BACK-YARD PROBLEMS 



Personally, I hope some day to be possessed of a gar- 

 den where there shall be not even a suggestion of a "back- 

 yard." It is the fault of the city, and of the manner of 

 men's crude planning, that gives us back-yards, anyway. I 

 can remember as a child shuddering at the sight of the ugly 

 rear fences which had encroached even upon the sacred pre- 

 cincts of "Nob Hill," in San Francisco, and upon which I 

 could look down from my play-room window; and I then 

 and there resolved that when I grew up and became very, 

 very rich, I should go a long way off from the noisy, 

 crowded, ill-smelling city and should build me a lovely 

 residence with four fronts and no "back-doors"; and that 

 it should be surrounded with a great' garden that went all 

 the way around — and with no garbage barrels in sight. I 

 haven't found the "Land of Heart's Desire" yet, nor have I 

 been able to get away from other people's great board fences, 

 but I have learned a secret, while on the way, that is helping 

 me to cover them up. The ugliest sight in the vicinity of 

 your outlook may be cut off from view by the proper plant- 

 ing of some hardy vine, and the English idea of leafy screens 

 to shut in, or cut out, sights that do not lend pleasure is an 

 idea worth preserving and enlarging upon. 



The hydrangea is a splendid growth for filling in these 

 ugly places, and will seem to redouble its effort to make 

 large growth and fine bloom when placed under the shelter 

 of the too common high board fence that makes the line of 

 demarcation betwean one back-yard and another in the 

 city. 



[99] 



