192 THE BLOSSOM CIRCLE OF THE YEAR 



Making a garden in the South is different from making 

 one in any other section only in the fact that every month can be 

 and should be a garden working month and every season should 

 have its share of bloom and beauty and sweetness. Midwinter 

 blossoms are no rarer than Midsummer ones and garden work 

 is much easier done in January than in August. The cold invig- 

 orates one to energetic efforts without destroying the result of 

 the labor of one's hands and heart and brain. The heat, on the 

 other hand, enervates and often parches the plantings and not 

 much gardening can be done in the hot Summer months. Because 

 this is true, the Winter months give to the women and men 

 of the Southern States the opportunity they need to make beauti- 

 ful their homes. Think what it would mean to the physical 

 value of the farms of these sections if every farmer would make 

 of his dooryard a lawn, would plant screens of flowering trees to 

 hide the service quarters of his farm, would plant the foundation 

 lines of his home with shrubs and would shield the porches from 

 the Summer sun by means of ornamental vines! 



With the prodigal wealth of our flora, with the ease of growth, 

 why is it that the people of the South have not taken advantage 

 of their opportunities and made this section the most wonder- 

 fully beautiful of the world ^ It is simply because they have 

 not seen the vision of concerted action, of definite planting plans, 

 of working for beauty on the farms as well as for utility. This 

 has been true of the past. It will not be true of the future. Our 

 boys have seen the gardens of old England and France, they have 

 come home with inspiration and the will to translate that ideal 

 into action. This means the inception of a new era and the 

 development of the home grounds of the South in a way that has 

 not been considered possible heretofore. The slogan, "Every 

 home in a garden" will become a truism before many years have 

 passed. 



When I began my garden the plantings were good enough, 

 but were so scattered, so hidden by fences and buildings, that 

 there was needed the eye of faith, the heart of patience, and the 

 prayer of courage to undertake to transform the higgledy-piggledy 

 city lot into a place of beauty and fragrance; a garden worthy 



