CHAPTER XII. 



THE CITY OR SUBURBAN LOT. 



The fact is, the easiest way to spoil a good lawn is to put 

 a flower bed on it; and the most effective way to slxow off 

 flowers to least advantage is to plant them in a bed in tlie 

 greensward. L. H. Bailey. 



In the planting of city and suburban residence 

 grouuds there seems to be the largest field ior improve- 

 ment in this country. One sees in such places more 

 exhibitions of execrable bad taste than anywhere else, to 

 be sure ; but such things indicate the willingness and 

 the energy to do something, and taste often improves as 

 work goes on. Those people who own their grounds in 

 the towns and suburban districts are the truest home 

 lovers in the nation ; and as a class they have the means, 

 the desire and the taste, — often uneducated in this par- 

 ticular line, — ^for home improvement. Still there is 

 much too little done in the way of gardening or of any 

 tasteful amelioration of the grounds. 



While the housebuilder gladly puts 13,000 or $20,000 

 into his house, he regards $50 or $100 as ample outlay 

 for the ornamentation of the surrounding grounds. 

 And while he is sure to employ an architect and pay 

 him $100 to $500 for planning the house, he does not 

 think of consulting a landscape gardener to design the 

 surfacings and plantings, but leaves such things to the 

 cheap day laborer Avho mows the lawn or takes care of 

 the stable. These things make it obvious that the gen- 

 tle art of gardening has not yet gained a proper appre- 

 ciation from all those who should be its votaries. 



The first great question to be decided, in laying out 

 the grounds of a moderate-sized city home, is whether 



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