PLANNING THE HOME GROUNDS 



13 



countries where the inhabitants, 

 ahnost to a man, appreciate the ele- 

 gancies of gardening, the little places 

 exhibit the utmost variety of charac- 

 ter in their composition. 



It is all too true that thousands 

 of gardens and grounds all around 

 our American homes are bare to de- 

 solation. The democratic idea and 

 feeling against planting of hedges 

 and the liuing off of one's property 

 makes for deadly unifomiity.- The 

 arguments that unhedged or unfenced 

 grounds would be contrary to the 

 best artistic conception and treat- 

 ment of a city or suburb as a whole, 

 ought not to be allowed to sway the 

 property owner from making the 

 most and the bpst of his own place. 

 There is a school of landscape gar- 

 deners and city planners who seem 

 to set their face against this, encourag- 

 ing the open community type of 

 home grounds. The latter will never 

 get us anywhere as a nation of 

 garden lovers, and almost entirely 

 precludes the practice of the finer 

 gardening. We plead rather to see 

 places nicely hedged or railed off, so 

 that stray dogs and unceremonious 

 persons may be kept , at a proper 

 distance, but most of all for the sake 

 of the enjoyment and encourage- 

 ment of that quiet privacy without 

 which the true pleasures of garden- 

 ing cannot be attained. 



Which is the best — to have a 

 big, bare lawn and a few trees, or an 

 odd group of shrubs here and there, 

 or the trimly hedged and fenced 

 groimds, with flower borders, speci- 

 men trees and shrubs, beds and 

 belts of Roses, arches of Roses and 



CHICKEN 

 HOUSE 



LAWN 



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LAWN X^ 

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Suburban lot fenced, on 40x100 ft. 

 A low hedge divided off the 

 vegetable garden. Fruit trees and 

 bushes were lined by the side of 

 this, while pillar Roses, dwarf 

 Roses, neat shrubs and beds of 

 flowers were elsewhere well disposed. 

 The vegetable plot was a model of 

 good cropping, containing Toma- 

 toes, Corn, Beans, Beets, Celery, 

 Carrots, Spinach, herbs and salads . 

 Raspberries lined the fences. This 

 ran east and west 



