PLANNING A GAEDEN ON PAPER 



all, make friends with some working gardener. You need not 

 take his advice on planting schemes, but you can learn to know 

 by the "feel" of it and the look of it if the soil is right, and how 

 the tiny seedlings may be pricked out and transplanted in 

 safety. If one remembers to have plenty of green in the gar- 

 den, to buy seeds of single colors instead of mixed sorts, and 

 to introduce violent and belHgerent colors only with the ut- 

 most caution, nothing very dreadful can happen. And then 

 mistakes may be noted and misfortunes laid up in one's mind 

 for future profiting, becoming in this way very valuable. 



The Way to Go About It Is This : Make a plan of the place 

 on paper, locating house and outbuildings, paths and drives, 

 existing trees and shrubs — the whole done to scale. Do this 

 on a good-sized sheet of paper, allowing, say, a quarter of an 

 inch to a foot. The squared paper used by architects greatly 

 facilitates this plan-making. Then, if there are unsightly spots 

 that must be shut off from the view by planting, mark them 

 down. It will be a convenience also to note the situation, 

 such as "shade" or "partial shade." Put down also the points 

 of the compass, that you may not forget and try to grow roses 

 on the north side of your house. 



Next Consider What You Want. If you prefer having a 

 display from the street, why, plan for it. If, on the other hand, 

 you care most for seclusion, for a place where one may have 

 tea and a chat in quietude, arrange to have it. This is difficult 

 to achieve in a suburb, but it may be done. One good lady 

 of my acquaintance has her porch so screened from the street 

 by shrubs that she can breakfast there in comfort of a June 

 morning, and have a glimpse of her garden the while, in as un- 

 vexed privacy as if within doors. 



If there are children, then plan a playground where there 

 will be no restrictions; or, if the place be too small for that, 



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