136 The American Flower Garden 



makes the best possible start in life. Long ago we might have 

 learned the value of evergreens from the birds that prefer them 

 to all other trees as sleeping and nesting places. 



In an emotional moment of &quot;civic improvement&quot; we were 

 advised to take down our front fences and hedges, throw open our 

 lawns and share with the public all the beauty of our home grounds, 

 or be branded as selfish and undemocratic. The family life that 

 should be lived as much as possible under the open sky, when 

 rudely exposed to public gaze, must become either vulgarly brazen 

 or sensitively shy, in which latter case it withdraws to the vine- 

 enclosed piazza or to the house itself. There is a vast difference 

 between the Englishman s insultingly inhospitable brick wall, 

 topped with broken bottles, and an American s encircling belt of 

 trees around his home grounds, or the tall hedge around his garden 

 room to ensure that privacy without which the perfect freedom of 

 home life is no more possible than if the family living-room were to 

 be set on a public stage. The busy mistress of the house needs 

 every encouragement to run out and work a while among her 

 flowers without feeling that her unfashionable dress and tucked up 

 petticoat are exciting the comment of passers-by. Thanks to the 

 shielding evergreens, the young people may have rough and 

 tumble play on the lawn, the father may feel free to don overalls 

 and paint the garden chairs if the humour seize him, and the 

 entire family, safely sheltered from curious eyes, may frequently 

 enjoy a meal out of doors with perfect freedom and naturalness. 

 The plainest fare has zest when eaten al fresco. 



If suburban and country houses and stables are not to look 

 bare and cheerless and ugly after the deciduous trees and shrubs 

 have shed their leaves, as so very many do, evergreens need 

 to be freely used in the boundary planting, on the lawn, and 



