202 SHRUBS 



threw them away, for they are no use to us. We must hew out an 

 entirely new path. And it would be a sin and a shame for me to 

 crow about Cornus and Virburnum and Hydrangea, simply because 

 England can never touch us there. For the big fact is that we 

 are three hundred years behind England on gardening and we 

 ought to "get busy." The irregular shrubbery border is "our 

 game," but we play it in the wrong way, and so the one thing we 

 need most is not a list of material, but a better way to plan a border! 



No book can teach the people the art of design. But here are 

 a few rules that any one can use with better results than the hap- 

 hazard methods we commonly employ. First draw a diagram of 

 your home grounds to scale. Then place your trees where they 

 will shut out unsightly things and frame pictures of beautiful 

 objects in the distance, such as a church spire. Then indicate 

 where big bushes are necessary to hide what you don't want to 

 see, and leave blanks where they would cut off the good views. 

 Then make a bold, irregular outline for your shrubbery border, 

 leaving room in front of the tall shrubs for low ones. The rest 

 should be unbroken lawn. 



Next comes the selection of the best bushes for the chief mass 

 effects say twelve kinds, one for each month, and then the 

 arrangement of these. Don't try to select all your bushes now, 

 and don't put off arranging them until the shrubs arrive. Make 

 twelve slips, or one for each important period April effect, 

 May effect, and so on. Add to each slip the ultimate height of the 

 bush and the colour of the flowers. This is the easiest way to 

 secure "finish" and avoid colour discords. 



The next job is to separate the slow-growers from the quick- 

 growers, for the former cost most and are soon crowded to 

 death by the latter in the ordinary mixed border. The quick- 



