambler, Jacqueminot, Kaiserin,

American Beauty^ and other strong growers.
For rose-bushes with plenty of flowers,

but not of extra size, prune as in Figure 5,

cutting oflf about half of the last year's growth

and, of course, removing suckers and dead

wood.

Teas and hybrid teas are best not pruned

until they begin to show signs of life and the

bark becomes greener. In the North this

will be in April. All dead or dying wood

should be removed then, even if it seems

that such drastic pruning would leave nothing to the unfor-
tunate rose-bush with which to begin life again.

128

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Cut back a newly
planted rose. The
dotted line shows
the depth of plant-
ing.

HOW TO PRUNE YOUR SHRUBS

Rugosa roses, cabbage-roses, Bourbon roses need very little
pruning. Remove weak growth and shorten the shoots a few
inches.

With climbing roses, such as Crimson Rambler, Dawson,
Carmine Pillar, Baltimore Belle, and others, cut out dead wood,
prune, and keep within the bounds you wish. One-fifth to one-
third of the previous year's growth is all which needs to come
ofif. Old wood that is past flowering should be cut out. The
dark branches in illustration (p. 128) show how much should
be left.

Persian yellow, Harison's yellow, and Austrian brier-roses
should be treated as spring-flowering shrubs, and not pruned
until after they have flowered.

Newly planted roses should be cut back to five or six "eyes,"
(see p. 128). If any of the roots have been broken these
should be cut smoothly.

Selection of Shrubs

When one understands the care of shrubs they become
more and more tempting; yet on a small place the number is
necessarily limited and the selection restricted. Shrubs,
whether roses or rhododendrons, are "on deck" all the time
and always evident, so their year-round aspect has to be con-
sidered. The following table may simplify the business of
selection and aid the gardener in having shrub beauty in
his garden either the year round or exactly when he wants it.

For a more complete chart of shrubs see p. 163.

129

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THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

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131

XVII

HOW TO SET OUT SHRUBS

Any one who likes to have his place look well and has not
time to compass the constant watchfulness which flower-beds
need had best "get him to a nursery" and invest in shrubs.
Then he can view with serene philosophy the incursions of
stray dogs or cats, or even hens, knowing that Rugosa roses
and barberry-bushes are competent to take care of themselves,
that chickens can scratch about his bushes and accomplish
nothing but good.

With shrubs one hides the clothes-line from the street;
with shrubs one has a polite but effective barrier between one's
land and one's neighbor's line of vision; with shrubs one makes
a house seem comfortably settled on its site, which before was
but perched uneasily; with shrubs one banishes from a high
piazza the bald, strained look as of a forehead from which the
hair has receded.

The following are some of the best shrubs; they are radi-
antly described in catalogues.

Tall-growing shrubs: Althea or rose of Sharon {Jeanne
d'Arc and rosea), dogwood {Comus Amomum and C. candidis-
sima), barberry (B, vulgaris) y forsythia, Japanese snowball,
lilacs, syringa, viburnums.

Shrubs of medium height : Japanese quince, laurel, Rugosa
roses, spiraeas (S. prunifolia, S, Thunbergii, S. van HouMei).

Low-growing shrubs: Berberis Thunbergii, daphne, Deut-
zias (D, gracilis and D, parvifloray flowering almond, rhodo-
typus and Azalea mollis.

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HOW TO SET OUT SHRUBS

Fig. 1.

Approach to old-fash-
ioned house

Where to plant your shrubs seems, until you try it, the
simplest of matters. One is so often told to "imitate Nature,"
to plant with a "pleasing irregu-
larity," to group shrubs "loosely
and naturally," to "create a
little landscape picture" — ^which
is all very well, but "imitating
Nature" is by no means so easy
as it sounds. It is the most
diflScult form of gardening, and
few amateurs hit it exactly right
the first time. The typical ar-
rangements shown in the illustrations are diagrammatic rather
than decorative.

First consider what kind of house you have. Suppose it
is an old-fashioned house, the door squarely in the middle,
equal numbers of windows on each side. Then let the per-
sonality of the house have some weight — don't make an ap-
proach of winding paths, or make irregular groups of shrub-
bery — such coquetries are an oflFense to its dignity. A straight

-pj^. row of shrubs each side of
the path would look well .
— ^box, if you can aflford it
or are blessed with it, or
' the old-fashioned bridal-
wreath, or Spircea van
HouUei, Edging the path
you could have a bulb-
border followed by Phlox
On each side of the shrubs
could be regular flower-beds, hollyhocks and vines against the
house. Such planting is fairly safe. (Fig. 1.)

133 ^ ,

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Fig. 2. Symmetrical planting
subulata or little English daisies.

THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

-/ !

Fig. 3. Diagram of planting when approach is not balanced

Suppose your house is in the suburbs, fairly near the street,
a more modem type, but still with a door in the middle — ^path
leading up to steps at the centre of the porch. Then for the
front a symmetrical arrangement is best also (Fig. 2). If
troubled by people cutting across the comer of your path,
plant a bush of Berberis Thunbergii or Ro3a rugosa (2) on
each side to guard the comer, three feet in from the path.

If the porch is low, not more than two feet and a half from
the ground, use Berberis Thunbergii for the double row of
shrubs each side of the steps. If you wish something to look
well the year around and can aCFord it, plant in the same man-
, ner the yew Taxus repandens, or that very lovely and very lit-
tle planted evergreen Andromeda floribunda. In midwinter this

Fig. 4. Planting beside a kitchen door

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HOW TO SET OUT SHRUBS

FiQ. 5. Planting an empty comer

has beautiful foliage of a green, summer luxuriance, and from
November until it blooms in May shows buds like clusters
of unopened Uly-of-the-valley. In the summer, porch-boxes
filled with Lobb's nasturtiums would give gayety enough.
But if your porch is
high, say, four feet from
the ground, then taller-
growing shrubs would
be necessary. In this
case SpircBa van Houttei
would be the best choice,
or for a north side rho-
dodendrons.

Suppose your house
is irregular — then the
shrub-planting must follow the type of house as the Constitu-
tion follows the flag. Here (Fig. 3) Spircea van Houttei cuts
oflf a porch from observation, and a single plant of Hydrangea
paniculaia is at the side of the steps. In place of the hy-
drangea, a magnolia could be planted here — Sovlangeana or
stellaia; or, if it is on the north side, a single rhododendron.
Between the woodbine and the spiraea could go perennials.

When a few shrubs are
placed about a kitchen
door or beside an "L" such
as one often sees in New
England, they should be
fairly close to the house.
The shrubs suggested here
are: (1) lilac, (2) bush honeysuckle, (3) grape-vine, (4) flowering
almond, (5) syringa. With these one need not fear mischief
wrought by hens. (See Fig. 4, p. 134).

135 Digitized by Google

Pig. 6. Shrubs at a driveway entrance

THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

Fig. 7. Shrub screen on
narrow space

Aside from the planting directly beside a house, there is
many a situation in which shrubs take away the bareness.

Here follows a suggestion for an empty comer by a stable or
a garage (Fig. 5, p. 135). The shrubs are: (1) flowering peach,
(i) rose of Sharon, (3) syringa, (4) snowball, (5) privet, (6)

kerria, (7) Japanese
quince. These will give
Dry«»ft something Uke a con-
-3:^sj "' tinuous performance
and, once planted,
give little trouble.

A very simple grouping of shrubs at a driveway entrance
improves it. Fig. 6, p. 135, shows Rugosa roses (1) and Berberis
vulgaris (2). Instead of the four Rugosa roses at the left side,
a single evergreen could be planted — Oriental fir or hemlock.

When shrubs are grouped at the side of a rather narrow lot
a space perhaps only eight feet by twenty, there is Uttle choice
in arrangement. One has to cut oflF the drying-ground at the
rear and to interpose a slight barrier between one's yard and
one's neighbor. (1) Azalea, (2) barberry, (3) evergreen thorn
are used. In front of the shrubs perennials could be "worked
in," phlox, foxgloves and
the Uke, or annuals. Com-
mon hawthorn or flowering
dogwood could be used in-
stead of the evergreen
thorn (Fig. 7).

Without a few shrubs
the entrance has a bare,
unfinished look. Here
(Fig. 8) is a first-aid treatment at a path where grading has
been done. Besides the shrubs, bittersweet {Celastrus scandens)

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Fig. 8. Shrubs at path entrance

HOW TO SET OUT SHRUBS

could be planted, or Virginia creeper. In fact, the whole of a
wall like this would be delightful if planted with shrubs of a
rather "hanging-over" habit — Forsythia suspensa, Lespedeza
and Spircea van Houttei. Of course, an arch over the entrance
and a hedge on either side would be a more satisfying treatment.
There are a few shrubs and ornamental trees which should
be planted warily. Among them are the following: Red-
leaved Japanese maples, variegated weigelia, Catalpa Bungeiiy
weeping mulberry, and the Colorado blue spruce. I do not
mean that there is anything wrong with the plants themselves
— they are interesting horticultural novelties; but the trouble
is that one can rarely make them fit. It is Uke strikingly un-
usual clothes and trying colors: they can be worn successfully
by some women with certain complexions and in exactly the
right combinations, but they are by no means easy to man-
age. Therefore, it is safer to make one's place look homelike
first and introduce novelties afterward; then one lays up for
himself no cause for after-repentance.

137

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XVIII

HOW TO SET OUT PLANTS

Arrangement op Plants in Typical Border-Beds

The business of setting out plants in the garden-beds is not
occult, but it requires a Uttle skill, for the blooming must be
fairly well distributed so that those plants whose blossoming
time has not yet arrived may act as accompaniment or back-
ground to those whose turn it is. That the taller sorts should
be at the back, the lower ones in front, is obvious. They
must also stand at a suitable distance from each other and yet
be set with economy of space.

The following diagrams will give an idea of the placing of
individual plants. If longer borders are desired the planting
can be repeated in the same order. Except where noted, the
planting is in groups of threes or fives, these being easier to
manage than even numbers.

The chief point in setting plants in a garden-bed, aside
from planting them properly, is to see that the bed appears
well filled, that the blooming is fairly well distributed, and
that no part of the bed looks bare. If this happens it is an
easy matter to fill in with plants from the seed-bed or the
reserve garden.

The diagrams which follow are arbitrary and are merely
to give an idea how the thing is done.

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XIX

COLD-FRAMES AND HOW TO MAKE THEM

Cold-Prames and Hotbeds

Cold-frames and hotbeds are at once a delight to the fore-
handed gardener and a means of grace to the belated one,
for here one can repair one's last year's negligences and ig-
norances and sow for summer-blooming those perennials which
mi'ght have been sown in the open of the year before — ^but
weren't. And here northern gardeners, who find the season
wofuUy short, can add cubits to the stature of their plants
by starting in the frames those annuals which do not object
to transplanting.

As far as external appearances go, hotbeds and cold-frames
look precisely alike, but they differ in this: that in the hot-
bed bottom heat is provided by means of a pit dug under-
neath, some three feet deep, which is filled with fresh manure;
to plants in a cold-frame this extra heat is not furnished. The
cold-frame is simpler to make and simpler to manage. It can
be so constructed that it folds like the tents of the Arabs, and
is put out of sight when not in use. There are also small frames,
which can be carried about and set over young plants that
need a Uttle encouragement.

Any one can make a cold-frame. Old window-sashes can
be utilized, and absent panes replaced by oiled paper or water-
proof muslin. One enthusiastic gardener borrows the storm-
windows, which are taken down in late March, and brings
them into service in the garden, where, as sash for cold-frames,
they act as nurses for young plants before going into their

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THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

summer retirement. The regulation cold-frame — "frame,"
as gardeners call it — ^is six feet by twelve, and is covered by
four six-by-three sash. The sash may be bought for three
dollars and a half each, and the wooden supporting frames are
bought to fit for one or two or three or four sash, or they may
be made at home. Of course, if for sash one uses storm-windows
or old window-sash the frames will not be of the regulation
size, but must be made to fit the sash.

The essentials are that the frame be in a sheltered place,
open to the sun, protected on the north and west; to get the
greatest possible sunshine the glass should slope toward the
south; this is managed by having the back of the frame fifteen
inches above the ground, while the front is only twelve. The
sash must rest evenly on the supporting frame, and the frame
be well banked on the outside.

How TO Take Care of a Cold-Frame

Like many other branches of garden craft, the managing
of a cold-frame is extremely easy — ^when one has the hang of
it. Ventilation is very important; give air by raising the sash
and putting a block of wood between it and the frame. Cover
warmly at night; for this old carpet or matting can be used —
mats made of salt hay — ^while boards are laid on to keep the
covering in place. Mats made for the purpose and shutters
to lay over the frames can be bought for very little.

Sow the seed in boxes or flats and place these in the frames,
or else sow the seed directly in the cold-frame, in which case
make the soil fine and light, well enriched with sheep manure
or other fertihzer; but it is unnecessary to have it worked
for more than six inches in depth. For two or three days be-
fore planting keep the sash on to warm up the soil. Sow in
narrow rows, cover very Ughtly, and ^ater with a fine rose

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spray. But when sowing seeds in a cold-frame do not com-
pletely fill your frames with the sowing; some space must
be saved for the young plants which some weeks afterward
will be ready for transplanting. When the seedlings are three
inches high transplant to four inches apart; then they will
make sturdy little plants for summer-blooming.

No one sends a baby out into all weathers just because at
a certain calendar date spring is supposed to have come, and
gardeners treat infant plants with the same care. First, it
must be the warm middle of the day when the^sash is removed;
then, on mild days, it is kept oflf altogether; a little later and
the plants are simply covered on very cold nights. When
grown in boxes in the house the little plants are hardened oflp
in the same fashion: the open window on mild days, then the
boxes are set out on the porch or some other convenient place,
and brought in only when the weather is threatening. This
hardening oflf may seem a slight detail, but to the plants it is
very necessary. Professional gardeners sometimes keep tender or
uncertain plants in the frames for a year or more, so that they
can watch them more conveniently until they are acclimated.

