For February, 1923 



35 



My Dream Garden 



FLORUM AMATOR 



HAPI'\ is he who dreams about ideal possessions 

 and environments, those which make Hfe beautiful 

 and lovely, and yet is not made miserable by the 

 obvious scantiness of his actual possessions and the 

 homeliness of his surroundings. Such as he may dream 

 of a spacious garden, set amid beautiful surroundings 

 and still not be unhapp}" in cultivating his own little gar- 

 den plot. 



My dream garden occupies about one acre on a coun- 

 try place. The ground sldpes a little toward the south, 

 is well drained and naturally fertile. In shape my dream 

 garden is square. A trench three feet wide and four 

 feet deep has been dug along the boundary lines and has 

 been filled with rough field stone, which had been well 

 grouted as they were placed in the trench. On this founda- 

 tion a well three feet wide and six feet high is built of 

 rough field stone. In the center of the wall from the bot- 

 tom to the top the stones are held together to a width of 

 two feet with strong cement, and care is taken that the in- 

 side ends of the stones, which form the inner and outer 

 sides of the wall extend into this cement and are held 

 firmly by it, but the outer ends of these same stones are 

 not filled in between with cement. The outer and inner sur- 

 faces of the wall, therefore, are irregular and rough 

 with pockets here and there and shelves, for the stones 

 forming the outer sides of the wall are given a slight 

 upward tilt instead of being laid horizontally. The top 

 of the wall is jagged and so holds more tightly the eight 

 inches of strong cement with which it is finished. There 

 is a heavy gate of non-rust metal in the center of each 

 wall. These gates are five feet wide so that a horse and 

 cart may enter as well as a person. In the top of the 

 wall on each side of each gate is an urn-shaped hole 

 about twenty inches wide and deep, thickly cemented on 

 the sides but not on the bottom. Such is the location 

 and the confines of our dream garden. 



In the midst of this garden is a large, square open 

 space, in the center of which there is a well that gives 

 an unfailing supply of water. This is surrounded bv a 

 high stone curb. Over the curb there is a frame of rust- 

 less metal which supports a wheel over which passes a 

 chain. To this chain are attached two buckets, and all 

 are of the same metal as the frame. To the north, out 

 of the shadow of the well, is a sun dial ; to the south, a 

 piece of appropriate garden statuary ; to the east a large 

 concrete fish basin ; and to the west, a lily pond of con- 

 crete and of an artistic design. 



The garden is piped with rustless iron pipes, laid 

 below the frost line, so fully that any point in the gar- 

 den is watered with the use of a twenty-five-foot hose 

 attached to one of the numerous hydrants. Not far out- 

 side the northern wall of the garden is a windmill whose 

 high tower of field stone is laid up in strong cement and 

 surrounds a well. .From this well a constant suijplv of 

 water is pumped up into a large, stone encased, rustless 

 metal tank on the top of the tower. The sails of the 

 windmill are of non-corroding metal. The tank is con- 

 nected with the garden pipes. 



.■\t different appropriate places in the garden are chairs, 

 settees, benches and tables of concrete of artistic design, 

 and pieces of beautiful statuary, but only such as are 

 appropriate to a garden. 



.\bout two feet away from the walls a path, five feet 

 wide, on each side of the garden. This and all the other 

 garden paths are of gravel. All the garden beds are 



dug and well fertilized to the depth of three feet or 

 more. These beds are of rectangular shape. 



Fifteen feet south of the northernmost path of the gar- 

 den and extending to its most eastern and western paths 

 is a pergola, nine feet high, whose posts and cross beams 

 overhead are of reinforced concrete, and beneath which 

 there are concrete benches, chairs and tables. All these 

 are the mere physical features of my dream garden. 



The life of my dream garden is in the many kinds of 

 plants, growing not only within it, but on the' sides and 

 tops of its confines as well. On each side of each gate 

 and corner, extending from the gates and corners about 

 fifty feet on the outside of the walls, close-clinging hardy 

 vines, placed in an aspect most desirable to each kind, 

 are growing ; namely, the several species and varieties of 

 Ampelopsis. Hedera, Euonymus, and Schizophragma. 

 Inside the gates on each hand for about twenty-five feet 

 the same vines are growing on the wall. 



At the foot of the walls, both inside and out, are grow- 

 ing the larger hardy ferns in positions favorable to each ; 

 the Adiantums, the Aspleniums, the Drj'opteris, the Os- 

 mundas, the Dennstffidtia, the Polj^stich'ums, and others. 

 In front and among these ferns are terrestrial orchids, 

 such as Cypripediums, Habenarias, Orchis, Liparis, 

 Calopogons, Spiranthes, Corallorhizas, and Pogonias. 



In the pockets among the stones in the outer and inner 

 surfaces of the wall and on the little upward tilting 

 shelves, in suitable kinds of soil which have been placed 

 in and on them, except where there are clinging vines, 

 small rock-loving ferns and plants and mosses are grow- 

 ing thickly. There are a great many kinds and species 

 and varieties of these plants growing in the wall pockets 

 and shelves, and they form one of the most interesting 

 and unique features of my dream garden. In the urns 

 on top of the walls are growing Pinus JNIughus, and such 

 other dwarf evergreens as are suitable for these locations. 



At the foot of each post of the pergola are hardy vines 

 which run up over the post and the overhead structures ; 

 AMstarias. Begonias, Akebias, Clematis. Lonicera, Aris- 

 tolochia. 



North of the pergola there is a path five feet wide. 

 Between this path and the most northern part of the 

 garden, extending from the most eastern to the most 

 western path, is a bed eight feet wide containing choice 

 hybrid Rhododendrons. They are protected from the 

 Winter's drying winds by the north garden wall, and 

 from the burning and drj-ing sun of both Summer and 

 \\inter. by the vine-covered pergola on the south. 



About fifteen feet north of the southernmost path of 

 the garden there are two rows of reinforced concrete 

 posts, five feet apart each way and extending from the 

 easternmost to the westernmost paths. South of these 

 posts, which are ten feet high, is a path five feet wide, 

 also extending to the most eastern and most western 

 paths of the garden. On the posts are growing the vari- 

 ous climbing and rambler, roses. 



Between the path south of the roses and the southern- 

 most path of the garden is another bed. eight feet wide, 

 filled with Rhododendrons. The posts, which are stag- 

 gered, and the rose canes on them, give the Rhododen- 

 drons considerable protection from the north winds, and 

 the southern garden wall helps to shield them from the 

 sun. 



There are beds of tea, of hybrid tea. of hybrid per- 

 petual, and of other classes of roses in the sunniest loca- 



