234 FUNDAMENTALS OF AGRICULTURE. 



from two to four crops. This is particularly true of 

 the South, where the hardiest vegetables, such as cab- 

 bage, can be grown during the winter months. Of 

 course there is a limit to the season of every vegetable, 

 but very few gardeners even approach this limit. 



A Screen should Separate the Gardens. The flower 

 garden should be near the vegetables, for convenience 

 in working. But the flower garden is for ornament, 

 and the vegetable garden is not supposed to be beau- 

 tiful, so one should make a screen between them. A 

 grape arbor would make a fine screen in summer, but 

 the vines are bare in winter, and the ornamental gar- 

 den should be as beautiful as it can be made through- 

 out the year. The screen should be evergreens, 

 or, if the garden is very elaborate, the food-plants 

 should be separated from the lawn by a stone wall 

 against which a pergola may be built. In the South 

 the evergreen screen may be of broad-leaved trees and 

 shrubs, such as holly, euonymus, mahonia and wild 

 olive, and where the air is moist enough rhododen- 

 drons and kalmia can be used. But in the North only 

 conifers as the hardy pines, hemlock, spruces and arbor 

 vitaes should be used. No large growing trees should 

 find place in this screen planting, for they shade the 

 gardens too much. 



A Background for the Flowers. A clipped hedge, 

 or one of mixed planting, will make a good background 

 for the flowers, which are to be set in regular beds of 

 simple shape on the lawn side of the screen. 



Location of Flower Garden and Lawn. The 

 flower garden should be at one side of the lawn, and 

 the lawn should be as large as possible, carpeted with 

 perfect grass and adorned with trees and flowering 

 shrubs. The lawn should surround the dwelling, but 

 by all means the largest and most beautiful part of it 

 should be at one side or to the rear of the house, and 

 thus make this part so secluded from street or high- 

 way that it will be like a great out-of-door living room. 



The Lawn. Good grass is the foundation of every 



