226 



GARDENING. 



April 75, 



loads of common fresh stable manure, 

 now and then a load of spent hops, a 

 few loads of good loam, were dug in. All 

 this was done in a very desultory, un- 

 scientific sort of way, just as I could get 

 the material or capture a man to dig it 

 in. 



About twenty years ago the ground 

 was in good enough order to lay out very 

 simply, with two long beds separated by 

 a four foot walk, and a cross bed at the 

 east end. In the middle the beds curve 

 back to leave room for a round bed about 

 four feet in diameter. The whole space 

 in cultivation is about seventeen feet by 



ter does not kill them, and here and there, 

 where the sharp leaves will look well, the 

 German iris. At the east end are well 

 established plants of perennial phlox care- 

 fully selected; flaming salmon pink and 

 white, and anything that is not purple 

 pink. There is also a hollyhock or two 

 lifting up a tall spire of crimson or rose 

 above the wall. In the curve behind the 

 phlox I have a sunflower whose name I 

 do not know. It has long willow-shaped 

 leaves, and by September is eleven feet 

 high. It sends out long branches into a 

 head about 6 ft. across and completely 

 covers itself with clear small yellow flow- 



UNDER A BOWER. 



seventy. I have also two long narrow 

 beds under the chapel wall for annuals. 



About seven years ago the college put 

 up a wall in place of the shabby fence 

 which was about to give way under its 

 weight of climbing things. I planted 

 Ampelopsis Veitchii at intervals of six 

 feet; it now almost covers the wall with 

 a close green mat, growi-jg over the top 

 and running over the outside. In front 

 of this chicken fencing is securely fastened 

 the whole length and breadth of the wall. 

 On this my perennial climbersare planted, 

 so that they hang out from it charminglv 

 relieved against the fresh mat of green. 

 This wall is now almost hidden beneath 

 various sorts of clematis. I use a good 

 deal of C. rirginiana; it hangs a milk 

 white garland along the top of the wall, 

 and when it is gone, too soon, there is 

 something else in its place. I have C. 

 crispa, C. fiammula, and C. paniculata, 

 the latter seen in the illustration like a 

 drift of snow curving over in such a mass 

 that it has to be supported. This strong 

 tall growing climber is wasted on such a 

 wall, only 7 ft. high, but I cannot part 

 with it. It has been in that place three 

 years. 



Under the wall are clumps of Hemer- 

 oeallis flava (Lemon lily), periwinkle, 

 sometimes primroses, when a hard Win- 



ers; the snowy mass of the C. paniculata 

 against it produces a stunning effect. 

 [The sunflower is probably Helianthus 

 orgjalis. — Ed.] 



In this bed are achillea, carefully kept 

 in bounds, Aquilegia chrysantha (the yel- 

 low columbine), most lovely against the 

 greenish white of a great bush of Gypso- 

 phila paniculata, and contrasted with 

 the dusky purple of the C. crispa, the 

 Chelone barbata which is seldom spoken 

 of, and which just now I have looked for 

 in vain in several catalogues. [It is now 

 classed among the pentstemons. En.] 

 It makes a dark green shining mat of 

 leaves, out of which rise its scarlet flow- 

 ers, strung like jewels on long slender 

 stalks, more than two feet high. It is 

 not herbaceous but evergreen. On one of 

 these mats (which are attractive even 

 when not blooming), I counted fifty 

 stalks in bloom at once. 



There are also many plants of Aquile- 

 gia cwrulea; mounds of pretty foliage 

 with rigid stems carrying their long 

 spurred flowers of most ethereal blue and 

 white. There is Heuchera sanguinea, 

 with, last year, thirty stalks in bloom it 

 once; Alyssum saxatile, with its early 

 yellow, shining against a line of Gesneri- 

 ana tulips, a great plant of perennial 

 larkspur, a bed of Lilium candidum, heaps 



of big white hardy pinks and tufts of the 

 charming Campanula carpathica, which 

 lifts up its delicate profusion of lilac bells 

 from early summer till frost. 



In the other long bed the box edging on 

 the outer side was winter-killed so often 

 that I replaced it some }'ears ago with a 

 row of stones. These stones disappear 

 beneath a host of little things which 

 would be lost in the beds. Viola lutea, 

 Gypsophila elegans and muralis, Sedum 

 lydium with its pretty pink early flowers, 

 nudicaule poppies, perennial forget-me- 

 not, some choice portulacca, lobelia and 

 daisies [Bellis perennis). Beds of ceras- 

 tium and white pinks run down into the 

 cracks between the stones. 



In this bed I have pyrethrum, deep red 

 like Captain Nares, and blush pink like a 

 big daisy. In the corner near the screen 

 I have some Jacks which do nobly in 

 their season, but they are all the roses I 

 have. Here are dark red sweet wil- 

 liam, of which color I keep up my supply 

 by tipping over the little cups brimming 

 with seed, on to the ground just below, 

 where they come up immediately. There 

 are compact little clumps of the lovely 

 Polemonium Richardsonii, beginning to 

 bloom the 25th of April, covered with 

 light blue softly falling bells. In this bed 

 are Sedum spectabile, and Sedum Sic- 

 boldii, charming even when not in bloom. 



Farther along and visible in the illus- 

 tration, is a little tree. This is a sweet 

 briar, trimmed high and in June a pretty 

 sight with its countless shell pink blos- 

 soms. One can also see one of the pxonies 

 which are at the four corners of the beds. 

 These preonies are pink, with immense 

 flowers as big as a child's head. When 

 the garden is in its pink and blue and 

 white state, about the middle of June, 

 and I look over from the great larkspur 

 at the east end, holding its rods of blue 

 high in the air, over snowy masses of 

 cerastium and hardy pinks, past the 

 heaps of rosy pasonies falling about in 

 reckless profusion, to the Madonna lilies, 

 their ivory whiteness relieved against the 

 dark green on the gable wall, then I 

 remember the old barrels and the heaps 

 of ashes and feel a great satisfaction. 



Anybody with love for gardening could 

 do all and more than I have done. I 

 have never had any regular assistance. 

 I have had to depend upon incompetent 

 old men and transient boys, who have 

 found steady work as soon as I had 

 turned them into enthusiastic gardeners. 

 All the plants I have mentioned are per- 

 fectly hardy, of very easy cultivation, 

 almost taking careof themselves. I know 

 nothing about the values of different fer- 

 tilizers, in fact the whole garden for 

 twenty years has been conducted on a 

 most unscientific basis, and though more 

 knowledge would have brought forth 

 more results, yet I have had an immense 

 deal of pleasure, and my little garden is 

 the delight of a great many people. 



I have not said a word of the lovely 

 annuals that fill every vacant space nor 

 how I raise them, nor how I keep my 

 garden free from weeds, but already 1 

 have far exceeded mv utmost limit. 



Schenectady, N. Y. A. D. P. 



PRUNING VINES. 



Manj- of us are planting vines this year, 

 and if we desire success and thriltiness we 

 must prune them properly. Continental 

 Europe is the great source from which 

 America deserves its main supplies. 

 These vines, when shipped, are left several 

 feet long, that the buyer may sec how 

 strong a plant he is getting. Although 