If cold-frames or hotbeds are not possible, then one of the
best places for starting seeds is a sunny kitchen-window.
Shallow wooden boxes, such as florists call "flats,'' are the
most convenient for sowing seeds; two excellent ** flats" can
be made from an old soap-box, sawed lengthwise through the
sides, and the cover nailed on to serve as a bottom for the
second box. Bore a few holes in the bottom, put bits of crock
over them, then an inch of screenings in the bottom for drain-
age, then fill the box with finely sifted soil. K possible, get
this from a florist. In these boxes you can sow seeds usually
sown in hotbeds or cold-frames. Celia Thaxter used even to
start poppies in the house — ^flowers which always appear in

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the gardener's lexicon as untransplantable — she sowed the
seed in egg-shells and, later, after their short voyage to Apple-
dore, set them in the ground, egg-shell and all, and they seemed
none the worse for it.

Start These Perennials in the Hotbeds or Cold-Frames

The following are the most important of the perennials
which, if started in March will bloom the first summer:

Harebells {Campanvla CarpcUica and C. rotundifolia)^ large-
flowered tickseed (Coreopsis grandiflora). Oriental larkspur
(Delphinium formosum)^ large-flowered larkspur (D. granii-
floTum)y garden-pink (Dianthus plumarius), toadflax (Linaria
Dalmatica), forget-me-not, Iceland poppy, pansy. The pansies
prefer partial shade; the larkspurs, pinks, Iceland poppy,
full sun; while forget-me-nots, Unaria, and coreopsis are not
particular.

Among the annuals best started in the cold-frame are these:
China aster, coreopsis, cosmos, Japanese pink, Drummond's
phlox, Scabiosa, petunia, snapdragon, ten-week stock, verbena.

There is a tidy bit of pin-money awaiting some woman
who has skill in the management of a cold-frame, and whose
home is in a place which has a summer colony. She might
use her cold-frames in starting seeds for absent gardeners.
Many a woman who cannot get to her country place until
June would be delighted to have thrifty young seedlings await-
ing her coming in a neighbor's garden. Practically no capital
would be necessary, and if only a few cents were charged for
each seedling it would be exceedingly profitable.

Making a New Lawn

To renovate an old lawn, first rake thoroughly with an
iron rake, fill any hollows with new soil, give the whole a top-

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dressing of soil mixed with bone-meal and wood-ashes, then
sow more grass seed. Nitrate of soda, applied to a lawn at
the rate of five hundred pounds to an acre, is an excellent
spring tonic for a worn-out lawn — ^this quantity should be
applied in two or even three dressings instead of at one time.
This is very rapid in its eflFect, and is excellent for forcing
growth on worn spots.

Beauty may look as if it were skin-deep, but it isn't; and
a good lawn is like a good complexion: it implies a sound
physical condition underlying it. If you wish to have a good
lawn don't go about it in a half-way fashion. The first necessity
is a good, well-drained soil. With a clayey soil it is necessary
to lay tiles at the depth of from two feet and a half to three
feet. Plough deeply, manure heavily with well-rotted manure
— cow manure is best; this must be harrowed in and raked
smooth; then add three inches of good top-soil in which there
is no manure (this insures safety from weeds), rake smooth
and sow with grass seed, allowing two bushels and a half to
three bushels to an acre. For this work choose a still, cloudy
day; in the early morning or just before sundown is the best
time. Rake lightly, unless you are an expert, and be careful
to pull the rake one way. As to what seed, if any, tell a re-
liable seedsman the character of your soil, whether sandy
or clayey, and he can fit the mixture to the conditions. On a
new lawn let the grass grow slightly long before cutting. This
is especially important if crocuses or other bulbs are planted
in the grass, for it is during the few weeks that the foUage
is maturing that next year's flowers are formed; therefore one
should wait until the crocus and snowdrop leaves begin to yellow
before allowing the lawn-mowers full sway.

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HOW TO SUCCEED WITH ANNUALS

People have a way of speaking of annuals as if they were
the merest makeshifts in gardening, a kind of temporary
filling for beds and flower borders, to be replaced by some-
thing better at the earliest possible moment. If one Kves the
year round in one place it is necessary to have other plant-
ing, but for the simimer-home in the mountains or at the sea-
shore or in the country, for the city back yard, and the home-
made "roof -garden," annuals are invaluable.

In the garden world the hardy perennials are like those
old famiUes in a small community who can never see any
reason whatever for going outside their native place and, if
ever they do, must have the soil and cUmate precisely to their
liking. Annuals, on the other hand, are perfect cosmopolitans,
and the most daring of adventurers besides. Some are citizens
of Europe, many are from Africa, South America, Mexico,
AustraUa, or the East Indies. Some are tropical plants, be-
longing in their own country to stately and respected families
of perennials, but none has the sKghtest objection to spending
a summer with whoever cares to give it garden room. In
fact, through their representatives one may have all the king-
doms of this world within the modest confines of a back-yard
fence, and at a cost of about half a dollar, which is a cheering
thought to any one whose means are not unlimited.

Annuals Not Often Planted but Easy to Grow

Here are a few of the annuals perfectly easy to grow, but
which, for some reason or other, one rarely sees in gardens:

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Clarkias. — ^These are among the many handsome Cali-
fornians. They like a rather warm soil, but are easily grown
and bloom profusely. Clarkia elegans bears long racemes of
flowers rather like carnations. The colors vary from white
to purple or salmon-pink. Clarkia ptdchdla is even more
showy. Sow early in May in partial shade. Thin until the
plants are six to twelve inches apart.

Eucharidiums are cousins of the Clarkias, lower-growing
plants, only one foot high, with rose-purple flowers in great
quantities. E. grandiflorum and E. Breweri are the best kinds.

Godetia (satinflower) is a very handsome annual, with wide-
open flowers in delicate, lovely colors and petals of satiny
texture. They are good for entire beds, for edging a border,
for pots, for growing in shaded places, and bloom best in a
poor, rather thin soil. Sow in May. Thin the plants until
they stand a foot and a half apart — ^this is important. The
best species are grandiflora and amcma. The best varieties
are Rosamond, The Bride, Duchess of Albany, and Lady
Albemarle. Godetias will bloom from June until October.

Phacelias are charming plants and rarely seen. Sow early
and give the plants a rather cool, moist position. Best vari-
eties Parryi and Whitlavia, the latter also known as Whidavia
grandiflora.

Annual Campanulas are a delight to any one who is un-
familiar with them. C. macrostyla has large violet flowers and
makes a plant three feet high. C. Loreyi is a lovely Kttle annual.

GUias bloom in any situation; can be planted at any season;
charming little plants — do best in a light soil. G. tricolor the
best.

CoUinsia. — ^Needs a sunny position and plenty of water.

Tulip Poppy (Hunnemannia), — ^The foliage resembles the
California poppy's, but the flowers, which appear in late
summer and autumn, are like yellow tuKps. It jjemains in

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THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

bloom for six weeks, and, if cut, the flowers may be kept for
ten days.

BvUerfiy-Flower (Schizanthus). — ^Interesting orchid-like flow-
ers. Height, one foot to two, very free-blooming and of
the easiest culture. Best varieties OrcJiami, pinnatiLSf retasus.
Wisetonensis the best for pot-culture. All are good for cutting
and massing.

Annual Lupins, — ^These bloom in August from May sow-
ings, and may be sown to fill the vacant places left after Orien-
tal poppies and other early-flowering plants have done bloom-
ing; they are of rapid growth and bloom plentifully long after
frost. The new hybridusroseu^ is one of the best varieties;
Hartwegii hdens (yellow) and mviabilia (various colors) are the
best sorts; the last makes a plant three feet in height. Lupins
are excellent for cut flowers.

Annual Chrysanthemums. — ^These are altogether difiFerent
things from the heavy-headed show-chrysanthemum of the
florists and the exhibitions. They are graceful, daisy-like
flowers; the plants blooming profusely from early summer
until late frost; average height from a foot to a foot and a half;
excellent for growing in masses. Sow in the seed-bed and
transplant later to their permanent homes, or else sow where
they are to grow, thinning later until the plants are ten inches
apart A little pinching back in early life makes these chrysan-
themums into bushy, sturdy specimens. Of the tricolor chrys-
anthemum, Burridgeanum and Eclipse are the best varieties,
and the double forms of C. coronarium are the best. C. segetum
grandiflorum is taller-growing and especially good for cutting.
C. muUicauLe, a dwarf yellow sort, three inches in height, makes
a charming edging.

Annu^ Sunflowers. — Helianthus eucumerifolius, sown in
May, will bloom profusely from July until November; plants
are about four feet high, many-branched, bea^ng hundreds

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of small bright yellow flowers which may be cut again and
again and only bloom the more for it; makes an interesting
and quite unusual hedge. Sow thickly. Of the easiest pos-
sible culture. Varieties Stella and Orion very decorative and
especially good for cutting.

Annual Larkspurs. — Of more delicacy than the perennial
larkspur. Very good for cut-flowers. Sow where they are to
grow. Give plenty of room and good, rich soil.

Anniud Gaillardias bloom all summer, if given good, light
soil and open sunshine. Amblyodon, pulcheUa, and pulcheUa
variety pida are the best sorts.

Sweet SvUan. — One of the centaureas — ^an old annual, not
often planted nowadays, but very good for cutting and massing.
So also are Centaurea Margvsrite and Centaurea imperialis,

Mexican Firebush {Kochia tricophela). — ^A very unusual
annual; each seed produces a plant which looks like a small
pyramidal evergreen until the middle of August, when it be-
comes first pink, then scarlet, then, in September, a deep
crimson. Makes a good hedge about three feet and a half
high. Also good for massing. Sow in May.

Browallia. — Good for cutting and massing. B. elaia and B.
grandiflora are the best varieties.

Crimson Flax (Linum). — ^Very striking and very easy to grow.

Here are a few others whose names are formidable, perhaps^
but whose acquaintance it is very easy to make and well worth
the five-cent price of admission:

Arctotis grandis, Calandrina, Oaura^ Katdfussia^ Leptosyne^
Lavatera^ Gomphrena, Helichrysumy RhodarUhey Ammobiumy
Acroclinium, Amaranthus caudatus.

For Sub-Tropical Effects. — Giant hemp (Cannabis gigantea).
Grows to the height of ten feet; very eflFective, but do not
plant it too near the house. Castor-oil bean (Ridnu^), cosmos,

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sunflowers — ^these four are the tallest. Lower-growing plants
that will harmonize well with these are: The tobacco-plant
(Nicotiana sylvestris and N. colossea), Solanum Warscetciczoides ;
also the decorative grasses, Pennisetum longistylum or P.
viUosum, P. Rupellianum, very decorative with its crimson
plumes, and the ornamental com, Zea Jajxmica.

The Growing of Annuals

Directions on seed packets always presuppose a greenhouse
and advise one cheerfully to " start indoors in February. "
But starting seed in boxes in the house requires much more
plant wisdom than is needed for sowing them outdoors — ^it is
the difiFerence between raising chickens by an incubator and
intrusting most of the responsibility to an experienced hen;
therefore, if you are not an expert you will find it much simpler,
much less disappointing, to wait until May, and then start
the seeds outdoors where Dame Nature does some of the look-
ing out for them.

In the first place buy your seeds at first hand from reliable
seedsmen: it is as necessary to have fresh seed as to have a
fresh yeast-cake if one woidd have results, and fresh seed
can be had only direct from the best seedsmen. Get single
colors, not mixed packets; then when planting you know pre-
cisely what you are doing.

Candytufts, California poppies, coreopsis, corn-flowers,
Japanese pinks, mignonettes, nasturtiums, petunias, poppies,
portulacas, sweet alyssums, and sweet peas prefer being sown
where they are to grow; other annuals benefit by transplant-
ing.

The Seed-Bed

If you have cold-frames or hotbeds, by all means sow your
seeds there as late as May 1; you will gain a great deal of

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HOW TO SUCCEED WITH ANNUALS

time, and on cold nights it is a simple matter to cover them.
If you haven't these first aids to gardening — ^and even if you
have — ^make a "seed-bed." Choose a sheltered place, the
shaded part of the day, and near enough the house to be con-
veniently under your eye. The soil should be Kght and warm,
incUning to sand and enriched with conunercial fertilizer or
sheep manure. It need not be dug more than a foot in depth.
Make the soil smooth and level and then sow the seed in narrow
rows; you will not be so Uable to mix the infants up with each
other nor to mistake them for growing weeds. Be sure to
have paths at convenient distances so that you can reach all
the seedlings without stepping on any. Make the seed-bed
large enough so that the first sowing will take up only about
a quarter of the whole seed space. Water with a fine spray
and keep moist until the seeds have germinated. A well-
known rule is to cover a seed four times its depth. More seeds
are lost by too deep planting than by too shallow. There are
a few seeds which require special treatment. Japanese morn-
ing-glories germinate better if one files a notch in the shell.

After two or three leaves have formed the infant seedlings
should be transplanted until they stand about four inches
apart. If there is an abundance of seedlings and one has
scant time, pull up the intervening infants until the little
things which are left stand at the right distance. This, how-
ever, is a rather hard-hearted process. If the Uttle seedlings
are growing too tall and "leggy" they may be "pinched back."
This induces more root growth. When they are three or four
inches high transplant again until they are six inches apart.
They will then make rapid growth and soon be ready for trans-
planting to their permanent homes.

Always choose a cloudy day or late afternoon for this
operation. Be very careful of the roots. A woman gardener's

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THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

suggestion of taking a shallow biscuit tin» half filling it with
water and setting the infants in this during transit, is an ex-
cellent one.

Gardeners who are suflBiciently Spartan pick oflF the first
buds and let the plant get a little more strength before flower-
ing. The result is a stronger plant and better blooms. But
not all of us are Spartans.

Annuals Which Every Gardener Ought to Know

Here follow a few of the conmion and thoroughly satis-
factory annuals. Those marked * are best sown in the seed-
bed and transplanted when two or three inches high to their
permanent home. Those unmarked should be sown where
they are to grow.

HARDY ANNUAIfi WITH LONG-BLOOMINa PERIODS

Candytuft (Iberia): Height, 1 foot; colors, white to carmine.
Sow about April 15; any good soil; open sunshine. Blooms July
until frost.

Calif omia Poppy (Eschschohia): Height, 1 foot; color, a rich
orange, very brilliant; thrives in any good soil; sun; an excellent
edging. Blooms June until frost.

* Drummond's Phlox (Phlox Drummondii) : Height, 1 K feet;
both tall and dwarf varieties come in charming shades of salmon-
pink, carmine, and pure white; ordinary soil; open sun. Best started
in the frames. Blooms July imtil frost.

