12 MY GARDEN 



reluctant, helpless plants conditions which are utterly 

 unsuitable. For beneficent Nature has so bountifully 

 provided for us that no one need be without an over- 

 flowing joyous garden if he will but observe her gentle 

 laws and respect the simple requirements of her flower 

 people. 



The ideal garden has a southern or southeastern ex- 

 posure and provides both sunshine and shadow, both 

 heavy and light soils, and even a little damp spot for the 

 accommodation of a few moisture lovers, and where one 

 has the making of one's garden from the very beginning, 

 it is often possible to have all these luxuries. 



To go back to the planting of the beds and borders, if 

 they are wide, say six to twelve feet, shrubs may be used 

 among the hardy plants with fine effect along the back 

 and may even venture an occasional representation 

 toward the front, so forming alcoves within the shelter 

 of which one may create some especially lovely picture. 

 Here and there along the borders a lightly made flower- 

 ing tree may cast a gracious shadow, and bulbs may be 

 planted in clumps and patches everywhere. 



In choosing one's plants it is well to select those whose 

 bloom is not too ephemeral and whose habit is good 

 that is, whose form and foliage are fine and lasting, thus 

 securing a more permanently full effect. If one is not 

 familiar with the appearance of many plants, the botan- 

 ical gardens and nurseries offer a valuable means of 

 forming a closer acquaintance, and both those institu- 



