THE GARDEN AT HOME 



should not make one. Nothing adds more directly to 

 the fascination of a garden than irregularity of surface 

 outline. One may put up hedges, build arbours and 

 pergolas on flat ground, and cover them with pleasant 

 leaves and bewitching blossom to shut out its all too 

 apparent nakedness, or to hide its limited extent, but 

 nothing so simply and effectually achieves these aims 

 as the making of a dell. For does not this mean also 

 the building of a hill, big or little, as the depth of the 

 hollow ? And if somewhat hard work, still, how fascinat- 

 ing, for nothing so puffs up the gardener with pride as 

 his ability to say, " I made this high where once it was 

 low/' or " Where now you see flower-beds, once was 

 lawn." 



Every autumn all good gardeners make some ground 

 alterations, and one of the great charms of gardening is 

 found in the fact that one has never done. Each autumn, 

 as the pageant of spring and summer bloom is passed in 

 review, the thought occurs that this might be improved, 

 that altered, or something else created. Forthwith out 

 come spade and fork, and the gardener sets to work 

 to fashion in soil the air castles he has built. And what 

 work more entrancing than to watch the hollows deepen, 

 the little hilltops rise, the walks that were straight made 

 winding, the border plain grow beautiful ? 



The size of the dell will largely determine how it is 

 to be planted. If there is room, the banks can be clothed 

 with nothing more fair than Rhododendrons, green of 



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