The Livable H 



o II 



spirit of native things is to be introduced or preserved. This 

 bigger, freer sort of planting should be founded on the particular 

 kind of landscape in which it occurs, and should follow Nature 

 as closely as possible. A lowland border would not be composed 

 of the same trees and shrubs as would an upland border, nor 

 would either of these plantings be the same in Illinois and Massa- 

 chusetts. Any naturalistic planting should express the character 

 of the land where the border is being planted, so as to bring out 

 the individuality of different parts of the country. Discard the 

 bad characteristics of your especial piece of property, pick out 

 its good, features, and emphasize them, if you wish your garden 

 different from your neighbor's, with a quality of its own. 



If you have a stream on your place plant the borders near it 

 with those shrubs and trees which grow in the neighborhood of 

 water: alder, red-stemmed dogwood, the lacy, yellow-flowered 

 spice bush, willows, birches (black and white), elderberry with 

 its white panicles of fragrant flowers (which turn into berries that 

 make the most delicious pie in the world) , arrow-wood which also 

 has white flowers — deceiving white flowers, for they tempt one 

 into smelling them and then offer a vile reward; button bush, 

 with its shining leaves and white balls — and an indefinite list 

 of other friendly things, which like low places better than 

 high. 



And then if your border goes up hill, plant in it the shrubs 

 which do not mind burning in the sun of a long hot July after- 

 noon — sumach, wild roses, hawthorn, crabapple, sassafras, bay- 

 berry, red bud, and witch hazel. But above all things, in planting 



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