both of blossoms and foliage, week by week, be foreseen and planned, but the 

 delicate fresh colors of spring flowers must be so chosen as to harmonize with 

 such permanent features as gravel walk, garden wall, and house ; while the rich 

 yellows and purples of the autumn-blooming annuals and perennials — sunflowers, 

 asters, goldenrods, and phloxes — will require an entirely diff^erent color scheme. 



With a country like our own, which extends through so many degrees of 

 latitude, the variety of planting that is possible is at once a delight to the traveler 

 and the despair of him who would write upon methods of gardening ; for though 

 one country, we have many climates, and advice suited to one section would be 

 utterly valueless for another. Thus the amateur gardener who designs and 

 composes his own garden is sure to make mistakes during the first year or two. 

 Plants that flourished well elsewhere may not find the precise conditions that they 

 need in the new garden, the time of flowering will vary, the colors will not prove 

 what the florists promised, so that the combinations of colors will be found dis- 

 appointing, — all of which will result in extensive weeding during the season. 

 To design successfully in color demands a power of visualization that is rarely 

 found in beginners; but loving thought and affectionate and patient tending will, 

 in the end, create a garden that may serve as an encouragement to all lovers of 

 flowers. It is unfortunate that the photographs cannot enable us to see how 

 glorious the colors of some of the gardens represented in this book really are, — 

 with the white and pink hollyhocks glowing against the dark green of a well- 

 clipped box hedge in some old-fashioned garden, a sunlit grapevine trailing over 

 a white trellis, a group of tiger lilies under a hot sun, or the yellow narcissus on 

 a shaded bank. 



Taking up in detail the elements that compose a garden, we shall find 

 that next in importance to the flowers is the framework or boundary. This may 

 consist of a building, a garden wall, the edge of a terrace, a hedge, a border of 

 shrubbery, the edge of a wood, or a sheet of water; for whether the garden be 

 formal or natural, it should have some boundary. An irregular field of daisies 

 or a stretch of heather is extremely beautifiil, but, according to our use of the 

 word, is not a garden. Even in the most informal arrangement of flowers, a 

 background is necessary in places. Walls and hedges should serve, however, 

 not only as a background, but to give protection from the cold winds, and yet 

 be low enough to let the sun into the garden all day long, for there will always 

 be spots where a little shade can be contrived for those plants that especially need 

 it. If the house is built, or the walks and hedges are already in position, the 

 garden ought to be so placed as to fulfil these requirements of shelter and sun. 



