98 HOW TO MAKE HOME 



turned to her companion and asked, "Where do the fac- 

 tory people live ?" 



The pictures tell the story of the changed condition 

 better than words. In order to get contrasting photo- 

 graphs, the writer, after looking entirely over the city, had 

 to go to another city to get views of homes without a lawn 

 or a flower or a shrub about them. 



A Flower Garden Committee of about twenty-five, 

 divide the city among themselves. The latter part of winter 

 and early spring they visit each home and enroll the compet- 

 itors. One expert visits all competing gardens in the sum- 

 mer and marks each on the layout or plan of the place; the 

 harmony or its arrangements both as to color of blooms 

 and size and form of trees, shrubs, and plants. Third, 

 the condition or the order and neatness of everything. 

 Fourth, the duration of the planting. 



Visitors advise and help the competitors all they can 

 and tell them the whole place is considered the garden 

 from the gutter in front to the end of the back yard. The 

 lawn should be thoroughly weeded. Mow the grass often. 

 In laying out the plantings, avoid straight lines and sharp 

 angles. Plant all flowers you wish, but plant shrubs at 

 their back to give more pleasant and lasting effects 

 while the annuals are cut of season as well as when not 

 in bloom. Try to plant so as to make the whole place one 

 single picture of a home with the house its chief feature 

 and the outside boundary line its frame. The place needs 

 to be planted on all its boundaries and left open in the 

 middle. Plant some small evergreens so as to have a 

 twelve months' garden instead of a three months' garden. 



Civic gardening is contagious. As one man improves 

 his place, the whole surrounding neighborhood begins to 

 take on a cleaner aspect until soon there are beautifully 

 kept and well planted lawns, where a few years ago nearly 

 the entire street was bordered by grassless yards. The 

 improvement of the property, the general civic better- 

 ment, and the uplift in moral tone is unquestionably felt. 

 Indeed, the contagion is spreading throughout the entire 



