New 

 York 



Making a Garden in a City Yard — By H. B. Graves, 



A BUSINESS MAN'S RECREATION THAT IN EIGHT YEARS HAS MADE A "PICTURE GARDEN" 

 OUT OF UNPROMISING MATERIAL — THE PART PLAYED BY HAVING A DEFINITE PLAN 



WHEN buying our home nine years ago, we secured with it 

 two acres of land adjoining the rear of the house lot, 

 which was of the modest dimensions of 80x315 ft. The two 

 acres consisted of an oblong piece, one side 445 feet and the 

 other 488 feet in length, with a width of 185 feet. A grape 

 trellis and fruit trees at the 

 rear of the lot cut off the 

 view of this plot of ground 

 from the house. The larger 

 part of this two acres was cov- 

 ered with an orchard of fine 

 old apple trees. 



I enclosed an oblong strip 

 in the centre of nearly an acre 

 with wire fence for the family 

 cow, and fortunately nearly 

 all of the apple trees came 

 within this enclosure. The 

 land outside of this centre was 

 used for the garden and land- 

 scape planting. 



The first step was to put my 

 plan on paper, and to make out 

 lists of plants. After exhaust- 

 ing the favorites that were fa- 

 miliar to me, I began to study 

 parks and private grounds, 

 as well as garden literature, 

 nursery catalogues and works 

 on landscape gardening. The 

 list of desirables grew fast. 

 The more I studied the sub- 

 ject, and considered the im- 

 portance of placing each 

 tree or group to secure best 

 relationship to all, the more 

 I appreciated the necessity 

 of the services of a first- 

 class landscape architect in the final adjustment of the plan. I 

 turned my lists and plan over to a man of ability and wide experi- 

 ence, telling him the effects I wanted to secure, and stated 

 that he might add to or take from my planting list as his 



judgment dictated. The re- 



A flower-bordered grass walk makes a pretty outlook from the window in early spring 



story rooms on the front, did not give a view of the back lawn 

 from a living room. A new part was built and the library 

 enlarged. All of the planting on the east side of the lot is in- 

 cluded in the vista from a broad plate-glass window in this 

 room. The fruit trees were taken out of the centre of the 



back lawn, and the grape trel- 

 lises removed. 



The first, planting included 

 about one hundred varieties 

 of trees, about the same num- 

 ber of shrubs, and upward of 

 thirty kinds of climbing vines, 

 with a few perennial flowers. 

 Each year herbaceous plants,, 

 bulbs, and usually some choice 

 trees and shrubs have been 

 added. The largest planting 

 of bulbs, about four thousand, 

 was put in four years ago. 

 The path was put on paper 

 when the first planting plan 

 was made, and it was con- 

 structed of cinders two years 

 later. The first two years the 

 entire plot, outside of the pas- 

 ture lot, was kept under cul- 

 tivation. Perennials and bulbs 

 have been planted in colonies 

 along the fence enclosing the 

 pasture lot, and on the bor- 

 ders of shrubbery groups. The 

 old line fences were re- 

 moved and replaced with new 

 wire fence, which was built 

 63^ feet high just inside of 

 the line. This and the pas- 

 ture fence were planted with 

 climbers- — Crimson Ramblers, 

 Hall's honeysuckle, Japanese golden-leaved honeysuckle, Bel- 

 gian honeysuckle, Chinese wistaria, Clematis paniculata and 

 Virginiana and some thirty other things. 



The rear of the lot is planned for a wild garden, and here the 

 fences are covered with 

 wild grapes, bitter-sweet, 

 wistaria, and Virginia 

 creeper {A mpelopsis quin- 

 quefolia). While the trees, 

 shrubs and vines for this 

 section were largely included 



Old apple trees and newer ornamentals are combined to make garden pictures. The walk foUowing the boundary lines opens on a series of different effects 



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