* Marigold, African: Height, 2-3 feet; color, orange and yellow.
Sow end of April in any garden soil; open sun. Blooms July until
October.

* Marigold, French: Height, 1 foot; color, orange and yellow;
any soil; sun. Blooms July until October.

Moming-Glory : Height, 8-10 feet; various colors. Sow about April
15 to 30 in ordinary soil; morning sun. One of the most satisfactory
vines. Japanese varieties are very showy. Blooms July until frost.

Nasturtium, Tall: Height, 6-10 feet; colors, various. Sow April
SO to 30 in drills three inches deep. Any garden soil; sun. Thin
seedlings to six inches apart. Blooms July until October.

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Nasturtium, Dwarf: Height, 1 foot; various colors — ^maroon sorts
have the most distinction. Sow end of April. Blooms July until
October.

Petunia: Height, 2-3 feet; various colors. Sow April 15 to 30
in good loam; sun or half-shade. Avoid magenta tints; the fringed
varieties in clear pink are charming. Blooms June until frost.

Sweet Alyssum: Height, 6-9 inches; color, white. Sow in ordinary
soil; sun or half-shade. Dwarf varieties are best for edging. A most
untiring annual. Blooms May imtil November.

Sweet Peas: Height, 4-5 feet; colors, various. Sow as early as
possible in deep, rich soil; open sun. Give brush or wire-netting for
support. Bloom Jime until frost.

* Tobacco-Plant {Nicotiana affinis) : Height, 2-4 feet; color,
white. Sow April 15 to 30 in ordinary soil; sun. Transplant seed-
lings from ten to twelve inches apart. A coarse-growing plant, but
effective.

* Zinnia: Height, 3-3^ feet; various colors. Sow end of April.
Transplant seedlings to deep, moist soil, setting them two feet apart.
Zinnias should have plenty of room. Blooms Jidy until October.

OF SHORTER BLOOMINa SEASON BUT WELIL WORTH WHILE

* Balsam: Height, lJ^-2 feet; colors, white, salmon-pink, blood-
red. Sow end of April in ordinary soil; sun or half-shade. Blooms
July until mid-September. May be started indoors.

Coreopsis: Height, 3-3 J^ feet; colors, various. Sow April 1 to
15 in ordinary soil; sun; atrosanguinea (dark-red) has more distinc-
tion than the ordinary yellow variety. Blooms July and August.

Corn-flower, Bachelor's-Button (Centaurea cyanus) : Height, 2-3
feet; colors, various. Sow April 15 to 30 in ordinary soil; sun. "Em-
peror William,'* a deep "Yale" blue, is the best variety. Blooms
June and July.

* Cosmos: Height, 6-8 feet; colors, pink and white. Sow in <^en
April 15; any good soil; sun. Can be started in a box. The early
sorts are surest to bloom before a frost; the later varieties are the
more attractive. Blooms in Septanber. Cosmos should be protected
from the wind.

Japan Pink (Dianthus Heddevngi) : Height, 10-12 inches; colors,
various. Sow April 1 to 15 in any good soil; open sim. New varieties,
such as "Salmon King" (double) and "Salmon Queen" (single), are
especially charming when planted in rows with the old-fashioned
white variety. Blooms August and September.

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Poppies: Height, 2-3 feet; colors, various. Sow very lightly,
barely covering seed, in a good (sandy) loam; sun. "Shirley" poppies
have a wide variety of colors and are easiest to cultivate. Peony-
flowered poppies are very handsome and very difficult to transplant.
Of the white varieties one of the best is the opium poppy. Sow in
rows or patches where they are to grow. June. Sow again a month
later for a succession.

Portulaca: Height, 6 inches; various colors. Sow in sandy loam;
sun. Good ground cover. Blooms July and August.

Mignonette: Height, 8-15 inches; color, greenish. Sow April
15 to 30 in sandy loam; sun. Rather hard to transplant. Blooms
July and August.

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XXI

HOW TO HAVE SUCCESS WITH ROSES

Rose-growing has come to have much the same aspect as
wedlock — SL thing not to be entered into lightly, but soberly
and most advisedly. If a beginning gardener proposes to set
out roses the counsel given is usually: "Don't." When a bold-
spirited gardener disregards this advice and sets about making
a rose-garden he quickly reaches a state of dazed and helpless
bewilderment. First, at the multitude of roses that throng the
catalogues, each one as desirable, apparently, as its fellow; next
he finds himself in a maze of disconcerting classifications, lost in
a labyrinth of Bourbons, Noisettes, Polyanthas, Teas, Hybrid
Teas, Hybrid Perpetuals (the T., H. T., H. P. of the catalogues);
added to this is the lengthy and sobering list of possible diseases,
the portentous array of insect enemies, which things make of
rose-growing a most hazardous undertaking. Yet our grand-
mothers grew roses — ^probably not prize roses, but still abun-
dant and lovely, and they had them in their gardens as a
matter of course.

Now, rose-growing is not a thing of extraordinary difficulty.
Of course, if one expects to take prizes at exhibitions then
rose-growing is an art; but if he simply wants roses enough
to delight his eyes and perfume his garden, that is a thing
from which no array of bristling difficulties should stop him.
Sometimes obstacles wHich look like Kons in the way can be
"shooed" aside as easily as if they were hens.

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The Best Way to Buy Roses

Whoever wants roses that will do something directly
doesn't experiment with slips or cuttings, except for the fmi
of it, but gets two-year-old plants from a worthy rose-grower
who has grown them himself. Do not try imported plants,
even when a bargain-counter lures. The imported gown may
be all one could desire, but the imported plant is by no means
as satisfactory as the home-grown one. The climate of both
England and the Netherlands is quite different from ours;
solely for its horticultural value (and quite correctly) an eigh-
teenth-century poet praises "Britain's watery sky." It seems
to have been made especially for gardening purposes. Plants
coming from these countries to ours feel the diflFerence sorely.
An expert knows how to manage imported plants; it is wiser
for an amateur not to try it unless he has a good deal of gar-
den wisdom.

Latitude is an important consideration in the selection of
roses. The Crimson Rambler, which in the North will grow
for any one, is in the South rather liable to disease, and for
beauty cannot compare with the Banksias or the wild Cherokee
Roses. There is also a difference in the planting season. On
account of this difference one buys his plants preferably from
a nurseryman in his own latitude. If one has wisdom enough
to recognize "suckers" from the roots, and resolution enough
to cut them out, then a wide range of budded roses is possible.
But if one cannot tell a "sucker" when he sees it, he never
should buy roses except on their own roots.*
* See chapter on pruniiig.

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HOW TO HAVE SUCCESS WITH ROSES

Some Things Which Roses Reqttibe

There are a few details of diet and environment which
roses insist upon, and if the gardener won't or can't supply
them he might better leave the rose-bushes at the nursery,
for they "won't be happy till they get them." The first is
plenty of sunshine; the second is shelter from north or west
winds (the sturdy Crimson Rambler grown on a wire-netting
will often give protection enough) ; thirdly, roses like a place
to themselves and show little interest in blooming if they have
to be closely associated with other garden-folk; they are
aristocrats by nature, and very exclusive ones; for diet they
like rich food and plenty of it, enough water for drink, but
fresh water, not persistently moist ground — "roses abhor wet
feet," as one writer expresses it. Don't try to grow roses near
trees — ^there is little nourishment for anything in such a place,
and roses will do nothing if starved.

The best place for a real rose-garden is a southeastern
slope. Roses love the early morning sim. The next best
place is a southern or southwestern slope from which winds
are cut oflF. Though aristocrats in the matter of other flowers,
roses are perfectly happy in many situations which are not
in the least distinguished. They will grow luxuriantly over
the wire-netting of a hen-yard. The south side of a barn-
yard and the neighborhood of a compost-heap are places
they delight in. In the country a congenial spot for climbing
roses is near a kitchen-porch, where, in spite of precept, the
water from the washing of hands is apt to be thrown. Not
only do they enjoy the diet but they also keep many a germ
from finding its way into the well. I am inclined to think that
the sixteenth-century notion that roses were pecidiarly health-*
giving came from the unsanitary condition of the houses and

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the fact that roses have healthy appetites for germs» so that
the more rose-embowered the cottage the less typhoid.

How Roses Should be Planted

June is the time to admire roses rather than to plant them,
but it is the time of all others to plan a rose-garden. It needs
a bold and flighty imagination to see roses in one's garden in
January, but in June it is a very simple matter to know where
we woidd like to have a climbing rose. One can visit nurseries,
look over the fence at one's neighbor's garden, and decide in-
telligently what roses one must have and precisely where they
should go. Roses can be ordered at any time; the proper
time for planting is the orthodox shrub-planting time — ^late
October and November in the North, also early March. In
the South and in California February is the usual planting
month.

First mark out the beds; if you make them wider than
four feet you will find them difficult to manage. Dig the bed
to the depth of at least two feet and a half; three feet is better
— some gardeners, when the soil is poor, have the beds no less
than four feet deep. Throw all the soil aside. If it is sandy
don't use it. Unless the subsoil be of gravel — ^in which case
the drainage problem is solved by Mother Nature — ^put in
the bottom a six-inch layer of broken stone. Then fill the
bed with good, heavy loam mixed with manure in the propor-
tion of one part of manure to six parts of soil (only well-rotted
manure should be used; the very best is cow manure). The
soil and manure should be mixed very thoroughly. Hybrid
Tea-Roses will grow in a lighter, much more sandy soil than
Hybrid Perpetuals.

Set the plants from eighteen inches to two feet apart; if
in rows it will be found more convenient to dig a trench eighteen

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HOW TO HAVE SUCCESS WITH ROSES

inches deep and a foot or more wide. Be sure that the bud or
graft is two inches below the soil, or else you may have trouble
with suckers. Water thoroughly when planted, and if the
weather be dry the ground should be kept moist for some time
after planting. If you dislike the look of the brown earth
carpet the beds with Viola comtda or with pansies.

Pruning comes next, and in rose-growing is very important.
It is one of the first things that a rose-grower must learn if
she would have roses in abundance. Single roses may for the
most part be treated as plain "shrubs" and require little or
no pruning, but garden-roses, the Teas and Hybrid Perpetuals,
these require carefid and intelligent pruning and plenty of it.

Rose Enemies and How to Meet Them

This brief list of possible evils need not terrify an amateur.
Forewarned is forearmed. The possible diseases of children
make a large volume, but few parents are afraid to try raising
them on that account. Strong, healthy rose-plants are not
liable to be afflicted, and rose enemies are like other evils —
if nipped in the bud little damage is done, and roses are well
worth the bit of watchfulness they entail.

Rose-Beetle. — ^Probably the first insect whose acquaintance
the rose-grower makes is the rose-beetle or "rose-bug," which
sometimes comes in hordes like the Egyptian locusts. The
only sure way of vanquishing this enemy is the primitive
method of "hand-picking" or jarring oflF the insects into a
pan of kerosene. For this work the early morning is the best,
for then the insects are more stupid and inert than ever. Most
remedies that kill the beetles kill the roses also.

Black Spot — ^This is a fungous disease, apt to appear late
in the season, and usually confined to Hybrid Perpetual
Roses; Teas are rarely afflicted with it. The black spots are

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first noticed on the leaves at the base of the plant; later the
disease works upward. About the middle of June gardeners
begin to watch for "black spot." As soon as a spotted leaf is
observed the spray should be cut oflF and also two or three
leaf-stalks above the unfortunate, although they may seem
unaffected. These should be taken away and burned. Spray-
ing in April before the foliage appears and again in late June
with Bordeaux mixture is the best preventive, but even this
is a bit uncertain: it discolors the foliage and cannot be ap-
plied while the plants are in bud.

Aphis, — ^This is a tiny, green, sucking insect which, if you
let it, swarms over the stems of plants; whenever aphides
are noticed no time must be lost, for they increase with in-
credible rapidity. Tobacco dust applied when the foliage is
moist will discourage them. The surest remedy is tobacco-
tea: this should be applied with a sprayer or a whisk-broom.
If the tea is in a wide dish-pan the head of the plant may be
bent down, and the affected branches dipped in it and the
aphides both poisoned and drowned, thus making assurance
doubly sure. If you have but few plants five cents' worth of
the cheapest smoking-tobacco will be enough to make two
gallons of the beverage. Pour on boiling water and let stand
until cool.

Green Worms: various larvse which in their adult stage
become different winged insects. — ^As larvae they are alike de-
structive to rose foliage. Take a small powder bellows and
while the leaves are moist dust them with powdered hellebore.
This will not improve the appearance of the rose-bushes, but
in a day it. can be washed off with a hose and the enemy will
be found to have been expunged also.

Mildew, — When roses haven't an abundance of air and
simlight mildew may appear, especially after cool nights.

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HOW TO HAVE SUCCESS WITH ROSES

The symptoms are a crinkling of the foliage, which becomes
grayish in tinge. The moment you notice this, dust not only
the afficted rose-bushes but all the others, as well, with flowers
of sulphur. Repeat in a few days, for the sulphur is more a
preventive than a cure.

Some Roses fob Beginners in Gardening
For Calif omia Gardens

BUSH-ROSES

Kaiserin Augusta Victoria. Paul Neyron.

La France. General Jacqueminot.

Maman Cochet. Helen Keller.

Papa Gontier. Ulrich Brunner.

Etoile de Lyon. Mrs. John Laing.

CUMBING ROSES

Cherokee. R^ve d'Or.

Gold of Ophir. Devoniensis.

Reine Marie Henriette. Gloire de Dijon.

Beauty of Glazenwood.

For Sovihem Gardens

BUSH-ROSES

Baroness de Rothschild. Kaiserin Augusta Victoria.

La France. Madame C. Testout.

Souvenir de la Malmaison. Papa Gontier.

Gloire Lyonnaise. Mrs. John Laing.

Paul Neyron. Duchesse de Brabant.

Etoile de Lyon. Gruss an Teplitz.

CLIMBINO ROSES

Devoniensis. R6ve d'Or.

Cloth of Gold. Cherokee.

Reine Marie Henriette. Banksia*

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For Chicago and Gardens of the Middle West

BUBH-ROSES

Prince Camille de Rohan. Captain Christy.

Magna Charta. Creneral Jacqueminot.

