CHAPTER IV 



ABOUT MAKING GARDENS 



WE have built our house, and the prelimin- 

 aries having been properly attended to, 

 have not left us where many are left after 

 building. We already have our drives, there are 

 some shade trees, and our drainage has been taken 

 care of, while our well gives us unfailing water that 

 is absolutely pure, and our cisterns are the house- 

 keeper's joy. Now we want our gardens dear 

 old English for yard-inns, that is, little inclosures 

 for good things to eat and to look at. What we 

 really want to create here in the country is a gar- 

 den home. 



May is the garden month for New England and 

 the whole orchard belt, clear across the continent, 

 although April has already put in our early potatoes 

 and our first planting of peas, as well as spinach and 

 a little bed of carrots and beets for early soups 

 and greens. If these first things were provided 

 for as they should have been, we are already hoe- 

 ing one side of the garden, while planting some- 

 where else. But in a well laid-out country home 

 there will not be so much one garden as half a dozen 

 garden spots. 



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