32 A PLEA FOR HARDY PLANTS 



vantage with groups of rhododendrons and azaleas. After such a border 

 is completely planted with shrubs and hardy plants there will be many 

 opportunities for introducing colonies of spring-flowering bulbs — tulips, 

 narcissi, etc. — and the advantage of using bulbs in this way is that the 

 planting is permanent and that they are really more effective than in 

 formal-shaped beds cut out of the lawn. It is the intention to keep 

 this border in a cultivated condition, free from weeds and grass, and 

 to give an annual mulching of manure. A lot of this size, planted so 

 densely on its boundary, should have its lawn kept quite free and open 

 and have only a few choice specimens planted on it, and no large trees, 

 except street trees on the edge of the sidewalk. 



I do not claim that this is the most artistic arrangement that can be 

 made for a small suburban place. I have in mind a most artistic place 

 that is almost inclosed by a quite narrow planting of ordinary trees and 

 shrubs, with a mass of trees back of the house and a single magnificent 

 specimen tree on the front lawn. This is a satisfactory arrangement, as an 

 example of fine architecture is satisfactory, but all the variety, interest, and 

 pleasure of gardening is lost. 



In larger grounds, where a vegetable garden and perhaps an orchard 

 are features, the opportunities for using hardy shrubs and plants are much 

 greater and more varied. The vegetable garden may be made the most 

 interesting and dehghtful place imaginable. Usually it is simply a field of 

 vegetables, fully exposed from all points of the ground and very often 

 unsightly. Now, the vegetable garden should be concealed from the lawn 

 and house; and this necessity at once suggests a border, or boundary 

 planting, of shrubs and herbaceous plants as described for the smaller 

 suburban lot. This planting should not only hide the garden but should 

 hide its outlines, which are usually rectangular. The garden itself should 

 be inclosed with a hedge, which should show from the inside of the garden 

 but never from the lawn. California privet makes a very satisfactory 

 garden hedge, but where that is not hardy, hemlock spruce can be used. 

 Nothing makes a finer hedge than this, but it is slower growing than the 

 privet, of which I have seen a perfect hedge five feet high made in three 

 seasons, starting with two-year-old plants. A convenient walk from the 

 house should pass through the shrubbery into the garden, and of course a 

 convenient entrance will be made for bringing in manure, etc. A walk 

 should be laid out all around the garden five to six feet wide, with a six- 

 foot border for flowers between the walk and the hedge. There should 