Mrs. R. G. Sharman Crawford. Mrs. Paul.

Louis van Houtte. Crested Moss.

CUMBINQ ROSES

Seven Sisters. Carmine Pillar.

Crimson Rambler. Dawson.

For Northern and Eastern Gardens

BUSH-ROSES

Alfred Colomb. Mrs. John Laing.

General Jacqueminot. Paul Neyron.

Madame Plantier. Frau Karl DruschkL

Louis van Houtte. Ulrich Brunner.

Madame Gabriel Luizet. Slaiserin Augusta Victoria.

CUMBING ROSES

Carmine Pillar. Debutante.

Crimson Rambler. Dorothy Perkins.

Dawson. Farquhar.

Wichuraiana Hybrids. Prairie.

Roses for the Seaside

BUSH-ROSES

Rosa Rugosa — all varieties and Madame Plantier.

their Hybrids. Scotch Rose (R. spinosissima).

Polyantha Roses. Egah.

CLIMBING ROSES

The Penzance Sweetbriers. R, Wichuraiana.

Evergreen Gem. Gardenia.

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xxn

HOW TO MAKE SLIPS AND CUTTINGS

It is one of the delights of gardening that among plants
two and two do not of necessity make four as in arithmetic:
they may become six, or eight, or twenty-five, or even fifty,
in the hands of a clever gardener. In July and August, when
the honors of the season belong to the perennials and annuals,
and last year's begonias, verbenas, and geraniums are leading
a secluded life in an out-of-the-way comer of the garden, the
latter might with a little trouble be made to employ their
leisure and devote their ungainly branches to producing flour-
ishing families of little verbenas or geraniums, as the case
may be, which will be abloom this winter.

There are many ways of multiplying plants, and the mak-
ing of cuttings is one of the easiest. A cutting is a portion of
a plant which is cut from the parent plant and set in the ground,
where it may begin life on its own responsibility. It may be
anything from the leaf of a rubber-plant to a tiny twig of a
cedar or an oak tree, but if it is cut from an older plant and
set in the ground to root for itself it is a cutting. There are
root cuttings, tuber cuttings, stem and leaf cuttings. The
stem cuttings are the most familiar. Of these there are "hard-
wood cuttings," made in the winter or early spring, when the
plants are dormant — ^this is the way in which most shrubs
and vines are increased — and "soft-wood'* or "green" cuttings,
made in the summer, of growing wood (if of shrubs), while,
with herbaceous plants, all would be "soft" or "green" cut-
tings.

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THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

Slips. — ^A "slip" is a green or soft cutting. Because the
word is little used by gardeners, rarely met in garden books,
but much used by amateur gardeners (who extend it sometimes
over some of the larger area belonging to cuttings), I have
stopped to explain about the two.

Among indoor plants the majority of cuttings are made

in the early spring or during the winter; but some may be

made in summer. Among the

plants which lend themselves

to this use are the shrubby

begonias — not the tuberous or

the Rex varieties — verbenas,

# 1 . . , 1 1- When the wood is ripe. 2. Too

fuchsias, geramums, coleus and 3^^^ ^^^ cuttinV

many other bedding plants.

These are usually ready for slipping in late August. To make
certain, try breaking oflF a piece. If the stem bends, as flower-
stems often do when one is trying to pick them, then the
"wood" is too soft, and it is better to wait a while. But if the
stem snaps, then cuttings can be made in the latter part of
August and early September with an easy conscience and a
reasonable expectation of success.

Get Materials Ready First

A good cook never begins operations imtil all the ma-
terials and utensils are at hand; neither does a good gardener.

Plant infants need a rather diflFerent soil from that which
they can digest in later life. The soil for cuttings (grown in-
doors) should always be sifted or screened. A coarse, sharp,
clean sand is the very best, a sand inclining to gravel rather
than extreme fineness. "Propagating sand'* may be had from
any florist^ but soil quite as good may often be found in any
sand-bank. Good drainage is essential.

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HOW TO MAKE SLIPS AND CUTTINGS

There are many devices for rooting cuttings, and each
gardener thinks his the best. If one has some way which
has always been successful, by all means use it. For those
who have none, here are some of the
simplest methods:

Henderson's Saucer Method. — ^Take a
deep saucer, fill it nearly full of sand,
place the cuttings slantingly, almost lying down, and keep the
sand positively wet. This does not need to be shaded at any
time, and is one of the best and simplest ways of rooting cut-
tings in the siunmer.

Single Pot — Cuttings are often rooted in a single small
pot. In this case bits of stone or crock are put in the bottom
for drainage, then above this sand, and the little cutting is
placed close to the side of the pot — in which position it roots
better, for an excellent reason but a reason too long to give.

Forsythe's Pot is a revised and improved edition of the
above. To make this sort of propagating pot, take a two-
inch pot and plug the hole at the bottom with plaster of Paris
or a cork. Then take a six-inch pot, put the layer of drainage
in the bottom and set the little pot in the middle so that its
rim is level with that of its six-inch associate. The space be-
tween the two pots is filled with sand, and here the cuttings
are placed. The inner pot is
filled with water. This affair is
very professional-looking, and is
also very easy to manage.

Cutting-Bench. — ^If you have
the space in a greenhouse or
by a sunny window, or wish to start many cuttings, by all
means have a cutting-bench. This is an ordinary bench, about
a foot below the level of the lower edge of the greenhouse-sash.

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THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

It is enclosed by boards, making a box about six or eight inches
high. In this is placed the three-inch layer of drainage, then
about four inches of sand. It is necessary that some shade
should be arranged — ^a screen of lath or whitewashing of panes.
Flats or Boxes. — ^The shallow two-inch or three-inch deep
boxes which were used for starting seed may be filled with
sand and utilized for starting cuttings, either in the frames or
in a window.

Making the Cuttings

The Parent. — ^Even in making cuttings a good gardener
keeps his eye on the shape of the larger plant, and, other things

being equal, he cuts
as he would be likely
to cut back the plant,
leaving it reduced in
size, of course, but in
good shape for putting
out a young growth
and becoming a thrifty
and symmetrical plant
for its winter season.
The shortened branch-
es should be left with the cut just above an "eye."

The Cutting. — ^Suppose you are cutting back a rather "
straggling and overgrown abutilon. (This may be done in late
August or early September.) The branches should be taken
oflF at the dotted lines, as shown in the illustration. In some
plants — ^begonias, for instance — almost every inch of the wood
can be used for cuttings; here only the yoimg growth can be
used, and each branch will give but two or three cuttings —
in the branch shown only two are made (3). The length of the

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Abutilon and cuttings from it

HOW TO MAKE SLIPS AND CUTTINGS

cutting is by no means so important as the number of "eyes,"
as gardeners call them, or leaf-buds. Although cuttings are
sometimes made with a "single eye" it is better to have two
or even three. In an old plant it is from these points that the
leaves start. In a cutting the leaves start from the upper
eyes, and roots from the lower ones. Therefore, when making
ready the slip or cutting for planting, the lower leaves are cut
off that the roots may come out more conveniently. If neces-
sary, the cutting itself is shortened so that the cut at tiie bot-
tom is just below an eye
and at the top is just above
an eye; this is so that the
leaves will start as nearly
as possible to the top of the

plant, the roots at the bot- • ' ^ ^ • ^

torn (8). If there happens Topical cuttings

to be a blossom it should be cut off — no cutting should be
asked to undertake'the support of a flower; it has not the root-
strength. It is for this reason that the leaves are sometimes
cut, as in the hydrangea cutting (2). The more leaf sur-
face the more trouble for the roots, and the early life of a cut-
ting should be made as easy as possible. Until it roots, a very
short cutting may be pieced with a toothpick, which will hold
it upright (!)•

Dormant Cuttings are made in the winter or early spring
before growth begins. In these the eyes show but slightly,
and in making them one must be careful to lay the cuttings
side by side^ heads together, that they may not become mixed
and have the misfortune to be planted upside down.

Always use a sharp knife and always make a clean cut;
never pull or haggle the plant. The cut surface must heal
over before growth can begin, and in neither a plant nor a

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THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

Potting rooted cuttings

human being does a cut heal readily unless it is clean and made
with a sharp knife.

Putting Them in the Sand

The sand-pot or cutting-bench wp^ ready first. Now the
cuttings are ready. If you are planting a good many in a cut-
ting-bench take a stick, rule a
line from the back of the bench
to the front; make a little
trench about two inches deep.
Then, beginning at the back,
take a cutting in the left hand, a
stick (a pot-label or something
of the sort) in the right, and
"plant" the infants, setting them a little obliquely and about
two inches apart. Hold the plant in position, then push in
the sand well about the stem as carefully as if it were a seed-
ling, and make firm with the fingers. Then make the next
row about two inches from the first. Never push a cutting
into the sand as if it were a skewer being thrust into a roast,
not even if it does look like a little stick. This may bruise
the end from which the roots start. Gardeners never for-
get that plants are alive, even if they don't look it. When

planting is done, water well
with a fine spray and keep the
cuttings shaded for some days,
either by laying newspapers over
them, or, if they are in the
cold-frame, by using a shade of
lath. Cuttings should never be
allowed to "dry out," neither should they be kept too wet,
or they will incur the other cause of infant mortality, "damp-
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Bight depth in sand

HOW TO MAKE SLIPS AND CUTTINGS

ing oflF." The usual depth of a cutting in the sand is shown
in the illustration.

Potting Seedlings

In about three weeks, if the cuttings have kept thrifty,
they will probably have rooted, but the way to find out surely
is to look at one and see — ^but
don't pull it up by the roots.
Take in your right hand the
flat, sharp-pointed stick or the
six-inch pot-label referred to
before (which is an excellent
tool); hold the little cutting lightly in your left hand between
thumb and finger, then insert your stick about two inches to
the side of the cutting, push it underneath the infant and pry
it out carefully. With an expert gardener this is only a second's
work, and if the cutting is not rooted it is back in the sand
before it has had a chance to feel anything. The illustration
shows a chrysanthemum, a fuchsia, and a begonia ready for
potting.

lifting rooted cuttings

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xxm

GARDEN DIFFICULTIES AND HOW TO MEET

THEM

Drought and What to Do About It

Probably the greatest anxiety of the gardener will be about
the water-supply. The delicately clad maiden, who, watering-
pot in hand, walks in the garden in the cool of the day and
sprinkles lightly the plants, is a pleasing vision and one which
has always been dear to the poets, but a gardener has scant
use for her. The watering at evening is well enough, and the
sprinkling always pleasant to the leaves, but daily sprinkling
as a means of giving the roots a drink is an invention of the
serpent and one of the things he would surely have taught Eve
when he set about spoiling her gardening in Paradise.

In the first place, the best preventive of suflfering from
drought lies not in the watering-pot, but in the spade, in
deeply dug garden-beds which enable the plant roots to ex-
tend comfortably down where they can find food and mois-
ture and maintain a serene indifference to surface conditions.

Another excellent preventive which also has nothing to do
with a watering-pot is a "ground mulch**; this is simply the
practice of keeping the soil loose and light on the surface of
the ground, preventing the too-rapid evaporation of moisture.

Rhododendrons and azaleas, especially those of the fijrst
year's planting, benefit greatly by being given a summer mulch
— ^that is, a layer of dead leaves or other garden litter some
three inches deep. It is a thing they have in their own homes.

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GARDEN DIFFICULTIES AND HOW TO MEET THEM

and they like it in their adopted ones. Dame Nature is by
no means as fond of what New England selectmen call *^ slick-
ing up" as most gardeners think she ought to be, and her
method of disposing of stray leaves, both winter and siunmer,
by blowing them into shrubbery comers, is a most unhouse-
wifely practice, one must admit, but the plants like it.

Sweet peas benefit much from a mulch of lawn-grass clip-
pings.

All these practices save the water and the gardener's labor.

The Best Way to Water Your Garden

The Lawn. — It may be a pleasing sight to see a sprinkler
throwing its spray in the sunshine, but your lawn will derive
much more real benefit if after sundown the hose is simply
laid down on it and the water let run slowly. When one place
is thoroughly soaked move it to another and so on until all is
thoroughly wet. In a very dry season it is better to let the
grass remain a little long— it protects the roots.

The Garden. — If the plants are in rows one of the best
ways of watering is to make a deep furrow with the hoe, fill
this with water, let it soak in; fill again and yet once more,
then replace the soil, and every drop of water has gone where
the plants most need it, and the excellent habit the roots have
formed of extending down for water is not corrupted. If this
is not practicable soak the plants thoroughly after sundown,
then the next morning loosen the soil and make a "'ground
mulch," and your garden is safe and happy for a week at
least.

When Water is Scarce. — ^Drought in the garden is usually
the contemporary of a low cistern and a dry well. At such
times dish-water and wash-water should be religiously saved
for the garden, and applied as above directed. One farmer's

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wife has her sink so arranged that the water from it runs into
a trough or leader which empties into the fruit-garden some
thirty feet away. This trough can be shortened and lengths
of it removed, so that one day the strawberries are watered,
another day the currants, and so on — ^it is a small irrigation
scheme, but a good one. Any farmer's wife who has known
the su£Pering drought makes in the garden should get from
the Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, Farmer's
Bulletin No. 138, which gives a clear account of the way to
make a water-supply go the farthest.

Dealing With Insects

In warfare with insects, as in other warfare, the crux of
success lies in getting ahead of the enemy. It is hard to rid
a country of an invading force once it has overrun the terri-
tory; it is comparatively easy to keep it out. The way to
kill the second destructive brood of currant worms is to kill
the first brood, which is almost unnoticed. In fact, for the
gardener the ideal attitude toward insect pests and plant
diseases is that of the "Little Pig" in the nursery legend,
who, when his morning appointment with the wolf in the
apple-orchard was at six, took care himself to arrive at five.

Preventive Measures

General HeaUh. — ^Healthy, well-nourished plants are not
so likely to be troubled, either by disease or insects, as are
feeble ones.

Bordeaux Mixture. — One of the most eflFective preventives
which the gardener can apply is Bordeaux mixture. In fact,
an ounce of it applied as a preventive is worth gallons of it
as cure.

With Bordeaux, rust in hollyhocks and asters is prevented,

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GARDEN DIFFICULTIES AND HOW TO MEET THEM

if the plants are sprayed about the end of April and again
about May 15. To prevent blackening of the leaf in lark-
spur and monkshood spray the plants about June 15 and
again about July 1. If phlox has been subject to mildew
a spraying with Bordeaux at the end of June, repeated in mid-
July, will prevent it.

