GARDEN MAKING AND SEED SOWING 215 



In making beds in which to grow flowering plants, 

 I would never try to carry out elaborate designs. You 

 want the flowers for their individual beauty, I take 

 it, and so long as this is secured it matters little 

 what the shape of the bed is. If you want beds in 

 which to carry out schemes of color, or produce strik- 

 ing effects in outline or pattern work do not make 

 use of flozvcring plants, but use such plants as the 

 Coleus, Golden Pyrethrum, Centaurea, Achyranthes, 

 Alternanthera and the like, in them. You can do this, 

 with them, without sacrificing the beauty or dignity of 

 flowers, for the effect aimed at will be supplied by 

 the foliage of the plants used. 



Have your beds so that you can work among them 

 conveniently without being obliged to get into them. 

 A long narrow bed is more easily taken care of than 

 a wide or round one. 



Do not attempt more than you can carry out. 

 Always remember that a few flowers, well grown, are 

 vastly more satisfactory than a great number of infe- 

 rior ones. Aim to grow only good ones. Do not have 

 many kinds if you have but little time or space at 

 your disposal. Get those which you know to be good, 

 rather than the "novelties" which may be worth grow- 

 ing, but which you don't know to be so. Buy seed of 

 a reliable dealer always, if it costs more than that 

 offered by dealers you know nothing of. In this, as 

 in other things, the "best is the cheapest" in the end. 



