144 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



December, 1915 



or climber, and they adjust themselves 

 accordingly.) 



By encouraging these plants of good con- 

 stitution, the sunny sheltered corner of the 

 garden can be very gay in winter. There 

 flourish the winter flowering Stocks, Indian 

 colored Portulaca, cheerful borders of sun 

 worshipping Oxalis, Anemones, Freezias to 

 laden the air with sweetness, dainty Snow- 

 drops, the early flowering bulbs and many 

 others depending on locality. 



The decorative "Bird of Paradise" (Strel- 

 itzia) grown in large clumps is a striking 



winter decoration for house and garden. 

 Gaillardias, Marigolds, Verbenas, Poin- 

 settias, Violets, etc., they are associated with 

 rare and shining days dear to our hearts and 

 rival the favorites of warmer nights. The 

 wild Laurel or " California Holly" and the 

 glossy wild Cherry can supply Christmas 

 decoration in any garden. 



It is easy enough to be good in a mon- 

 astery, or to work in the deep canons of a 

 city, but it takes iron will power to resist 

 the call of outdoors on such a morning. 

 The blue shadow-modelled mountains 



lead the imagination far into the distance 

 of piled up country. There must be some 

 compensation hereafter for the unfortun- 

 ates who must live their lives without the 

 companionship of a sky line. 



The very brain is sun intoxicated. Isn't 

 our system of civilization wrong, it prompts, 

 after all? The African savages have the 

 right idea in lying under Banana trees and 

 refusing to learn to work. It is insulting 

 to a bountiful Providence, it is spiritual 

 suicide to grind out our lives inside of office 

 prisons. 



Practical Plans for the Home Grounds 



VIII. Development for a Typical Suburban Lot— By Ruth Dean, 



Landscape 

 Architect, N. Y. 



GARDENING a peninsula fifty 

 feet by one hundred and twenty- 

 five feet, with a house that takes 

 up more than one-third of the 

 area, is very much a matter of finding 

 space in which to tuck flowers and shrubs 

 enough to justify the title of garden. 

 Flowers are indispensable to a garden and 

 so are flowering shrubs, from the American 

 point of view, for here we have never 

 learned to include park-like stretches of 

 green lawn dotted with trees, in the term 

 garden; nor paved and gravelled courts; 

 nor grass plots surrounded by walks. We 

 must have flowers and grass and bushes, at 

 least, before we bestow the name garden, 

 and after that fountains and seats, perhaps; 

 but the color and life of flowers come first. 



With a lot such as this, there is no reason 

 why the garden should not begin at the 

 very gate. A typical real estate develop- 

 ment lot, it is, with the grade about eighteen 

 inches or two feet higher than that of the 

 street. Most lots of this sort are allowed 

 to slope down to the sidewalk in a green 

 bank, or terrace; that uses up at least three 

 feet of valuable space, is more or less unin- 

 teresting, and somewhat of a bother to 

 keep cut. But this lot terminates in a re- 

 taining wall eighteen inches high and two 

 feet from the sidewalk line; two feet 

 from the- sidewalk line because this space 

 between the wall and the walk is valu- 

 able in which to plant vines and flowers. 

 With all the houses on a street making 

 such a provision as this for color, the 

 appearance of the whole neighborhood 

 would take on a gay garden air. 



At the top of the wall is a hedge 

 which shuts off the street and makes 

 the fifteen feet of lawn in front of the 

 house belong to the owner rather than 

 to the public. He was a wise owner in 

 more ways than this, for he realized 

 how ruinous to the architecture of a 

 small house is the front piazza, and 

 dispensed with it altogether. Instead 

 he substituted a terrace paved with 

 flags at the side of the house, over 

 which wild Grape vines grow on a 

 white painted arbor. From here one 



KOAt>- 



can see almost as much of what one's neigh- 

 bors are doing as it is possible to observe 

 from the front porch and without the dis- 

 advantage of being seen. A long walk 

 leads from this terrace back to the end of 

 the lot, where a small bird fountain ter- 

 minates the vista, if so dignified a term 

 may be applied to so short a distance. 



Behind this bird fountain and right in the 

 hedge, or where the hedge would be if it 

 continued through, are Cedars, to form a 

 background for the bird fountain. Their 

 dark green increases the apparent distance 

 and they form a pleasant break in the hedge. 

 An occasional tree or bush growing up out 

 of a hedge does no harm, and often breaks 

 its monotonous evenness in a charming way. 

 Especially is this true of the real estate 

 development, where lot after lot is sur- 

 rounded by endless privet hedges. Plant- 

 ing in the corners of the hedge or even, as I 

 said, in the hedge itself, serves to introduce 

 pleasant variation. 



Flowers for the garden are provided by 

 long beds which border the walk; and the 

 little square which is left over between dry- 

 ing yard and property line may be either a 

 grass court in which to sit and enjoy the 

 flowers, or a speck of a vegetable garden. 

 Here it is shown as the former, assuming 

 that the house owner prefers to patronize 

 the green grocer rather than depend on his 

 own labors for vegetables. Four little 

 trees mark the corners of this square of 

 lawn, and they might best be some flowering 

 tree, such as Hawthorn, Crabapple, or Dog- 

 wood. 



These are all native trees whose charms 

 are apt to be overlooked because of their 

 familiarity. We discard the shapely shrubs 

 which grow along our country lanes to 

 plant a Japanese Red Maple, or a Weep- 

 ing Mulberry or some other nurseryman's 

 introduction, and leave other coun- 

 tries to appreciate our plants. Cer- 

 tainly there is no more pleasing form 

 among trees than the jutting, hori- 

 zontal branches of theHawthorn with 

 their white flowers and red fruit, than 

 the graceful Dogwood, or the sturdy 

 little pink flowered Crabapple. 



