SUBURBAN GARDENING 



path to the gate losing itself In flowering dogwood and vibur- 

 nums. There was a stretch of lawn framed in blossoming 

 trees, but the boundaries were not "planted out" or otherwise 

 defined; instead, the flowering shrubs and low-growing trees 

 parted, giving gUmpses across the neighbors' lawns and the 

 effect of much more ample grounds than really existed. 



It requires no small amount of skill to make an irregular 

 plantation look as if it had "just growed." Imitating nature 

 is another of the things one is advised to do, but this is not so 

 easy as it looks. Amateur gardeners have to remember chiefly 

 that in grouping shrubs one puts the taller-growing ones at 

 the back, and if any seem particularly uncomfortable, to dig 

 them up in the spring and plant them where they will be a 

 better fit. 



Between the Colonial house and the cottage are, as I have 

 said, many kinds of houses, and the moral of all this is that, if 

 the house is dignified and symmetrical, it needs a dignified 

 and balanced approach; if irregular and inclined to be piquant, 

 then the planting should match it, fitting the house as the 

 punishment fits the crime. 



Next comes the treatment of the outbuildings. Northern- 

 ers seem to feel the moral necessity of turning all the ground 

 about their houses into what gardeners call "dressed ground," 

 not permitting an inch of it to be in anything but "calling 

 costume." Though there would be as much reason for throw- 

 ing the house into one room and having the kitchen and laun- 

 dry tactfully concealed from the drawing-room by screens 

 and potted plants as for treating the various offices of the 

 home as if they did not exist and shutting the eyes firmly to 

 the fact that clothes should be dried in the air and sun. There 

 is no reason in the world why a well-enclosed drying-yard may 

 not be provided and ample space for linen to bleach on the 



17 



