THE GARDEN AT HOME 



places, for the earth is a sky of blue and the heaven a 

 fairy forest of tender green. 



If the dell is small and circumscribed, it is still to be 

 made most beautiful. Its sides may be so cramped as 

 to be almost perpendicular, but what matters it if we 

 clothe the bare earth with an evergreen carpet of London 

 Pride, that studs itself with graceful bloom in June, or 

 the Tufted Saxifrage, that spreads in surprising fashion, 

 and smothers itself in white blossom in April and May ? 

 In the shadiest corners we shall put the purple Flag Iris 

 and the Plantain Lily, two plants rich in flower beauty 

 and not less rich in charm of leaf. 



If there is a marshy spot with a little shallow pool 

 then, mirrored in the depths like a golden crown, the 

 Marsh Marigold shall find a home on the margin. All 

 florist's flowers shall be taboo in the garden dell, to which 

 right association of leaf and flower alone shall be the 

 passport. No plants of stunted leaves and exaggerated 

 blooms shall pass the portals, for to admit such would 

 be to create a false note that would surely raise discordant 

 echoes throughout its hills and hollows. If, near the bog 

 or water-pool, we build a few rough stones and cover 

 them with evergreen Candytuft, each spring will bring 

 fair sheets of bloom, and all the year its green. 



Since the dell will chiefly be a place of shade, here 

 and there we may plant a few clumps of Lupin, blue and 

 white, and between them each spring put a few bulbs of 

 the Cape Hyacinth (Hyacinthus candicans) ; thus, in 



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