68 FLOWER GARDENING 
edges of the lawn on the sides that are not adjacent 
to the house or street. This is one of the best kinds 
of borders, since it is not only very beautiful as a 
nearer background but may be made to serve the 
purpose of a screen. If the flowers are largely 
here, and the borders by the house and front path 
are given over to shrubs, the foliage of which is of 
rather more importance than the blossoms, there 
is an advantage not so commonly apparent as might 
be. 
For, with all the cottage garden charm of a house 
framed by flowers, or a front yard well nigh filled 
with them, something is lost when the borders are 
open to the full gaze of every passerby. The cot- 
tagers do not mind; for generations they have had 
no privacy and, ignorant even of what it means to 
the more sensitive, are happy in brief intervals of 
morning and evening garden intimacy that their 
long hours permit. 
While the cottager has no other choice, it is a 
small place indeed that does not allow a second. 
This is the relegation of at least some of the bor- 
ders to the rear of the house, or where they will 
provide a walk with a semblance of seclusion—if 
not the thing itself. To what lengths the relegation 
is to be carried is a matter for every individual to 
decide for himself, but that the extreme need not 
be too far in certain circumstances is clearly enough 
demonstrated by small places where the house and 
lawn are framed only by shrubbery borders, the 
flower borders being largely, or quite, out of the 
