CHAPTER X. 



OF SHRUBS. 



IN beginning most country places the first thing to be done after 

 the water system is in and the land graded is to plant trees. 

 We did not have this to do; on the contrary we had to cut them 

 down; but we had to plant shrubs. The whole two acres between 

 the house and the lake was to be a shrubbery, with grassy paths 

 between, and everywhere along the edges of the woods and the 

 borders of the lawn there was to be a wild tangle of shrubs. 



We did not wait for the house to be built, but enclosed the site 

 with a temporary fence, so that all building material might be 

 kept within those limits, after which we went on to complete our 

 planting. Every bush in the shrubbery was selected with direct 

 reference to the needs of the birds, every one must be fruit-bearing, 

 so that during the entire year there might be a constant succession 



of berries. From the red-berried elder in May, to the Virginia 



138 



