SUBURBAN GARDENING 



indefinitely. In fact, one of the most diverting things a gar- 

 dener can do is to move plants about in his garden and 

 change its scheme; as a remedy for the "blues" it is equal to 

 Mrs. Kemble's prescription of rearranging the furniture. For 

 gardens change; they alter, as children do. Larkspur and 

 phloxes must be dug up and separated; every three or four 

 years roses should be taken up and their beds made anew 

 for them, which ever tempts the gardener to making a differ- 

 ent arrangement. For unless the gardener interferes and sep- 

 arates his flowers, lovely and peaceable as they seem, they 

 engage in as bitter warfare as ever did rival powers for the pos- 

 session of disputed territory. If near the house, a small for- 

 mal garden ought to be on an axis with the house; when one 

 steps down from a porch, the garden, if just below it, ought 

 not to seem below. For the laying out of paths and beds 

 Saint-Gaudens had a beautifully simple method. He "tried 

 on" the garden dress; laid down laths to indicate where the 

 paths should be, moved them nearer together or farther apart, 

 to widen or narrow the paths, until they and the beds "looked 

 right." Carrying this neat and practical method a bit fur- 

 ther, one would stick up a bit of brush where a shrub is to 

 be. This trying on of the garden's dress may interest and 

 amuse one's neighbors, but it will save the amateur the mak- 

 ing of many mistakes. 



As to what to plant, that depends upon climate and soil 

 and whether the garden is for all the year round or merely 

 for summer and autumn. If the place be lived in during the 

 winter, then a hedge-like thorn, with its gay scarlet berries, 

 a few evergreens marking important points, and edgings of 

 dwarf evergreens or box will give no small amount of cheer 

 and emphasize the fact that the garden is not dead, but sleep- 

 ing. 



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