THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING 



of the Atlantic coast windbreaks would be a godsend to the 

 gardens and no small blessing to those who work therein. 

 Why since the time of the Pilgrim fathers, for nearly three 

 hundred years, the good folk have gardened without them, 

 and exposed both their bushes and their persons to the bleak 

 North Atlantic winds, is difficult to understand. It can only 

 be accounted for by the New England preference for difficul- 

 ties and the Puritan aversion to a life of ease for themselves 

 or their flowers. 



A grape-arbor or even a grape-trellis of single posts does 

 well for boundary purposes on the farm. It is a division; it 

 affords a setting for flowers, and yet to its back may be fas- 

 tened wire-fencing stout enough to keep out cattle; or if, 

 instead of heavy wire, the homely but useful chicken-wire is 

 stretched, the hens can be securely excluded, which on a farm 

 is no slight achievement. 



With the trellis one comes to the other form of garden 

 boundary which Bacon calls "carpenter work." 



In more elaborate designs, the pergola makes a peculiarly 

 appropriate garden wall. But a pergola is not a thing to be 

 rashly set up in one's garden. If it doesn't fit, it is one of the 

 most distressing of garden adjuncts. It should be in relation 

 to the house and architecturally in harmony with it; there- 

 fore, whoever plans one had best consult the architect who 

 built his house. 



The grape-arbor is a humbler form of pergola, more unas- 

 suming; in fact, it has no architectural pretensions. It seems 

 to differ from the pergola in being of simpler, ruder construc- 

 tion, utilitarian solely, and it has lateral supports; narrow 

 strips running lengthwise, two feet apart perhaps, are conve- 

 nient for training the vines, which should make a lateral growth 

 as well as an upright one. 



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