A Small Garden Where Bold Effects Are Produced 



F. E. Buck, B, S. A., Experimental Farm, Ottawa 



A GARDEN in a city lot about one 

 hundred and twenty by sixty feet, 

 where flowers are grown in pro- 

 fusion almost every month of the season, 

 and where all the work is done by the 

 owner, should have interest for every city 

 dweller. When it is considered that on 

 a lot of this size the owner, Mr. J. A. 

 Ellis, M.L.A., 131 Stanley street, Ottawa, 

 manages to grow enough peonies so that 

 he can cut as many as one thousand to 

 twelve hundred blooms at one time, the 

 interest must certainly increase in the 

 "Hows" and "Whys" of such profus- 

 ion. 



Don't conclude off hand that peonies 

 occupy all the space devoted to flow- 

 ers. If you visit this garden in July or 

 September, as I did, you will be scarce- 

 ly conscious of the real number of peony 

 plants which it contains. And one of 

 the reasons is due to that charming ef- 

 fect of the Coral-bells which so insist- 

 ently demand our attention just in front 

 of the foliage of the peonies, a foliage 

 which is delightful as a background to 

 the scarlet spikes of this little Siberian 

 plant. Later in the summer again peony 

 foliage serves as the base to give con- 

 trast to the scarlet tiger lilies which rise 

 out from it as if they owned the whole 



border and were trying to make their be- 

 holders blind to the fact that they were 

 but symbionts in the possession of this 

 border with the peonies. And so we 

 have the peonies not only beautiful in 

 their glory of bloom but serviceable also 

 later on in the ways just mentioned. De- 

 lightful as the effects are which Mr. El- 

 lis produces by a well regulated system 

 of inter and double planting of his bor- 

 ders they must be passed without fur- 

 ther comment or space will not be avail- 

 able to emphasize several other special 

 features of this city lot. 



THE PROBLEM OF EACH GARDEN 



In most parts of the world, each home, 

 each city lot in particular, presents in 

 many cases a distinct problem to its 

 owner when he begins to plant it with 

 a view of making his home a "real 

 home" and one of the best lots of his 

 neighborhood. In the very beginning 

 of his gardening career Mr. Ellis realiz- 

 ed that the problem which his lot pre- 

 sented was a personal one. While not 

 by any means unique it was not a com- 

 mon problem, and still less a desirable 

 one. 



The problem simply stated was prati- 

 cally just such a one as any one of the 

 readers of The Canadian Horticulturist 



may be facing. Therefore, let us put it 

 thus : — You wish to grow flowers, to do 

 all the work of gardening yourself, to 

 have the place always looking nice, and 

 to have the best of things growing in the 

 most luxuriant manner ; but down one 

 side of youi lot is an ugly board fence, 

 and a bare shed belonging to your neigh- 

 bor. You cannot plant vines to cover 

 it because he d;ies not wish you to do 

 that, you cannot i lant trees to screen it 

 because your lot 1.. not large enough to 

 grow both trees and flowers, and yet you 

 must hide that eyesore and achieve your 

 desires. What are you going to do 

 about it? This is not all the problem, 

 but enough to show the point. What 

 did Mr. Ellis do? 



We can only partly answer the ques- 

 tion. Mr. Ellis, having determined upon 

 the policy of having the maximum quan- 

 tity of flowers with a minimum amount 

 of work (not because he disliked the 

 work, but because he is city treasurer, 

 a member of the Ontario Legislature, 

 and a very busy man), together with the 

 production of a nice effective lot when 

 viewed from the street, found that he 

 had to work out his own method of 

 screening that objectionable board fence 

 and building. This we shall come to 



Artistic Effect and Utility arc Combined in This Rustic Arrangement 



Notice the wealth of bloom obtained by Mr. Ellia from the plants of Clematis Jackmanli. The necessary but rather ugly outhouse i« ma4e a 

 Dlcasing feature in thia garden. The little conservatory on the left is the one in which Mr. Ellis has had distinct success growing orchide 



as described by him in recent issues of The Canadian Horticulturist. 



