How a Garden Grew From a Path — By H. s. Adams, 



New 

 York 



ON A large country place the field 

 devoted to economic crops over- 

 stepped, at one point, the line that 

 defined the beginning of the 

 beautifully laid out grounds. This jog of 

 land was for the growing of onions. Now 

 there is real beauty in a good stand of on- 

 ions, either in bloom or gone to seed; but 

 the breezes that blew over the little field 

 brought to the house the characteristic 

 onion odor. So onions went, and potatoes 

 came. Again a certain undeniable beauty 

 in the flowering season. 



Across this jog of land the workmen got 

 in the habit of going as a short cut. In so 

 doing they wore a path but, building better 

 than they knew, the path meandered. 



From that path developed the personal 

 garden — : many other flowers are grown 

 on the place — of Miss Julia Robbins, 

 in Wethersfield, Conn. A path not 

 straight, a jog of land of generous size, 

 not only partially screened from the main 

 grounds but within view of the dining-room 

 windows, seemed to her an inspiration. 



Thus, a dozen years ago, began a garden 

 that is personal, that is beautiful and that 

 is sufficiently secluded to be called a thing 

 apart. It is personal to the extent of all 

 the planning and ordering and some of the 

 actual planting; the size of the plot neces- 

 sitating the relegation of the heavier work 

 to the family gardener. These three 

 things make up the charm of Miss Rob- 

 bins's garden — which, very properly, is 

 designed as a home retreat. The passer- 



by can barely glimpse it through the 

 interstices of a thin and irregular line of 

 trees and shrubs that forms the back- 

 ground of a broad expanse of lawn. 



Like all worth-while gardens, this one 

 grew gradually. At first the plot, mostly 

 on the west side of the path, seemed a good 

 place in which to "put things" — flowers 

 that the planner of the garden liked her- 

 self. German iris bounded the original 

 garden and a special feature was a large 

 bed of heliotrope. The iris, in variety 



Looking east along the hemlock hedge and her- 

 baceous border. White cosmos against hemlock; 

 canna. dahlia, cockscomb, zinnia, agertum as fillers 



This herbaceous border is separated from the 

 garden by the shrubbery at the extreme left. 

 Grape vines at the back and anthemis, Shasta 

 daisy, nasturtium, verbena, China pink, " angel's 

 breath," canna. golden glow, zinnia and French 

 marigold in bloom 



and well placed, remains a dominant at- 

 traction in its season. 



As a windbreak, privet was used to de- 

 note the north and west boundaries. But 

 it died down and in its stead a hemlock 

 hedge was set out eight or nine years ago 

 and this to-day is a beautiful garden 

 boundary on two sides. Looking south- 

 ward, toward the house, there is a scatter- 

 ing of hemlock, spruce, birch, hickory, 

 apple and pear trees — but open enough 

 to afford a view of the garden and, in 

 the distance, the tall spire of the ancient 

 village church. The eastern screen is the 

 thin line of planting already mentioned; 



Since then the garden has had its present 

 form. A grass plot, studded irregularly 

 with beds and borders, takes up the main 

 part of it. This plot follows the serpentine 

 path on the east, and on the north and west 

 is bounded by a straight walk between 

 which and the hemlock hedge is a wide 

 herbaceous border. The hedge, however, 

 stops about half down on the western side, 

 and at its end the walk curves inward so 

 as to get away from set lines and at the 

 same time form an immense rose border. 



The herbaceous planting is largely for 

 spring and autumn color. There is con- 

 siderable variety, with always white cosmos 

 to stand out against the dark green of the 

 hedge. In a portion of the beds various 

 annuals and bedding plants — every year 

 showing a change — are employed for 

 146 



special summer effect, each kind, as a rule, 

 being given a place to itself. Others have, 

 besides iris, some of the perennial grasses 

 and yucca. 



From the entrance corner of this garden, 

 but quite concealed from it by a screen of 

 shrubbery, runs a herbaceous border east 

 and west for perhaps three hundred feet. 

 This takes up the space between an old 

 plank walk, leading through to the other 

 side of the block, and a line of grape trel- 

 lises. It started off with painful magenta 

 tendencies; now it is a very successful bor- 

 der of perennials, with a generous filling 

 in of annuals. 



This walk is interesting as a solution of 

 the problem of a "cut-off" when the home 

 tract stretches clear through a very wide 

 block in the country, with a family house 

 on either street. It not only makes a long 

 walk seem short but, with the help of 

 grape vines, screens very pleasantly land 

 that is for use rather than ornament. Fur- 

 thermore, it affords an extension of the 

 hardy garden. 



Here the heavy plank walk has a flower 

 border on only one side because the ad- 

 jacent grass — in one section of which 

 daffodils are naturalized — is allowed to 

 grow to hay length. There is an endless 

 variety of bloom, special accenting notes 

 being the Japanese iris, Shasta daisy, 

 larkspur, golden glow, canna, Canterbury 

 bell, "angel's breath," and snapdragon, as 

 well as the dahlia, nasturtium, marigold 

 and zinnia. 



Birch, hemlock, hickory, spruce, beech, apple and 

 pear trees form a thin screen toward the street 

 and the house 



