THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING 



sure to possess — these and the near-at-hand orchard. Surely, 

 it would be a joy and a rest to the farmer's wife if the way 

 to the kitchen-garden were through a grape-arbor. For a 

 single summer, a most useful "pergola" covering the same 

 route could be made of bean-poles and their vines. And 

 the housewife would have a shaded walk which would tempt 

 her or her maid to go to the garden itself for fresh vegetables. 



If a woman has not leisure to walk among the flowers — 

 and many a farmer's wife has not — the obvious thing is to 

 border with flowers her necessary walks. In a charming little 

 garden in Charleston, S. C, garden peas grow side by side with 

 sweet peas, and who must pick the one for his dinner is also 

 tempted to feed his soul by picking the other. And the way 

 to both is through an arbor overgrown with roses. 



If, instead of taxing his brain to find flowers that will grow 

 under a tree, the gardener should abandon the problem and 

 plant instead a comfortable garden-bench, many a visitor 

 would be glad of the chance to sit down and call him blessed. 



In construction, garden-benches should be simple in line, 

 heavily and substantially built, that they have not only an 

 appearance of stability, but do not need to be rushed to shelter 

 in case of rain. They should be able to stand wind and weather. 

 Also they are much better home-made. A bench or a seat of 

 rough construction, if suited to the place, is almost invariably 

 far more pleasing than a manufactured one, which never can 

 win the look of having been "born and growed" in the place. 

 In a Connecticut garden, where a pool and beyond it an old 

 apple-tree terminate the central garden-path, there two curved 

 benches, forming a semicircle, with the apple-tree at their 

 centre, make a delightful place to sit and survey the garden 

 and, although comparatively new, give the feeling of having 

 always been there. 



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