December, 191 4 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



285 



ing it to the dignity of the National Dish, 

 I am with you ; and a beautiful and 

 variegated dish this would be, adorned 

 with the distinctive fruits of six of the 

 nine provinces of Canada. With our 

 present facilities of storage, and width of 

 seasons, this dish could be served up 

 almost every month of the year, and for 

 the little time that the actuality was not 

 available one could subsist on memory 

 and imagination. Certainly by all means 

 let us take the apple for the national 

 dish of Canada." 



Now that the movement has received 



this hearty support in influential quar- 

 ters, The Canadian Horticulturist hopes 

 that all its readers will assist in promot- 

 ing the good work. Provincial Fruit 

 Growers' Associations and local associa- 

 tions which have not already done so are 

 invited to pass resolutions and forward 

 copies of them, with the names of the 

 movers and seconders, to The Canadian 

 Horticulturist in order that these may 

 be made public and in due time submitted 

 to the Government so that official and 

 national approval of the proposal may 

 be obtained. 



Floral Effects in An An\ateur's Garden 



W 



HERE there's a will there is a 

 way. This is as true of opera- 

 tions in the garden as of most 

 everything else. It has been proved to 

 be the case in the garden of Mr. A. 

 Carson of Barrie, Ont., who in spite of 

 unusual difliculties has evolved a garden 

 of which any amateur flower grower 

 might well be proud. 



Mr. Carson is a commercial traveller. 

 His business takes him from home about 

 five days in the week. Saturday is the 

 only full day he can devote to his gar- 

 den, except during vacation, when his 

 entire time is spent among his flowers. 

 In spite of this handicap Mr. Carson at- 

 tends to all the work in his garden him- 

 self except for the assistance of a hired 

 man in the fall and spring to plow and 

 dig. 



Mr. Carson believes in absolute sys- 

 tem. He maintains that when once a 

 garden is put in good shape the work is 

 then easy and it is a pleasure to keep 

 it so. "What is finer," asks Mr. Car- 

 son, "than making flowers a hobby? 

 Where is there anything grander, any- 

 thing more stimulating to tired nerves?" 

 An enthusiastic gardener always enjoys 

 the best of health. Not often will you 

 find a man or woman who spend their 

 spare time in the garden prone to the 

 :ommon ills of life. 



In the early spring all seeds in Mr. 

 Carson's garden are started in cold 

 fames. Storm windows from the house 

 are used for glass. This is surely an in- 

 dication that he is decidedly an amateur 

 ij his methods. Poppy is sown broad- 

 last, and when it is nicely up it is thin- 

 led out. All the other annuals are trans- 

 alanted. There is a good deal of work in 

 this, but when done the garden presents 

 I very neat appearance and furnishes 

 much satisfaction to the man who does 

 ihe work. It is an advantage, also, as 

 :o arrangement and harmony of color. 



In contests conducted by the Barrie 

 Horticultural .Society, Mr. Carson has 

 5een awarded first prize for his boule- 

 vard and lawn, for neatness and general 

 appearance. The edges of the curb and 

 walks are constantly trimmed. The grass 



is not allowed to grow over. To have 

 an effective lawn it is absolutely neces- 

 sary to keep the edges well trimmed. No 

 lawn, no matter how well cut, will look 

 right with the edges rough with long 

 spikes of grass. 



On the south side of the house and 

 ninety feet back from the sidewalk, there 

 is a lilac hedge about seventy feet long 

 and trimmed square. This hedge divides 

 the front lawn from the inside. Along 

 the side facing the street there are eigh- 

 teen clumps of perennial phlox in differ- 

 ent shades — white, mauve, crimson, and 

 other effects. Between the phlox there 

 is planted scarlet sage (salvia), bordered 

 with elysum. When in bloom the effect 

 is most striking and beautiful. On the 

 north side of the house a lattice fence 

 divides the lawn. In front this is banked 

 with red geraniums and the fence run- 

 ning out to the street is covered with 

 Virginia Creeper banked with a seventy- 

 foot hedge of perennial phlox and bor- 

 dered with oxalis. This, also, is very 

 pretty. On this part of the lawn a weep- 

 ing elm stands in the centre. 



The garden consists of flowers that 

 are easy to grow and that have plenty 



of bloom. Asters are planted in solid 

 colors and in rows. Salipiglossis are 

 massed in one solid bed, as is also sca- 

 biosa. These are placed at each end of 

 the aster bed and at each corner ; at the 

 back of the bed, a clump of white and 

 pink cosmos bloom. For a background 

 white and blue annual larkspur are used, 

 and at the back of that a row of peren- 

 nial larkspur (Delphinium) in all shades 

 of blue. Behind the delphinium are 

 sweet peas. The bloom in this arrange- 

 ment is wonderful. 



Along the driveway, the entrance from 

 the back street, there is a hedge of 

 purple and white larkspur and white and 

 pink cosmos in all four rows. This 

 hedge is seventy feet long, eight feet 

 wide, and a mass of bloom. 



Petunias figure largely in the garden, 

 there being a solid bed seventy feet long 

 and four feet wide, with a few marigolds 

 among them. There is also a bed of 

 Iceland poppy, six by fourteen feet, and 

 a bed of Phlox Drummondi, of the same 

 dimensions. The Iceland poppy bed has 

 a border of caliopsis. Among the phlox 

 are a few love-in-a-mist, and as they are 

 taller than the phlox the effect is very 

 pretty. 



Some six or seven hundred gladioli are 

 planted in rows eighteen inches apart. 

 The gladioli last year were left in the 

 ground over winter. The experiment 

 proved disastrous, as they grew so thick- 

 ly this summer the result was very little 

 bloom. 



On the lawn and in the garden there 

 are three rockeries. These are filled with 

 flowers of continuous bloom, edged at 

 the base with elysum and oxalis. 



Ihe canna bed has castor bean, tuber- 

 ous begonia, and elysum around it. The 

 large elm tree on the lawn has rock built 

 around it one and one-half feet high and 

 three feet from the trunk. This is filled 



A Beauty Spot in the Garden of Mr. A. Carton, Barrie, Ont. 