Bordeaux combined with arsenate of lead and appUed be-
forehand will sometimes deter the indefatigable rose-bug, an
insect as indifferent to obstacles as Longfellow's youth who
bore the banner Excelsior. In cases of doubt Bordeaux is
used in alternation with tobacco-water. This useful compound
may be had in a powdered form, in which case one uses four
ounces of Bordeaux to two gallons of water. It also comes
in cans like a condensed soup and is prepared in similar fashion
— ^just add the water and serve. The home-made article is
more inexpensive and by far the better, if one puts it together
carefully. If you wish to try making it send to the Depart-
ment of Agriculture, Washington, District of Columbia, for
Bulletin Number 243.

Any one objecting to the temporary discoloration of the
plants may use instead of the Bordeaux the compound known
as ammoniacal solution of copper, which is a dear liquid.
Forty-five gallons of water, three pints of strong aqua am-
monia, five ounces of copper carbonate is the formula.

To one who has never tried it the spraying of plants seems
a weighty undertaking, but, although the ingredients are un-
familiar, the formulas are no more difficult to follow than a
simple cookery recipe, and they are a very A B C to the di-
rections usually found on a paper pattern, which many women
will follow fearlessly.

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Inexpensive Gardeners' Assistants

Do not neglect to secure all the allies you can to police
your borders. The time of the "hired-man" is expensive, his
methods cumbersome compared to the deft work of those
humbler garden-assistants with whom the despatching of in-
sects has for coimtless generations been a specialty and a
means of livelihood. Don't kill the harmless garter-snake
that slips across your path — ^he is on no errand of mischief,
but one of beneficence. If Eve had set the serpent to work
at his proper business of Iqlling insects he would have had no
leisure for temptation. Encourage the birds, especially the
titmice, wrens, orioles, and woodpeckers, but above all invite
the presence of toads. If you can get them in no other way,
follow the Scriptural injimction and go out into the highways
and byways and compel them to come in. Slugs, chinch-
bugs, cutworms, all sorts and conditions of caterpillars — even
"thorny" ones — all seem alike acceptable to the toad; also
he has an astonishing capacity. When one considers that a
toad will calmly swallow, one after another, eighty-eight rose-
bugs and be ready for more, and that four times a day he fills
his stomach, one sees how extremely useful to the gardener
is his sturdy digestion, his catholic and comprehensive ap-
petite. In the matter of slugs and cutworms, insects which
wait until night before taking their walks abroad, the toad,
being a nocturnal animal himself, is peculiarly valuable.

If my account savors of romance, get from the Depart-
ment of Agriculture, at Washington, Bulletin Number 196
and read it.

Troublesome Insects

However the biologist may define them, the gardener finds
that insects, from the minutest scale to the fattest cutworm,

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may be grouped into three classes: first, those that may be
killed by direct assault by turning upon them the deadly
batteries of various noisome sprays; second, those whose
bodies are proof against such attacks and must be reached
in subtler fashion, through their appetites — by poisoning their
food; third, those which ought to let themselves be killed by
either of these methods and will not, and require on the part
of the gardener personal work and plenty of it.

Insects Requiring Personal Work

The Bose-BeeUe. — ^Perhaps the most exasperating of those
insects which refuse to come and be killed by the most ex-
actly prepared insecticide is the rose-beetle or rose-bug. Upon
him, with varying degrees ol success, are turned the weapons
of the gardener's arsenal: whale-oil soap, kerosene emulsion,
lime whitewash, hot water at a temperature of from 125 de-
grees to 130 degrees Fahrenheit — ^these will sometimes lessen
his fervor, but any insecticide strong enough to kill the rose-
bug injures the roses, and the only sure remedy is the tedious
and primitive one of "hand-picking" and dropping each in-
sect into a pan of kerosene. Netting like that spread over
fruit-trees will sometimes exclude rose-bugs. Many garden-
ers set Conspicua magnolias and the white Madame Flantier
roses about their rose-gardens as a decoy, for the beetles are
fond of these and are more conveniently picked from the white
flowers.

The CtUworm. — ^Another annoying insect is the cutworm.
When, without any apparent cause, young asters and lark-
spurs begin to droop and wither, then, without waiting until
the stalk falls (being neatly cut off at the ground surface),
take a pot-label or an old jack-knife and poke carefully about
the stalk an inch below the surface and you wiU find the sinner.

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THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

A veteran gardener has the almost unconscious habit, while
working among his beds, weeding or setting out plants, of
keeping his eye out for these workers of iniquity.

Cutworms may be entrapped by making with a pointed
stick two or three deep holes by the side of the plant. Being
unable to climb out they are easily killed. If the garden has
been greatly troubled with cutworms it is well to plough the
land in the autumn and let the birds dispose of the enemy.
They are often dealt with by poisoned bait — ^bunches of clover
sprinkled with arsenites, and stiff collars of paper are placed
around the plants as a protection.

Insects Which May be Dealt with in Masses

Aphides, plant-lice, red spiders, and other soft-bodied suck-
ing insects are usually met with kerosene emulsion or whale-
oil soap, or else with tobacco-water, the former being chiefly
used on shrubs and woody vines, the latter on herbaceous
plants and in the greenhouse.

The commonest garden uses of tobacco-water are for sweet
peas, heliopsis, rudbeckia, and the like, when afflicted by the
red aphis; for chrysanthemums attacked by the black aphis.
To make tobacco-water, pour one gallon of boiUng water on
one pound of tobacco. When cool apply by a spray.

Kerosene emulsion is used on roses when afflicted by plant-
lice, mites, hoppers, thrips, red spiders; also on hollyhocks
when attacked by the green hollyhock bug. Here is the recipe:
Two gallons of boiling water, half a pound of hard soap, two
gallons of kerosene. Dissolve the soap in boiling water, add
kerosene and churn for five or ten minutes. Dilute from ten
to twenty-five times before applying.

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GARDEN DIFFICULTIES AND HOW TO MEET THEM

Insects Which Must be Poisoned

Worms, slugs, caterpillars, and other chewing insects —
these are despatched by Paris-green, London purple, or (and
these are safer to handle) by hellebore or pyrethrum.

Hellebore is used for roses troubled with the worm in the
bud, and for killing slugs. It is also invaluable in saving the
currant-bushes from being stripped of their leaves. The
bushes must be sprayed as soon as the first leaves appear.
For spraying use one ounce of fresh white hellebore to three
gallons of water; apply when thoroughly mixed.

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XXIV

TRANSPLANTING IN AUTUMN

When autumn approaches, to plant or not to plant is the
question before the gardener. There are, of course, those
plants which, like magnolias among trees and chrysanthemums
among herbaceous plants, have strongly expressed preferences
for spring planting; and there are the others, such as the
spring-flowering bulbs, whose preferences are even more strongly
expressed for autunm planting — ^these are, as one might say,
plainly labelled. But besides these are evergreens and a vast
number of deciduous trees and hardy plants which are listed
in catalogues as "planted in either spring or fall," and the be-
ginning gardener wonders which. Garden books and nursery-
men's catalogues are sure to insist on the wisdom of autumn
planting, and one's amateur friends usually say "Don't."

Where the Trouble Lies

If ours were a climate of regular and orderly habits, such
as the English climate, if things would always freeze December
1, and stay frozen until March 1, if warm weather would come
in May and stay until September, if March and April and
October and November were cool and equable and moist,
one could make the nicest of planting schedules with a dear
conscience; the plants manage to bring out their blossoms
fairly on time even if they are killed as a result of their punc-
tuaUty. But the climate has no idea whatever of schedule
time or of consistency; it is as perilous a thing to give an exact
date for the planting-out of tender things as to give a calendar

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date for the removal of winter underwear. Some autmnns are
peculiarly hard on newly planted stock — ^last year's, for in-
stance, when a long drought was followed by an unusually
severe winter, while last spring, cold and moist, was admirable
for newly planted stock. Sometimes it is the spring which
is almost impossible for transplanting purposes, because the
ground may stay frozen until mid-April and then the spring
comes with a rush, hurrying trees into leaf before gardeners
have a chance to do anything, compressing the planting season
into about three weeks.

Transplanting is always a shock to the system, and any
plant needs a week of undisturbed peace and quiet before it
must "get busy" again. The pitfall of spring planting is that
it is often belated, and the young plant finds upon it the duties
of leafing-out and of blossoming before the roots have made
connections and are able to supply the food. The injury to
autumn-planted stock is likely to result from the few days
of unexpected warmth during the winter when demands are
made on root-strength which the plant has not; also from
"heaving" — ^that is, when a plant, because of the alternate
freezing and thawing, becomes dislodged. This latter danger
may be guarded against by mulching, which is essential to
successful planting in autumn. In fact I should be inclined
to say that, given a careful planting in well-prepared soil,
and a good mulch (if the planting be done in the autumn),
and the chances of success between spring and autumn plant-
ing are about as six to half a dozen.

The Chief Points to Keep in Mind

The whole idea in transplanting is that plants be shifted
during their resting period — ^when they are "dormant," as it
is called. It follows naturally that plants which bloom very

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early in the spring prefer being moved in the autumn, since
the spring is their busy season, while, for a like reason, autumn-
blooming plants are usually best shifted in the spring. It is
also generally true that the earlier plants bloom in the spring
the earUer they may be moved in the autumn. Among spring-
flowering bulbs, for instance, although crocuses may be planted
late, the preferred order of planting is crocus, narcissus, tulip.
Crocuses may be planted in early September, tulips as late
as November, or even in a January thaw. The reason being
that the crocus likes to make root-growth in the autmnn, time
in the spring for such work being scant, while tulips, since they
appear much later, can wait for this. Peonies like to make a
root-growth in the autumn and should be given an oppor-
tunity to do so, and September is their preferred month.
Mulching should be done after the ground has frozen. A
heavy mulch of stable manure applied too early and removed
too late will start plants in the hardy borders into an unwise
activity.

Don't Plant in the Autumn

Evergreens, — ^Expert gardeners can move these successfully
during a moist September — it is a risk for amateurs to try it.
Better wait till spring.

Magnolias y Ttdip-TreeSy Sweet Gum (Liquidamhar), or the
American HoUy, which should always be planted in the spring
and cut back to a bare pole.

Chrysanthemums, Japanese Anemones, YuccaSy and Late
Tritomas prefer being planted in the spring.

Hardy Perennials after October 15; they will have no op-
portunity to make root-growth.

Deciduous Trees and Shrubs under These Conditions: It
the planting is to be in an exposed place defer it until spring.

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If you are farther north than forty-five degrees it is safer to
wait until spring.

If You DonH Intend to MuLchy don't plant in the fall — ^not
shrubs nor trees nor hardy perennials.

Plant These

Spring-FlotDering Bulbs. — ^In the autumn or not at all.

Lilies. — ^Plant in October, except the American Turk's-Cap,
Canadian bellflower, and the Madonna lily, which are planted
in August.

Early-Flowering Herbaceous Plants, such as Oriental poppies,
peonies, foxglove, bleeding-heart, should be set out as soon
as possible.

Deciduous Trees and Shrubsy with the exceptions given
above. Planting must be done after the leaves have fallen,
approximately from October 15 to December 15.

Hardy Perennialsy with the exceptions given above. Plant-
ing should be done from September 15 to October 15 (ap-
proximately).

Irises should be planted in the autumn if they are to bloom
the following summer. If you want a succession of bloom
from mid-March until August, try Iris reticulaiay Iris vemay
the Florentine, Spanish, white Siberian and Grerman irises.
Iris neglecta and the Japanese iris. These bloom in the order
named. Give them rich soil and plenty of water; roots should
be set in clumps four inches deep. Thrive in sun or half-shade«.

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XXV

WINTER INJURY AND HOW TO AVOID IT

Far more has been laid to the unkmdness of the winter
wind than is due. Trees that have been carelessly planted in
half-prepared soil, that have starved throughout the summer,
suffered from drought in autumn, and are blessed with neither of
the conmionest comforts (a mulch for foot-covering and a wind-
break to keep the northeasters from their backs), while rats
and rabbits are permitted to worry their roots — ^these victims,
if unable in the spring to send out their leaves, are charged
to the account of "killed by the winter." To be sure, the
winter days are days of reckoning, a kind of day of judgment
for the weaker brethren; yet the verdict of "winter-killed"
is sometimes like the coroner's safe and easy statement of
"death by heart-failure."

It is one of the paradoxes of horticulture that in winter
trees are far more likely to suffer from heat than from cold.
For the unacclimated, the peculiar tryingness of the American
winter lies not in its severity but in its inconstancy. Capricious-
ness in April or May makes havoc among the magnolia blos-
soms and blights the hopes of the azaleas, but it does not
wreck the constitution of a plant like inconstancy in January.
It is the few sudden warm days in the midst of zero weather
that uncurl the rhododendron leaves and loosen the "buds"
on the standard roses, so that, the brief armistice suddenly
ended, the cold catches them unaware.

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Suitable Placing op Shbubs

Shrubs often suffer by being placed in most trying situa-
tions, which a gardener of tact would avoid. There are many
plants, hardy enough as far as being able to live in the North
is concerned, but which, like the novel-heroines of fifty years
ago, feel the need of a strong and sustaining personality in
the background. With a windbreak of sturdy pines and spruces
to temper the force of the northeasters, many trees, which
under other conditions would have easily been reported as
"winter-killed," can enjoy a long and useful life. At Morris-
town, N. J., for instance, Mr. D. W. Langton has brought the
Southern yellow jessamine {Gelseminum officinale) through
two winters, quite unprotected, except for being placed in a
sheltered situation.

The early-flowering magnolias, which use valor rather than
discretion in blooming, should never be asked to bear the
brunt of March winds — ^not if the gardener would enjoy their
full beauty. Kobus and steUata would certainly not be killed,
but the chance of their dazzling wealth of blossoms being un-
hiui; is greatly reduced. Such trees may hardly be said to
need protection — except from the consequences of their own
rashness.

