THE GARDEN IN TOWN 



"Clothe ugly fences with green," advise the gardening 

 magazines, "mass shrubs before them, let vines clamber over 

 and conceal them." Another paper, more rich in helpful 

 detail, urges one to "spread wire and let it be covered with 

 gay nasturtiums, and to stretch strings that morning-glories 

 may ascend." 



This is well enough in summer, but frost acts upon the 

 greenery like the stroke of twelve upon Cinderella's raiment: 

 the leaves will fall; the branches show themselves brown and 

 dishevelled; nasturtiums, pale wraiths, cling to their support 

 like half -drowned sailors to a spar; while to the fore, by way 

 of decoration, comes their sustaining chicken- wire, and unless 

 the gardener is unusually energetic, there it stays, and the fence 

 is as visible as ever, and remains visible for six long months. 



But why need the fence be ugly? What is the moral ne- 

 cessity of a fence fashioned after the similitude of a bill-board ? 

 Why need the rear of a city house, in its contrast to the front, 

 offer a shock to the nervous system ? Is the house a lay figure 

 that its back must be unseen and unregarded? Why may 

 we not have a "street side" and a "garden side," different, 

 surely, but equally respectable and self-respecting? A fence 

 of beautiful design is not a difficult thing to compass one 

 that may indeed be embellished by vines, but need not be 

 hidden to be endured. The older fences were better; some of 

 them were beautiful, and the plainest ones had lattice atop, 

 against which were trained Corchorus and snowball and other 

 shrubs in a very delightful fashion that we seem to have for- 

 gotten completely.* When blessed with a friendly neighbor, 



* Far better than a fence is the older, more substantial and self-respecting 

 wall of brick, if the house be of brick ; of stone, if the house be of stone. This 

 is not suggested because of its expense. A reader who can afford an eight or 

 ten-foot brick wall as a beginning to his gardening should invoke the aid of a 

 landscape-gardener. 



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