PLANNING THE GARDEN 



177 



will occupy the ground. As soon as we know this we can 

 tell where we wish to put them, if we understand the follow- 

 ing. 



Short-season plants should have the "earliest" soil. 



Each plant should be given all the room it needs. 



Plants should be placed so as not to shade each other. 



Short-season plants may be planted close to long-season 

 plants if they are so spaced that the 

 earlier are out of the way before the 

 later need the room. This is called 

 "companion cropping." 



Short-season plants may be followed 

 in the same ground by short-season 

 plants or by transplantings of long- 

 season plants. This is called "succes- 

 sion cropping." 



As a matter of fact, much of this 

 applies only to vegetables. Flowering 

 plants are often crowded, or "massed," 

 for the sake of the many blossoms. 

 And except bulbs, which stay in the 

 ground until midsummer, there are 

 no flowering plants which, like rad- 

 ishes and lettuce among the vegetables, 

 are dug up early. But with a gardener who knows the habit 

 of plants, even flowers may be made to yield a good show 

 in a small space by a kind of companion and succession 

 cropping, if only he is willing to pull out his plants when they 

 are past their best bloom. Let me now say a few words 

 about the kinds of gardens separately. 



Flower gardens are commonly in two forms, beds and 

 borders. A bed is a space of open ground; it is likely 

 to be much like a vegetable garden — that is, stiff and precise. 



Fig. 90. — This shows 

 the best method of plan- 

 ning flower beds. They 

 look best as borders. 



