THE CITY OE SUBURBAN" LOT. 89 



a fine effect from the street shall be sought, or a com- 

 fortable outdoor privacy be secured to the residents. 

 On large grounds both these desiderata may be secured ; 

 but on small lots one must be sacrificed. The good, old 

 fashioned English style of securing privacy in small 

 places, — a method adopted by many citizens of a former 

 period in America, — is to have a thick, high hedge all 

 along the front. One still sees numbers of such hedges 

 of arbor vitae, or privet, or mulberry, completely screen- 

 ing the house and grounds from the street. Such an 

 arrangement has its very simple and substantial advan- 

 tages, and if it is to be adopted there is no further advice 

 to be given, except to choose a thrifty species for the 

 hedge and keep it cleaned and well pruned. 



A practicable modification of this method, but one 

 not often seen, is to plant a somewhat irregular screen 

 of mixed trees and shrubs and herbaceous materials. 

 Such a screen can be arranged in the same general way 

 as an ordinary border planting, except that it will usu- 

 ally face in two directions. This will shield the com- 

 pany on the lawn from the passers along the street, and 

 will, at the same time, give opportunity for the intro- 

 duction of an indefinite variety of ornamental plants, 

 some of which are visible from the street and some from 

 the house and lawn. 



But a ^reat many people do not live much on the 

 lawn, or prefer for other reasons to make the grounds a 

 setting for the house in such a way that the whole shall 

 give the best possible effect from the street. In such 

 cases there come into play all the principles of taste 

 which govern gardening anywhere. As in other garden- 

 ing operations, unity is most to be regarded. It is often 

 violated to excess. Many city gardens are only aggrega- 

 tions of unrelated and incompatible features picked up 

 here and yonder because they struck the passing fancy 

 of the collector. A good plan should be made and fol- 



