^ J\}t ^apdco arid I^aijor). ^ 



PORCH DECORATION. 



E give an illustration of vine decoration of the porch of a country 

 summer home not far from the city of Chicago. The vines are 

 now in their third season's growth. They were all loosened and 

 laid back on the ground last spring to allow re-painting the house. 

 When these vines were purchased they were the ordinary sized 

 plants sent out by the nurseries. They are mainly large flower- 

 ing clematis, and Akebia quinata^ the only exception being a 

 golden netted honeysuckle set out at each side of the steps of the porch, two 

 feet out from the akebia vines, and trained over a fan-shaped piece of brush 

 from the woods. This honeysuckle needs protection here in winter. We get 

 short forked branches and set them thickly into the ground close to the vine 

 which is cut back to two feet in length, and wound over the fork, and then 

 leaves put in under and above them, and a few pieces of long brush laid over to 



V\y,. 412. — FoKcii Dkcokatk) 



hold the leaves in place. In this way they winter nicely. Heavy manure or 

 straw litter that will get matted down is apt to kill them. 



In the fall of 1889 a trench three feet wide and rwo and one-half feet deep 

 was dug close to, and around the porch, and filled up with a rich compost of 

 rotted manure, rotted sod, leaf mould, sand and black earth from an old corn 



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