THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING 



a gate between can be made a very pretty feature of the 

 garden. 



Once the fence bettered, the city gardener attacks his next 

 architectural problem, the clothes-posts. To these the gen- 

 eral arrangement of the yard is usually subordinated, the pre- 

 vailing scheme being a ten or twelve foot deep space at the 

 end of the yard, a narrow bed along the fence at each side, 

 while the middle is occupied by an oblong of greensward, sur- 

 rounded by a flagged or concrete path and guarded by four 

 clothes-posts set in its four corners. Undoubtedly it is needful 

 to dry clothes, and the yard is the most convenient place; but 

 why make the posts a feature, and a dominant feature ? The 

 Romans, as Mr. Arthur Shurtleff pleasantly suggests, may 

 have had their togas hung to dry in their town gardens, but 

 they were very pretty little gardens, none the less. 



There are dozens of arrangements whereby a little in- 

 genuity can circumvent the insistence of the clothes-posts. 

 If tall enough, the fence-posts may lend themselves to that 

 use; a tree could serve as one of them. If the arrangements 

 of the garden are symmetrical, as befits so small a space, and 

 the posts are green-painted, and, instead of being treated as 

 part of the garden plan, are simply put where they will be 

 least noticed, the yard will have a wholly different character, 

 and the flowers and plants and pleasure of the owner will have 

 the first consideration, as is their right. 



Freed from the tyranny of the clothes-posts, with a fence 

 that does not implore to be hidden, but can be looked on 

 with pleasure, even if it be in the nude, the prospective gar- 

 dener draws a breath of relief, and is able to look about him 

 with some degree of peace and comfort, and consider within 

 himself what manner of garden he will have. For, like his 

 house, a man's garden should fit his uses. If he is in town 



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