GARDENS NEAR THE SEA 



twigs, and their buds swell in expectancy of its gentler 

 moods. 



To place shrubs well about the lawn and outside 

 the garden is a most delicate art. Many of them 

 stand for an endurance almost as great as that of the 

 trees. As the years pass over them they grow large, 

 increasing the area over which their flowers can be 

 produced. They should often, therefore, be planted 

 with the idea of holding their places permanently. 

 There is an irreverence in ousting shrubs from soil 

 in which they have once become established. When 

 thoughtfully arranged, they are capable of apparently 

 contracting spaces, while imparting to others a look 

 of extent and broadness to which they are not entitled. 

 Many an optical illusion has been devised by cleverly 

 planted shrubs; many small bits of ground have been 

 hopelessly belittled by those set in the wrong places. 

 Almost invariably it is a mistake to allow shrubs or 

 other planting to encroach on the open, center lawn. 



There are few who would deny that shrubs form 

 the most remarkable decoration of the greater number 

 of seaside homes. In motoring along the Sound from 

 New York to Bridgeport, passing from one town to 

 another it is not the gardens one notices about the 

 homes as much as the flowering shrubs. In May and 

 June especially they gladden the way of the motorist 

 as a series of great bouquets. In most cases, the 

 gardens are farther back from the roadway, more 

 hidden from view. 



In the choice of shrubs, the question of the particu- 

 lar fitness of each one to the place it is to occupy, 



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