January, 1919 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



167 



or bushes. A typical yard of this sort is shown 

 in diagram No. 3 where the drive runs back to a 

 side entrance of the house and then on, to the 

 garage. It is always best to curve such a drive 

 slightly, if possible, so as to give room for plant- 

 ing which shall conceal the yawning doors of 

 the garage from the street. No drive on a small 



place is without its drawbacks and this one has 

 the very substantial one of compelling all cars 

 to proceed to the garage yard in order to turn 

 around and go out again. This may be less 

 objectionable to the minds of some people than 

 sacrificing the front lawn space or opening it to 

 the street by way of the frank simplicity of a 



"horse-shoe" shaped drive. One must weigh 

 the unpleasant qualities of each and decide which 

 adapts itself best to the necessities of the individ- 

 ual place, but there is no hidden trick which a 

 landscape architect, however adroit he may be, 

 can produce, to solve the drive puzzle on a small 

 place. 



Shrubs and Flowers for the Entrance Garden Stephen 



HAMBLIN 



Adaptable Material for the Entrance Plantings — Things That Do Not "Run Away," and Yet Are Good Growers 



STRANGE as it may seem, the larger 

 and finer the house and smaller and 

 consequently more valuable per foot the 

 land of a city home the more ordinary 

 and even unkempt the grounds about it. Every 

 city, large or small, has whole streets of fine 

 houses where even neatness, say nothing 

 of beauty and grace, ends with the work 

 of the architect and decorator. And 

 equally, every city has streets { where 

 every tiny yard shows careful attention 

 on the part of someone, and is an ex- 

 ample of the same expressive taste that 

 we expect within the house walls. 



This care for the appearance of the 

 exterior rooms of the house is particularly 

 evident with the homes builded within 

 the last quarter century, even factories 

 add flowers and grass to their outside; 

 but the wonder is that the idea of making 

 the surroundings of a city house beautiful 

 has not taken hold faster than it does. 

 And I am particularly astonished when I 

 see the city homes of people of means, 

 those whose summer homes in the coun- 

 try are praised by the press as models of 

 the garden art, that from the street appear 

 plain dingy, and lead me to wonder 

 whether it is the family or the superin- 

 tendent of their country estate that is a 

 lover of the beauty of trees and flowers. 



/^\N ONE of the exclusive residence 

 ^-^ streets of one of our large cities one 

 house has three Chinese Magnolias in the 

 narrow space between the house walls and 

 the street. When these bloom in the 

 spring thousands of passers-by exclaim at 

 the wonder. Yet I don't suppose that 

 other property holders on that street ever 

 think that their lot will grow one equally 

 as well, or a Dogwood, Red-bud, or 

 group of Iris; a round bed of Tulips 



followed by Geraniums is all that is expected of 

 the soil. 



We think that the garden art is for the suburbs 

 and the rural homes, or parks and public gardens 

 in the city, and forget that wherever grass will 

 grow we can have flowers that are as permanent 



A well ordered entrance merely means selection of plants that fit, yet many good 

 gardens fail in this detail 



a feature as trees. There is a great deal more to 

 city gardening than setting out plants; but for 

 the present the desire to have them is all that I 

 shall urge. The ways and means and reasons 

 therefore are left for personal solution. But 

 I know one objection to any gardening on a 

 city lot — there is no one to give it any 

 attention. The owner has no time and no 

 experience, the cook, butler, and chauffeur 

 neither experience nor interest to offer, and 

 the man who cuts the grass weekly all 

 along the street has no garden training. 

 And the fact remains that many plants do 

 require considerable attention for garden 

 results, and we want no wild effects about 

 a city house. Plain smooth lawn is far 

 better than a tangle of weeds and flowers. 

 So my present contribution to the prob- 

 lem is the idea, that if no one is availa- 

 ble to give a city front garden its necessary 

 attention, to have a few touches of color 

 against a background of house wall and 

 green lawn, that such shrubs or herbs be 

 introduced that care for themselves and 

 yet are always tidy. It is not so easy 

 to name these, but we can discover not 

 a few. We read that the Hardy Hydran- 

 gea (Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora) is 

 a "common" shrub, and it is very fre- 

 quent, and why? Because it has, in addi- 

 tion to other obvious characters, the 

 crowning civic virtue of taking care of 

 itself when set in any ordinary soil. And 

 what one plant does, others can do as well. 



'"pHERE will not be any trees planted on 

 *■ the city lot — not when the ground 

 floor of the house is more than one-half 

 the lot area; we get shade, shelter and 

 green of foliage from the trees the city 

 street offers. Our hedge had better be 

 a fence or railing of metal, stone, or 

 wood, as the material of the house 



On the left Forsythia as a spring feature of this driveway. Adaptable to much less pretentious places 



Only where there is ample space is it wise to plant a tree; but then do so by all means 



