Vol. V. 



82.00 a Year. 

 24 Numbers. 



CHICAGO, APRIL 15, 1897. 



Single Copy 

 10 Cents. 



No. in. 



A BACK YARD GARDEN. 



The Flower Garden. 



fl BflCK-YflRD GARDEN. 



My gardens are created out of some 

 useless bits of ground wandering in 

 among certain college buildings, and end- 

 ing at my back door. The first one I will 

 call the Bell Garden because the college 

 bell is in the corner. It is almost enclosed 

 by buildings and on the northern or bell 

 wall is planted the Clematis graveolens 

 of the illustration [page 227]. 



It was only a few inches high when I 

 planted it, fifteen years ago. I knew 

 nothing about it except that it was yel- 

 low. It grew ten feet the first year, mak- 

 ing a long vigorous succulent growth, 

 like some annual climbers. The foliage 

 is very elegant, with deeply cut leaves of 

 a peculiar exquisite tint oi green. The 

 next summer it was at the top of the 

 building and would have gone farther, if 

 the wall had been higher. It is about 

 twenty-five feet high. Its habit of growth 

 is like that of the Virginia creeper; every 



year or two the old branches die and can 

 be broken out, and are replaced by a 

 young growth which rushes up the wall 

 with renewed vigor. The whole plant 

 was, therefore, as handsome ten years 

 ago as it is now. 



It begins to flower early and continues 

 to put out its small greenish yellow flow- 

 ers of the Viticella type until the frost. 

 These flowers are not individually beau- 

 tiful, but thej' are in such profusion that 

 they make a good effect. The seed pods 

 are an especial feature; they are produced 

 immediately, so that the plant is equally 

 covered with seed pods and flowers. The 

 silvery green filaments of these seed pods 

 are often more than two inches long. It 

 is a very beautiful sight to see the whole 

 mass swaging slowly in the wind, with 

 the sun glittering in these shining fila- 

 ments, and myriads of bees attacking the 

 flowers so that their humming can be 

 heard all over the garden. They are 

 probably attracted by the perfume that 

 gives it its name, but I cannot perceiveit. 



The screen under which the maid with 

 coffee is passing into the second garden is 



made with three strong wires stretched 

 between the ends of two buildings which 

 approach within ten feet of each other. 

 A few long slender branches of the Vir- 

 ginia creeper which was already growing 

 on the wall, were twisted along these 

 wires, and by the fall the screen was cov- 

 ered. Nothing further has ever been done 

 to this lovely screen for twenty years, 

 except occasionally to break out the old 

 wood, arid to clip it when it hangs too 

 low. 



When I first saw the second garden, 

 which is the one illustrated, it was a bar- 

 ren waste, with the long empty wall of 

 the chapel to the north, the gable of the 

 stable on the west, and the south and 

 east shut in by a shabby board fence. It 

 was about seventy-five feet long and 

 twenty-five broad, and given up to an 

 old barrel or two and a few heaps of 

 ashes. The ground was heavy and poor, 

 and anybody whose heart was not set on 

 a garden would have pronounced it hope- 

 less. For a year or two it was planted 

 with corn and left in a rough state in the 

 winter for the frost to break it up. Some 



