22 FLOWER GARDENING 
is not altogether a question of dividing the labor, 
though that is important enough; you learn a lot 
as you proceed with the work and the final shaping 
of the plan will be easier as well as more satis- 
factory for the experience. If it is convenient to 
make ready the parterre plot the first spring, fill 
it up with annuals as a temporary measure. 
Greater restraint than this may be exercised, and 
it is good advice to follow where pretty nearly 
everything is to be learned about plants—color 
value, foliage effect, manner of growth, hardiness 
in a given locality and the season and duration 
of bloom. These things are best learned by doing 
all the initial planting in some out-of-the-way place 
like one end of the vegetable garden. Lay out 
long beds about six feet wide and grow your flow- 
ers there for a season, or even two or three— 
until you feel competent to handle them with in- 
telligence. Plant in transverse rows, wide enough 
apart to use a hoe, where rapid increase of hardy 
stock is desired and in small groups to experiment 
as to color combinations and other effects. It 
takes courage and patience to do this, but it pays 
in the end. 
These are more thoughts for winter evenings. 
Meanwhile, the paper plan is only an outline of 
boundaries. The filling in of the details is simple 
or complex, according to the variety of plants used 
and the character of the color scheme. A border 
of Canterbury bells, white in front of pink, may 
be indicated on cross-ruled paper in this manner— 