All Trees and Shrubs Profit by Mulching

Of all the winter comforts afforded trees or shrubs, "mulch-
ing" is by far the most common, as it is the easiest. All trees
and shrubs and hedges and shrubbery borders profit by it.
This operation is simply a "bedding" of the trees, as a farmer
beds his cattle, covering the ground directly about the tree
(including a diameter equal to the spread of its branches)
with manure or stable litter or dead leaves to the depth of

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from three to six inches. This is the "natural method" of
protection and serves two purposes. On the one hand, the
mulch is a kind of extra blanket for the roots; on the other,
it is an excellent manner of fertilizing and the one which nature
follows when left to her own devices.

In the case of a newly planted tree, hedge, or shrubbery,
the practice of mulching is especially necessary, because, aside
from the peril by cold weather to stem and tops, the alternate
freezing and thawing of the ground sometimes dislodges a tree
— "heaves" it, as the gardeners say. It is for this reason, the
liability to "heaving," that evergreens are rarely planted in
the fall. For an evergreen, not being close-reefed for the winter,
offers much resistance to the wind, and the tree is likely to
"work loose." Therefore fall-planted evergreens should be
heavily mulched. For the same reason — ^to prevent heaving —
newly set trees in orchard or elsewhere may profit by having
the soil heaped about their stems to the height of six inches.

A mixture of manure and stable litter is one of the most
satisfactory mulches. Dead leaves (secured by branches thrust
in the ground), leaf -mould, compost, stalks of dead annuals —
almost any kind of garden litter may be mixed with manure
and put to this use, except — ^and there is a prominent excep-
tion — strawy stuff of any kind should be excluded if rats and
mice abound. As for the methods of combating these evils,
something on the order of Hannah Glasse's hare recipe is
most thoroughly satisfactory — ^namely, to catch the rats. For
protection one uses tarred paper on the stems, birch-bark
wrappers or wire-screening wound about them (leaving room
enough to insiu*e not cutting the bark). This last method is
sure to be discouraging to the enemy. There are several un-
savory washes which may be used and for which formulas may
be foimd in Bailey's "Garden-Making."

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WINTER INJURY AND HOW TO AVOID IT

Other Protections for Frail Constitutions

There are many trees for which more protection than a
mulch is necessary. Imported rhododendrons, magnolias
during the first winter. Daphne cneorum, and others, especially
newly planted stock, benefit from a slight shelter. For shrubs
and trees, except such as need to be housed, temperance is
the key-note of winter protection. It is for this necessity of
tempering, rather than for exclusion of cold, that a windbreak
is so valuable a thing in gardening. It acts as a nurse for the
young orchard, moderating both the force of the wind and
the extremes of temperature.

Rhododendrons need protection chiefly from the winter
sun. Home-grown rhododendrons, by the way, of hardy
varieties such as album elegansy grandiflorum^ Lincoln, and
some dozen others, thrive in the latitude of New York with
no protection whatever. Some gardeners place wooden boxes
about the shrubs, covering the tops with burlap. But this
proceeding gives the grounds as melancholy a look as a sea-
side resort in winter.

Loosely piled evergreen boughs held in place by stakes are
the best sort of protection. The boughs, also, may be up-
right, the thicker end thrust in the ground and the top secured
by string. At the Arnold Arboretum snug little teepees of
evergreens are made for some magnolias which stand in a
rather exposed situation. In the first place, the more project-
ing branches of the tree are tied in, as nurserymen tie the
branches of shrubs together for packing. Then evergreen
boughs, each a foot or more taller than the tree, are brought,
the lower ends sharpened like stakes, and bough after bough
is firmly fixed in the ground at the edge of the circle of mulch.
Then each is attached to the centre of the tree by a string until

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the magnolia is encircled by the evergreen branches, standing
like arms stacked by soldiers. Then the branches are securely
tied together at the top, making the whole thing look like a
wigwam of fir. In the latitude of New York, both magnolias
and rhododendrons ought certainly to stand the climate with-
out cosseting, but for imported rhododendrons and other for-
eigners whose hardiness is a bit doubtful a little tempering of
the wind for the first few winters is advisable.

The winter protection of roses is almost another story.
Climbing sorts which suffer may sometimes be laid down and
partly covered with earth; the soil should always be drawn up
around the stems; but it is better to have only those sorts
which are able to endure hardness. Roses should be covered
as late and uncovered as early as possible. In fact, the key-
note of winter protection, as of other forms of assisting those
not quite able to shift for themselves, is to aid if necessary,
but to give as little aid as possible.

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XXVI

THE WELL-TEMPERED COMPOST-HEAP

When the Grerman-gardening Elizabeth spent her sub-
stance on fertilizers she showed a worthy spirit and a willing
mind, but had she been deep in the art of composting she
might yet have had her new gowns and the plants their lux-
uries. To a true gardener there is the same pleasure in a skil-
ful making of compost that a French housewife takes in the
deft use of odds and ends of her larder.

In the first place, the compost-heap — "rot-heap" as it is
inelegantly called — need not be unsightly. Roses and dahlias
and sunflowers would revel in its vicinity. In a Princeton
garden there is a charming screen at one side, an arbor-like
contrivance of rough posts rather closely set and covered by
wistaria; within this lovely seclusion is the compost-heap.

How TO Make Compost

The compost-heap is a medley. Leaf-mould, manure in
variety, rotted sods, stalks of dead annuals, garden litter in
variety, slaughter-house refuse, wool waste, cracked bone —
all these things, and more besides, though impleasing in them-
selves, work together for good in the compost-heap, making the
rich, velvety brown mixture which Celia Thaxter so admired.

For the making of this confection there are many recipes.
The following are excellent:

SODS

Barnyard Manure. — ^Place in alternate layers. The sods
may be obtained from pastureland or fence comers, or sods

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cut out in the making of beds and borders may be so used.
Make the pile about six feet long and three feet high, the
layers about four inches thick; the sods should be inverted.

This is a typical compost-heap, and, however varied the
constituents, the idea is the same: the alternation of animal
refuse with the vegetable, that the one may act upon the other.

Before beginning the heap, the ground should be slightly
hollowed, basin fashion, and the heap may be "basted to ad-
vantage with dish-water or the like. It should also be turned
occasionally with a fork that it may decay evenly. Especially
when leaf-mould is one of the ingredients, it is well to sift it
with a coarse sieve to separate twigs and coarser fibres from
the more rapidly decaying material.

The true compost-heap is a progressive aflfair: at the one
end may be the mellowed product of two years' sojourn, ready
for immediate use; at the other, the raw material. Thus, like
the brook, it may go on forever, however transient the hired
man.

The well-tempered compost-heap, conserves the gardener's
pocket. It enables him to use to advantage ingredients which,
like pig manure and hen manure would otherwise belong to
the great army of the "unavailable "; it also saves tender plant-
roots from that contact with raw fertilizer which often works
disaster to their constitutions.

LEAF-MOULD

Leaf-mould is another valuable and inexpensive asset
which the amateur gardener is apt to pass by on the other
side. The decaying leaves, sodden by rain and snow, and hardly
distinguishable from the forest floor, are rich in humus (which
is, being interpreted, vegetable or animal matter in such a
state of decay that it is rich and ripe for plant-food). In the

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woods, in the hollows, leaf-mould or "woods-earth," as it is
sometimes called, may be collected. It may also be made at
home after this fashion — ^and is quite as good, if not better
than the original:

TO MAKE LEAF-MOULD

In the autumn dig a pit, some three feet deep and as long
and as broad as one pleases. Into this pit throw the fallen
leaves and trample them down. Throw in several pails of
water. Follow this by another layer of leaves well trampled
down, and that by another immersion. Go on in this fashion
until the pit is full or the leaves or the gardener exhausted.
From time to time, while the leaf -mould is "cooking" it should
have pails of water bestowed on it. The leaves should not be
allowed to become dry. In about a year, this confection will
be ready for use.

Lilies especially relish leaf -mould — so do all plants which
dislike bam manure. Azaleas, rhododendrons, and other
broad-leaved evergreens are fond of it. For mulching, for
potting it is very valuable. Trees can be grown when a soil
of pure sand is enriched by leaf-mould. And, as a piece of
economy, it is an infinitely better disposal of the dead leaves
than the usual custom of burning them.

BARNYARD MANURE

Garden-making without barnyard manure is as tedious as
the strawless brick-making was to the IsraeUtes.

This same barnyard manure, to a modern farmer the
"immediate jewel" of his establishment, is a product which
the old-style farmer, hard-headed and canny with his pennies,
has always managed Uke the veriest spendthrift. Manure
thrown in an open heap in the barnyard, after the usual custom

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in the days when "'father used to farm," had precisely fifty per
cent of its value thrown out also. Pig manure, except for the
compost-heap, should be avoided. Cow manure is the most
valuable, horse next. All manure should be kept under cover.
The liquid manure, which is pecuUarly rich in nitrogen, should
not be allowed to be lost — as it usually is. The bedding of
cattle with sawdust renders the manure useless. These are
merely a few points, but if the gardener has but a single horse
or cow it would profit him to read Professor I. P. Roberts's
"The* Fertility of the Land," whence he may learn how prop-
erly to care for and conserve this particular blessing of Prov-
idence.

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XXVII

DETAILS OF GARDEN WORK

How TO Make Ready a Plower-Bed

First stake out the bed, have it dug to the depth of two
feet, the soil being thrown to one side; then it is possible to
see what manner of soil it is.

Roughly speaking, there are three kinds of soil: clay, sand,
and gravel. A workable mixture of clay and sand is called
loam. When garden books and seed packets refer to a sandy
harriy a mixture is meant in which sand predominates; in a
clay loarrty clay is the ruling ingredient. When garden books
advise a "rich, heavy loam," the writers probably mean a
clay loam which, by the addition of manure, or by the plough-
ing in, during successive years, of cover crops, has been suflS-
ciently enriched to furnish abundant nutriment. A ** garden
loam'* is a deeply worked loam which has been long under
cultivation.

Manure both enriches the soil and improves the texture —
"lightens it,** and "shortens it," as the gardeners say, very
much as butter or lard "shortens" a housewife*s cookery.
Putting it on in the autumn is a definite advantage, since it
then becomes thoroughly incorporated with the soil. On the
other hand, a commercial fertilizer, adding only nutriment and
not affecting the texture, need not be applied until the plants
have an actual use for it as a food. If the soil is poor and
sandy, best throw it away and put in better; if this is not
practicable, then plant only those "complaisant" flowers which
will not object to a meagre diet.

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Dififerent plants require diflFerent diet. For roses, put three
inches of broken stone in the bottom of the bed and mix in
well-rotted manure (in the proportion of one part manure to
six parts soil). For other plants the soil need not be so rich
— one part manure to ten parts soil is abundance for the aver-
age plant. If one can't afford much fertilizer, then especial
care must be taken that the ground be deeply dug and thor-
oughly cultivated. Deep digging, so that the roots will find it
easy to extend far down after food and moisture, is one of the
best preventives of suffering from drought and lack of nourish-
ment.

How TO Transplant Shrubs and Perennials

Always unpack plants under cover. Never leave them
with roots exposed to sun or wind. If the roots seem dry, soak
in tepid water. If any are broken, cut just above the break
with a sharp knife. In separating clumps of perennials —
peonies, larkspurs, hardy phloxes, and the like — don*t cut the
roots if they can be disentangled. In fact, a decent respect for
the roots, their preferences, structure, constitution, and habits
is the Alpha and Omega of transplanting.

For the actual setting-out have the hole dug deep enough
and wide enough; as we are not planting a post, it is more
important to have a hole deep at the sides than in the centre.
Spread the roots out carefully — ^as nearly as possible in thdr
position before being moved. Never let roots come in direct
contact with manure. The plant shotdd be no deeper in the
ground than it stood before. Two or three inches too deep
may cause real injury to a tree.

Actual planting is done in this fashion. Hold the plant
with the left hand in the position it should be when set. II it
is too large have some one else hold it for you. Work the fine

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soil in well about the roots; for this your fingers are better
than a trowel or shovel. When the hole is half filled pour in
water. Let it settle, then repeat the process. This washes
the soil closely about the roots. Fill up, press down firmly, /

then make the soil loose on top with a rake. '

Newly planted trees and shrubs should be cut back about
one-third the last year's growth. This sacrifices most of the
blossoms of the present spring, but the tree is the stronger for
it and will repay you another season, and as Andrea del Sarto's
Lucrezia should have said,

" The present by the future — what is that? "
How TO Divide Plants

September or early October is the time of year when gen-
erosity is likely to flourish in the garden, for it is the season
par excellence for enlarging one's borders by dividing perennials.
The most delightful of exchanges are current among gardeners,
and, like the quality of mercy, there is no strain about this
form of generosity: it blesses both him that gives and him that
takes. One gardener, in separating his phlox, finds more
roots than she needs, therefore some of the phlox goes over
the fence to a neighbor's garden in exchange for clove-pinks
or columbines. They are a far pleasanter form of introduc-
tion than when merely bought.

This dividing of plants is, for a beginning gardener, no
small ordeal. One has somewhat the feeling of Abraham offer-
ing up Isaac when, standing before a thrifty, prosperous plant,
one contemplates digging it up, beheading its stems, chopping
its roots into pieces, and planting these melancholy fragments
in a new and untried place in hope of a distant good. Yet with
some plants it is essential to their health and as harmless a
practice as cutting back a house plant.

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One of the plants which not only may be divided but in-
deed must be divided if it is to retain its perfect health and
vigor is perennial phlox; this should be divided every three
years.

It is done in a very summary manner. Dig up a clump
with a sharp spade. If you cannot disentangle the roots readily,
cut the clump into pieces about as large as a man's hand.
Each section should have plenty of roots and five or six stalks.
Cut oflf the stalks and leaves and plant each section separately
in the garden-beds. Put a little manure in the bottom of the
hole, then a little soil, then the plant: fill in with soil carefully,
press finnly, water well, and the thing is done. An old hand
will accompUsh the whole work with a spade in a very short
time. Phlox may be divided quite as well in October, but
September is better, because there will then be a few blossoms
left as color labels, and one can weed out the magenta — ^that
pariah among colors — ^and cast it without the gates.

There are other plants which, although division is not
necessary to their health, may be made into twins and triplets
in this simple and practical fashion. Among these are the
German and Japanese iris, the fimkia, or day-Uly (of which
only a strong, healthy clump shotdd be divided, and each
portion should contain several crowns), and the yellow day-
lily (HemerocaUis).

