THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING 



frames or a little experiment plot, try espalier fruit on his 

 walls, or specialize in some one thing and be happy. The 

 bird-lover has only to plant white mulberry and the white- 

 fruiting dogwood, and straightway the birds for miles around 

 will make his place their preferred hostelry. For what to 

 plant is like Dr. Johnson's advice on what to read precisely 

 what one pleases. 



Naturally, however, one chooses plants that will do their 

 prettiest when the owner is at home, and not be so impolite 

 as to bloom in his absence. 



If the suburbanite is away all summer, if he has but little 

 time or small inclination to bestow what time he has on his 

 garden, it is wiser to eschew a flower-garden and turn the gar- 

 den space into greensward framed by flowering shrubs and 

 blossoming trees, with early-flowering bulbs in front of these, 

 and tucked away in corners, wherever there is room. In front, 

 if the place is open to the street, may be Rugosa roses, bar- 

 berry-bushes, and perhaps hawthorns, stoutly enough armored 

 to take care of themselves against stray dogs and children. 



There are a host of exquisite early-flowering things which 

 are rarely planted, but which would suffice to keep a garden 

 as far north as New York abloom from February on until late 

 November, and then stout evergreens and scarlet-berried 

 plants to give cheer until the first touch of spring comes again 

 with the snowdrop and the darling blue of the little Scilla, as 

 exquisite in color as October gentians. 



So planted in shrubs and trees and flowering bulbs, the 

 garden will go on with as little trouble to its owner as Tenny- 

 son's brook, though it is not so much fun as a flower-garden. 



One of the advantages that a flower-garden has over the 

 mere skilful grouping of shrubs and trees is that while the 

 latter planting "stays put," the flower-garden may be varied 



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