34 A PLEA FOR HARDY PLANTS 



be also two walks, six feet wide, crossing each other at right angles and 

 dividing the garden into four rectangular pieces of about equal size. On 

 both sides of these walks, grapes, dwarf pears, and small fruits can be 

 planted, and also on the inner sides of the outer walk if desired. The 

 walks can be made of any material that is convenient, and need not be 

 expensive. In one garden that I know, they are made of grass and kept 

 as a lawn would be. I know that there are objections that can be urged 

 against grass walks, but the owner of the garden in question does not 

 find them objectionable, and they are certainly more pleasing to the eye 

 than gravel walks. The border between the walk and the hedge should 

 be given up entirely to flowers ; hardy plants should predominate, but 

 there should be liberal spaces reserved for summer-blooming bulbs and 

 annuals. In the hardy plants each variety should be grouped and as 

 many sorts used as thought desirable, but in making a selection flowers 

 suitable for cutting, as well as for making a garden effect, should be 

 preferred. Such bold and striking plants as single hollyhocks and fox- 

 gloves should be planted in decided masses, and a border with eastern 

 or southern exposure should be used for hybrid perpetual roses. 



A vegetable garden, arranged as described and properly cared for, 

 in addition to being an interesting and pleasant place to visit, would 

 furnish an abundant supply of cut-flowers for the house, for the church, 

 for the hospital, and for friends; and I think one of the keenest pleas- 

 ures a garden can afford is the ability to give away flowers without stint. 

 The garden of hardy flowers enables one to give away plants as well 

 as flowers, for the natural increase soon makes a surplus. 



In large grounds there are often opportunities for using hardy 

 plants and shrubs in a freer and more picturesque way than any I have 

 suggested ; that is, the planting of them in groups and masses to pro- 

 duce the same effects as if they were growing wild. Indeed, after the 

 first careful planting, they should be allowed to grow wild, without cul- 

 ture and uncontrolled. The naturalizing of hardy material does not 

 mean that we should attempt to imitate the thickets, woods, or meadows 

 on our lawns. It does mean the taking advantage of a brookside for 

 groups and colonies of irises, narcissi, hardy ferns, the splendid 

 Lilium superhum, and the scores of beautiful things that will thrive in 

 the grass if it is not to be cut with the lawn-mower. It means the 

 planting of an irregular group of foxgloves on the edge of a wood, or 

 the covering of a rough bank with a mass of kalmias or native azaleas 