How TO Plant Bulbs

For planting in the open, the garden rule of lour times the
depth holds good for btdbs, and they should be set about as
many inches apart as the bulb is deep. Most bulbs hate direct
contact with manure; therefore, it is safer to put in a handful
of sand when planting and set each bulb on this as on a cushion.

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How TO Remove the Winter Protection

This is done in February or March. March is the month
when a garden form of "spring house-cleaning" is in order.
Roses are still in their straw jackets, and the plants in garden-
beds and borders are asleep, their feet snugly covered by winter
blankets of stable litter or leaves. As soon as the weather
permits this covering should be removed. K the "blanket"
of mulch is kept on too long the plants, becoming overheated,
start to grow, and when the covering is removed, finding chilly
April weather when they had expected that of late May, they
take cold as easily as incubator chicks or children kept in over-
heated rooms. To prevent this taking cold loosen the straw
jackets and let the air circulate freely about the stems of your
roses before removing the covering altogether. The scientific
idea of winter protection is that of organized charity: to give
help only when absolutely necessary and to withdraw it as
soon as possible.

Garden books seem rather fond of advising the anxious in-
quirer to "dig in" or "fork in" manure that during the win-
ter has been lying on the garden-beds — ^which is all very well
and an excellent practice in beds where there are only shrubs
or late-blooming plants, but where early-flowering plants are
set — bulbs, dicentra, and the like — ^this is practically impos-
sible. No plant likes to be disturbed when near its time of
blooming, and how to dig manure into such a bed without
disturbing the roots of the plants is a problem that would
require the wisdom of the Egyptians, or rather that of Moses,
who led the IsraeKtes across on dry land and drowned the
Egyptians on the same spot. Therefore, when your garden-
beds are filled with early-flowering things lift the mulch oflF
carefully with a broad-tined earth-fork. Do not have it all

^^^ Digitized by Google

THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

carried away, but leave a small pile near the bed in a convenient
place, and on very cold nights throw it lightly over the plants,
removing it the next morning.

If there are no bulbs which might be disturbed, then manure
should be dug in carefully about the roots of shrubs. One
must remember that in a shrub, as in a tree, the spread of the
roots is about equal to the spread of the branches, and that
to do the most good the manure need not be dug in close to
the stem of the plant. The Scriptural injunction in the matter
of the fig-tree, to "dig about it and dung it," is excellent gar-
dening, and, unless it interferes with other planting, all young
trees and shrubs should have well-rotted manure dug in, and
the soil made loose and light about the base — ^and March is the
time to do it.

Care of SxTMMER-BLooMma Plants and Buias

All of the following plants should be allowed to rest during
the winter months:

Fuchsia. — ^Into the cellar in November should go the fuchsias
which have been blooming all summer in window-boxes and porch-
boxes. During the winter give water very sparingly — even if the
plants get so dry that they shed their leaves no harm is done. In
March, bring up to the light, but do not repot until the plant shows
signs of new growth.

Gloxinias, — Treat like tuberous begonias, decreasing the water-
supply as the leaves begin to fall, and stop it when they have all de-
parted, then put the plant in a dry, warm place for its winter sleep.
Shake the tubers out of the old soil in the spring, pot freshly, and the
plant will start into growth again.

Hydrangeas. — ^The pot-grown hydrangeas like a quiet winter, but
not absolute rest-cure. Usually in September they have completed
their growth, in November they should go into the cellar, and have
during the winter just water enough to keep from shedding their
leaves. Bring to the light in February.

Dahlias, Elephants' Ears (Caladium), Gladioli, Cannas, and other
tender bulbs should be taken indoors for the winter. After the frost

200

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DETAILS OF GARDEN WORK

has cut their tops lift the bulbs carefully with an earth-fork; spread
them out to dry in an airy place. Then shake off the soil and store
in baskets or slatted boxes (not in anything air-tight or they will
decay), and put them in a dry, cool, airy cellar or closet. The ideal
temperatiure for the winter storage of such bulbs is about forty degrees.
Dahlias should be stored in sand, in a place where frost is excluded,
and where they will have moisture enough to keep from shrivelling.

Tuberous Begonias. — ^These in October begin to show plainly
that their season is over. Decrease the water-supply when the leaves
begin to fall off, and when the stalks drop stop it altogether, and
put the plants in the cellar or some other place where they will be
safe from frost. In March they' should be repotted, watered mod-
erately until growth begins, then given abundance of water. Do not
confound these tuberous begonias with the fibrous-rooted sort which
are winter bloomers.

House Plants which have summered in the garden may be taken
up and repotted as soon as the nights grow cool. Put bits of crock
in the bottom of the pot for drainage, and use good, porous soil. Keep
them in the shade for a few days until they have recovered from the
change.

201 Digitized by Google

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CHARTS OF ANNUALS, PERENNIALS, BULBS,
FLOWERING TREES AND SHRUBS

GARDENER'S CALENDAR

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GARDENER'S CALENDAR

(latitude op new YORK CITY)

JANUARY
Flan the garden.

Branches of Forsythia, Jasminum, plum and cherry may be brought
indoors for forcing.

FEBRUARY

Order plants and fertilizers and tools — " to be shipped such and
such a date."

Plan the garden.

Start seeds indoors of certain perennials and annuals.

Make cuttings.

Prune roses Qate Feb.) and grape-vines.

MARCH

Deciduous trees and shrubs and hardy perenniab are the earliest
plantings; these may be set out as soon as the ground can be worked.
The sooner roses are planted, the better. In the South such planting
is done in January and February. In the North, in the latitude of
New York, the planting season for such is reckoned from March
15 until May 15 — ^from the time the ground is "open" until growth
actually begins. These dates are approximate, of course, and vary ac-
cording to the lateness or earliness of the season. Six days are al-
lowed for each hundred miles of latitude.

Uncover and prune your roses now. Prune also hydrangeas and
other late-flowering shrubs. Do not prune early ones.

A new lawn is best made now.

Fruit-trees should be sprayed for scale. If you don't know how
to do it, send to the Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, for
BuUetin No. 243.

Sweet peas may be sown as early as the ground can be worked.
Give them rich soil, plant in a trench six inches deep, covering to the

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THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

depth of two inches. When the seedlings are tall enough fill in the
rest of the soil. Poppies may be sown March 15. They prefer light,
sandy soil. Sow very lightly.

Aside from these, sowings in March had better be made in the
hotbed or cold-frame. See Chart.

A little skiU in the management of hotbeds or cold-frames is a
valuable auxiliary. Cold-frames, especially, are very easily managed.
To tender annuals an infancy spent in the kind nursery of the cold-
frame is safe from the hazard of a late frost, also the blooming period
is lengthened; while many perennials, unless given this "head start,"
would keep the gardener waiting for blossoms until the second year.

Seeds may be sown in boxes and placed in the frames, or, if the
soil be a finely pulverized loam, sown directly in the ground. Here
is a list or two that may be of help:

APRIL

All the March work which in the New England phrase, "didn't
get 'round to" must be done directly.

If you have not already done so, order seeds and plants and com-
mercial fertilizer (if you have not well-rotted manure).

Plant tender annuals in hotbeds or cold-frames. It is too late for
starting perennials here. Thin seedlings in the cold-frame. If crowded
they become "leggy" and weak.

Prune fruit-trees and grape-vines if the sap has not begun to flow.
If you don't know how, it is better to leave them alone. No pruning
is far better than wrong pruning. Do not prune hardy roses — ^it is
too late; nor spring-flowering shrubs — ^it is too early.

To prepare the ground for planting is of chief importance. A
careful preparation of the soil is as essential to the success of a garden
as a well-ordered kitchen is to the comfort of a household.

What You Can Plant in April

Trees and Shrubs: All deciduous trees and shrubs are best planted
now. Hardy roses must be set out as soon as possible.

Perennials: All hardy perennials may be planted now.

Annuals: The following may be sown from April 15 to 80 (lati-
tude of New York), or as soon as danger from severe frost is ov^".
Candytuft, California poppy, *Drummond's phlox, ^marigold (African),
*marigold (French), morning-glory, nasturtium (tall), nasturtium
(dwarf), petimia, sweet alyssum, sweet peas, *tobacco-plant, ^ziimia;
also *balsam, coreopsis, corn-flower, *cosmos, Japanese pink, Shirl^

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GARDENER'S CALENDAR

poppies, portulaca, mignonette. These are by no means all the annuals,
but they are the most all-round satisfactory ones for the average gar-
dener. Those marked * are best sown in the seed-bed and trans-
planted when two or three inches high to their permanent home.
Those unmarked should be sown where they are to grow.

MAY

A BELATED GARDENER'S CALENDAR FOR MAY

(latitude of new tobk)

Week of

April 25-

May 2

May 2-9

May 9-16

May 16-23

May 23-30

Plant deciduous shrubs and trees without delay.

Plant vines (if young growth is cut back).

Plant evergreens and rhododendrons.

Plant tea-roses from pots.

Sow any hardy annuals if not already planted.

Plant gladioli, dahlias, and other tender bulbs and tubers.

See p. 108.
Spray roses with whale-oil soap before leaves open.

Plant shrubs and trees; cut back hard if leaves have started.
Plant Hortensis hydrangeas, such as "Otaksa," and "Thomas

Sow tender annuals.

Begin "hardening ofip" annuab in hotbeds and cold-frames.

Begin looking for cutworms.

Prune shrubs that have finished blooming, and no others.

Plant out petunias (from pots).

Plant vines — ampelopsis, clematis, etc. (from pots).

Make second sowing of mignonette.

Thin early-sown annuals.

Give roses potassium sulphide.

Transplanting — ^begin setting out annuals from frames.
Sow moon- vine (not before this week).
Perennials — spray hollyhocks with Bordeaux to prevent rust.
Roses — spray with whale-oil soap (buds set).

Plant out annuals from flats to open.

Plant tube-roses.

Roses— give liquid manure.

Keep ahead of the weeds.

Thin annuals.

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For Porch-Boxes and Window-Boxes. — Lobbianum nasturtiimis,
petunias, miniature marigolds. Lobelia erinus, candytufts, dwarf
chrysanthemums, BrowaUia.

For spring-blooming window-boxes buy pansy plants already
grown if you haven't them started, and &1 the boxes for a shady
side with these or forget-me-nots. With plenty of water they bloom
all summer.

JUNE
Garden Work You Can Do in June

June is a delightful month to any gardener. There is work to be
done a-plenty, but there is also the intense happiness of seeing fufil-
ment within reach — ^when larkspurs and hollyhocks begin to towa
above their fellows and poppies rush into their full perfection and
the roses queen it in the garden. It was Celia Thaxter who used
to be up at four of a June morning, at work in her garden, weeding
and transplanting in the soft, mellow earth of her flower-beds. But
not many gardeners have devotion enough to follow in her train.

Now is the Time to Select rhododendrons and peonies and irises.
In these plants the colorings are so positive and so varied that by
far the best way of getting precisely what you want and being sure
of not getting what you don't want is to select your sorts when they
are in blossom and have them marked for later shipment.

Plan a Rose-^hrden. — Roses cannot be planted imtil October, but
now is the best of times for planning and selecting the sorts. The
order sent in now will keep quite as well on the books of a good rose-
grower as in your head.

Thinning and Weeding must be thoroughly done.

Staking. — Ji possible conceal the stake. The object of staking is
to support the plant, but its natural habit should not be interfered
with. Tie loosely; do not give a plant the appearance of a stout
lady with a tight waistband. The new bird-sticks are very interest-
ing as garden-stakes.

FiUing Up Oaps. — ^After narcissi, tulips, and daffodils have done
flowering, when the leaves begin to turn yellow (but not before) the
foliage can be cut off and the vacant spaces in the beds filled with seed-
lings from the seed-bed, or "reserve" garden, which every well-or-
dered garden maintains. Drummond's phlox, scabiosa, asters, and
the like are tucked in wherever there is room for them.

1232

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GARDENER'S CALENDAR

Bedding-Out Plarda May be Set Out Now Such as

Ageratum.

Fuchsia.

Lemon verbena.

Begonia.

Greranium.

Lobelia.

Carnation.

Heliotrope.

Salvia splendens.

Bulbs and Tubers You Can Plant Now. — During all this month
dahlias, cannas, gladioli, ismene may be planted, also foliage plants,
such as the caladiums.

JULY AND AUGUST

Biennials Which May be Sown in Late July and Early August

Biennial Evening-Primrose. Canterbury Bells. Foxglove.
Hollyhocks. Iceland poppies. Sweet William.

Wallflowers.
See p. 101.

Perennials Which May be Sown in July and Early August

Columbine. English daisies. Pansies.

Larkspiu*. Viola comuta.

Sow in the seed-bed to transplant in October to their permanent
homes. This is the best time for sowing most perennials.

LUies Which May be Planted in August
American Turk's Cap. Canadian Bellflower. Madonna Lily.

SEPTEMBER

Best time for starting a new garden.
Divide perenniab that have finished blooming.
Set out the earliest bulbs, such as snowdrop, crocus, scilla, chiono-
doxa, grape hyacinth, etc.

Good time to make a new lawn.

Young perennials may be set out in permanent positions.

OCTOBER

Plant hardy perennials, especially spring-blooming sorts.

Plant spring-flowering bulbs.

Pot bulbs and store for indoor blooming.

233 ^ ,

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THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING

Take up annuals from the garden for the window-garden.
After 15th, plant trees (deciduous).
Best time for planting roses and making a rose-garden.
Take up tender bulbs and tubers, such as tuberous begonias,
gloxinias* etc.

NOVEMBER

Take up and store all tender plants, if not already out of harm's
way: Fuchsias, hydrangeas (pot>grown), dahlias, caladiums, gladioli,
cannas, etc.

Plant trees until the ground is frozen (if you will mulch them).

Set out bulbs for spring-blooming, although October is better.

Pot bulbs for indoor blooming.

DECEMBER

Protect roses and other slightly tender plants.
Give the garden a mulch c^ manure or stable litter.
Bulbs may be planted if the ground is open, also potted for in-
door bloom.

234

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INDEX

Abutilon, cutting ot, 170.

Ageratum, 105.

All-summer flower garden, 56.

All the year round, color, 130.

Althsea, pruning of, 123.

American Beauty, pruning of, 128.

American holly, when to plant, 184.

American Turk's cap's lily, 103.

Anemones, Japanese, when to plant,
184.

Annual chrysanthemums, 152; lark-
spurs, 153; lupins, 152.

Annuals, best started in cold-frame,
148; chart of, 204; growing of, 154;
how to succeed with, 157; list of,
107; list which every gardener
should know, 156; for old-fashioned
garden, 118; that should be sown,
154; that should be transplanted,
154.

Aphis, 164, 180.

Aquilegia, 102.

Arbors, 115.

Arch, lattice, 64.

Arches, 115.

Aster, China, starting, 148.

Austrian brier-rose, pruning of, 129.

Azaleas, grafted, 127; pruning of, 124.

Bachelor's-buttons, 157.
Back-yard fence, 45.
Back-yard gardens, 30, 54.
Balsam, 157.

Baltimore belle, pruning of, 129.
Bamboo and string lattice, 61.
Banksias, 160.
Barberries, pruning of, 123.
Bedding out plants, 104.
Beds, arrangement of plants in, 138
et seq.; old-fashioned garden, 114;

in front of piazza, 105; what to
plant in half a dozen, 107.

Begonias, 105; winter care of, 201.

BelUs perennis, 102.

Bench, cutting, 169; garden, 69.

Berberis Thunbergii, pruning of, 123.

Berberis vulgaris, pruning of, 123.

Biennials, chart of, 208; list of, for
midsummer sowing, 101; for old-
fashioned garden, 119.

Black spot, 163.

Bordeaux mixture, 176.

Border beds, arrangement of plants
in, 138.

Borders, garden, 81.

Boundaries, garden, 81.

Bourbon roses, pruning of, 129.

Browallia, 153.

Budded plants, 27.

Bulbs, 107; charts of, 208; how to
plant, 198; for old-fashioned gar-
den, 119; spring-flowering, when to
plant, 185.

Bush honeysuckle, pruning of, 124.

Butterfly flower, 152.

Cabbage-roses, pruning of, 129.
Caladium esculentum, 109.
Calendar, gardeners', 229.
California poppy, 156.
Campanula, annual, 157; Carpatica,

148; Loreyi, 151; macrostyla, 151;

medium, 102; rotundifolia, 148.
Canadian bellflower lily, 104.
Candytuft, 156.
Cannabis gigantea, 153.
Cannas, 109; winter care of, 200.
Canterbury-bells, 102.
Charm in gardens, 23.
Cherokee rose, 160.

235

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INDEX

China aster, starimg, 148.

Chionodoxa, 112.

Chrysanthemums, 152; when to plant,
184.

Clara G. Stredwick, 108.

Claridas, 151.

Clematis paniculata, 123.

Clothes-posts, in town gardens, 34.

Cold-frames, 145.

CoUinna, 151.

Colonial fence, 114; house, appropri-
ate planting for, 13; lattice, 58;
yellow, 27.

Color all the year round, in shrubs, 130.

Colorado blue spruce, 137.

Columbine, 102.

Comfort in gardens, 22; 66.

Compost, how to make, 191.

Compost-heap, 191.

Coreopsis grandiflora, 148.

Coreopsis, starting, 148; 157.

Corn-flower, 157.

Cosmos, 153; starting, 148; 157.

Cottage, appropriate planting for, 15.

Countess of Lonsdale, 108.

Crimson flax, 153.

Crimson rambler, pruning of, 128-129.

Crocus, price of. 111; planting. 111.

Cutting-bench, 169.

Cuttings, how to make^ 167; planting
of, 172.

Cutworms, 179.

Daffodils, 111; how to plant, 119; 198.

Dahlias, 108; winter care of, 200.

Daisies, 102.

Dawson, pruning of, 129.

Delphinium, 103.

Delphinium formosum, 148; grandi-

florum, 148.
Depth, of planting seed, 156.
Details of garden work, 195.
Dianthus Heddewigi, 157; plumarius,

starting, 148.
Digitalis, 102.
Dividing plants, 197.

Dogwood, pruning of, 123.
"Don'ts," 92.
Dormant cuttings, 171.
Drought, 174.

Drummond's phlox, starting, 148; 156.
Drying-yard, 18; in town garden, 35;
screen for, 94.

Elephant's ears, winter care of, 200.
English daisies, 102.
Eschscholzia, 156.
Eucharidiums, 151.
Evergreen hedges, pruning of, 124.
Evergreens, when to plant, 184.

Fence, back-yard, 45; Colonial, 114;

lattice-topped, 60; town-garden, 33.
Fitting the garden to the house, 24.
Flower-bed, how to make ready, 195.
Flowering trees and shrubs, chart of,

217-228; deciduous, when to plant,

184; how to set out, 132.
Forget-me-not, starting, 148.
Forsythe's pot, 169.
Foxglove, 102.
Frame house, small, red, 27.
Fruit garden, 52.
Fuchsia, winter care of, 200.

Gaillardias, 153.

Garden, fitting to house, 24; all-sum-
mer flower, 56; boundaries of, 81
comfort in, 66; an impromptu, 96;
Italian, 75; of "limitations," 54;
old-fashioned, 113; planning a, 94
spring, 110; roof, 50; small-lot
fruit, 52; temporary, 98; in town,
30; why they go wrong, 76.

Garden-bench, 69.

Garden pink, starting, 148.

Gardener's assistants, 178.

Gardens, why they go wrong, 76.

German iris, 107.

Giant hemp, 153.

Gilias, 151.

Gladioli, 108; wmter care of, 200.

236

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INDEX

Gloxinis, 200.
Godetia, 151.
Grafted plants, 127.
Green worms, 164.

Half-timbered house, 28.

Harebells, in cold-frame, 148.

Hanson's yellow, pnming of, 129.

Hedge,asbouidary,86; pnming ever-
green, 124; St. Gaudens', 86; soil
for, 92.

Helianthus cucumerifolius, 152.

Heliotrope, 105.

Henderson's saucer, 169.

Herbaceous perennials, chart of, 210-
216.

Herbaceous plants, when to plant, 185.

Herb-bed in old gardens, 119.

Hollyhocks, 102.

Homed pansy, 103.

Hotbeds, 145.

House, colonial, planting for, IS, 27;
fitting garden to, 24; half-timbered,
28; red brick, 26; small, red frame,
27; unstained shin^e, 28; white
dapboard, 25.

House plants, winter care of, 201.

Hunnemannia, 151.

Hybrid rose, pruning of, 128.

Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora, 123.

Hydrangeas, winter care of, 200.

Iberis, 156.

Iceland poppies, 102; starting, 148.

Impromptu gardening, 99.

Insects, to deal with, 176.

Iris, German, 107; to divide German

and Japanese, 198; when to plant,

185.
Ismene, 109.
Italian garden, 75.

Jacqueminot, pnming of, 128.
Japanese maple, 137; morning-glory,

155; pink, starting, 148, 157.
Jasminum nudiflorum, 112.

J. H. Jackson, 108.
Judas-tree, 82.

Kaiserin, pruning of, 128.
Kalmias, pruning of, 124.
Kerosene emulsion, 180.
Kochia tricophela, 153.

"Ladder" trellis, 58.

Landor, 4.

Large-flowered larkspiu*, starting, 148.

Larkspur, 103; annual, 153; Oriental,

148.
Lattice, 57; arch, 64; against blank

wall, 63; bamboo and string, 61;

Colonial, 58; fence topped wi^ 60;

ladder, 58.
Lawn, making a new, 148; manure for,

149; sprinkling, 175.
Leaf-mould, 192, 193.
Lemon verbena, 105.
Lilacs, pruning of, 124.
liUes, for August planting, 103; when

to plant, 185.
lilium candidum, 104.
lily, Canadian bellflower, 104; Ma-
donna, 104; Turk's cap, 103.
linaria Dalmatica, 148.
Loam, garden, 195.
Lobelia, 105.

Lonicera Tartarica, pnming of, 124.
L. Morrowii, pnming of, 124.
Lord Roberts, 108.
Lupins, annual, 152.

Madonna lily, 104.

Magnolias, protection for, 189; when

to plant, 184.
Manure, 195; barnyard, 193; for

lawn, 149; too much, 77.
Maple, red-leaved Japanese, 137.
Marigold, 156.
Mary Service, 108.
Mexican firebush, 153.
Middleton Place, gardens of, 66.
Mignonette, 158.

237

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INDEX

Mildew, 164.
Mistakes in planting, 94.
Montbretia, 108.
Morning-glory, 107, 166.
Morrowii, pruning of, 124.
Mrs. Freeman Thomas, 108.
Mulching, 174, 187; to lift o£F, 199.

Narcissus poeticus, 112.
Nasturtiums, 107, 156, 157.
Newly planted roses, pruning of, 129.
Nicotiana affinis, 157.

Old-fashioned garden, 113; biennials
in, 119; bulbs in, 119; herb-bed in,
119, 120; perenniab and annuals in,
118; roses and shrubs in, 117.

Oriental larkspur, in cold-frame, 148.

Overcrowding, 78.

Pansies, 103; starting in cold-frame,

148.
Paper, planning garden on, 94.
Parrish, Stephen, garden-bench of, 69.
Parryi, 151.

Paths, in town gardens, 38.
Perennials, charts of, 205-216; list of,

107; for midsiunmer sowing, 102;

in old-fashioned garden, 118; to

start in cold-frames or hotbeds, 148;

in shrubbery, 144; when to plant,

184.
Pergola, as garden wall, 88; in town

garden, 36; use and abuse of, 171.
Persian yellow rose, pruning of, 129.
Petunia, 157; starting, 148.
Phacelias, 151.
Phlox, Drummondii, 156; to divide,

198; starting, 148.
Pink, Japanese, starting, 148.
Planning a garden, on paper, 94;

spring, 112.
Planting, 182; actual, 196; best time

for, 184; in boundaries, 81; bulbs,

198; cuttings, 172; for garden

boundary, 85; mistakes in, 94; of

roses, 162; for town garden, 37,

39; wrong, 76.
Hants, bedding out, 104; how to

divide, 197; to set out, 138.
Hatt, Mr. Charles, 73.
Poeticus omatus, 112.
Poets' narcissus, 112.
Poisoning, for insects, 181.
Poppies, 158.
Portable screen, 64.
Portulaca, 107, 158.
Potting seedlings, 173.
Primrose, biennial evening, 101.
Privet, pruning of, 124.
Pruning, of roses, 126; shrubs, 121.

Red brick house, 26.

Red-hot poker plant, 108.

Rest-cure for shrubs, 125.

Rhododendrons, pruning of, 124; pro-
tection for, 189.

Roof-garden, 50.

Rose-beetie, 163; 179. *

Rose-garden, green setting for, 22.

Rose of Sharon, pruning of, 123.

Rose-trellis, 62.

Roses, best way to buy, 160; enemies
and diseases of, 163; grafting, 127;
how to have success with, 159; how
to plant, 162; how to prune, 126;
list of, for beginners, 165; manure
for, 196; needs of, 161; in old gar-
den, 117; soil for, 162.

Rugosa roses, pruning of, 129.

St. Gaudens, method of, 21; hedge of,
86.

Salvia, 105.

Satinflower, 151.

Saucer method, for cuttings, 169.

Scabiosa, starting, 148.

Schizanthus, 152.

Scilla Sibirica, 112.

Screen, portable, 64; against neigh-
bors, 99.

Seaside roses, 166.

238

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INDEX

Seat, garden, 69.

Seed-bed, 154.

Seed, for lawn, 149.

Seedlings, pottings of, 173.

Seeds, buying of, 154.

Selection of shrubs, 129.

Setting out shrubs, 132.

Shingles, house of unstained, 28.

Shrub and tree border, 89.

Shrubs, chart of flowering, 217-228;
deciduous, when to plant, 184; how
to set out, 132; maldng old young,
125; in old gardens, 117; placing
of, 187; how to prune, 121; selec-
tion of, 129; rest-cure for, 125;
winter-killed, 125.

Single pot, cuttings in, 169.

Slips, how to make, 167.

Small-lot fruit garden, 52.

Snapdragon, starting, 148.

Snowdrops, 111.

Soil, for cuttings, 168; for hedges, 92;
kinds of, 95; for lawn, 149; for
roses, 162; for seed-bed, 155; for
town garden, 39; wrong, 79.

Spiraeas, pruning of, 123; vanHouttei,
133, 135.

Spraying, 77.

Spring garden, planning a, 110.

Spring pruning, 122.

Stock, starting ten-week, 148.

String and bamboo lattice, 61.

Subtropical effects, 153.

Suburban gardening, 10.

Sun-dials, 115.

Sunflowers, annuals, 152.

Sweet alyssiun, 157.

Sweet gum, when to plant, 184.

Sweet peas, 157.

Sweet sultan, 153.

Sweet-william, 102.

Tamarix, pruning of, 124.
Tea-roses, pruning of, 128.
Temporary gardening, 98.
Tender bulbs and tubers, 107.

Thaxter, Celia, 8.

Tickseed, 148.

Toadflax, starting, 148.

Tobacco-plant, 154, 157.

Tobacco water, to make, 180.

Town garden, 30.

Transplanting, of annuals, 156; in
autumn, 182; shrubs and peren-
nials, 196.

Trees, chart of flowering, 217-228;
deciduous, when to plant, 184.

Trellis, grape, as garden boundary, 88;
rose, 62.

Tricolor chrysanthemum, varieties of,
152.

Tritomas, when to plant, 184.

Tuberous begonias, 201.

Tubers, 107.

Tulip, poppy, 151.

Tulip-trees, when to plant, 184.

Vegetable garden, mixed with flowers,

116.
Verbena, starting, 148.
Vines, agunst house, 99; for wall

planting, 90.

Wall, lattice against, 63; vines for,
93; stone, as garden boundary, 87.

Wallflowers, 102.

Wanamaker, Mr. John, pergola of, 74.

Watering, garden, 175; wrong, 79.

Weeping mulberry, 137.

Wdgelia, 137.

What to plant, 21, 99.

White clapboard house, 25.

Whitlavia, 151.

Why gardens go wrong, 76.

Windbreak, 87, 89; value of, 189.

I^ter care of plants and shrubs, 200;
injury, 186; protection, to remove,
199.

Winter-killed shrubs, 125.

Yuccas, when to plant, 184.
Snnias, 157.

239

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Full text of "The joyous art of gardening; a book of first aid to the amateur"

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