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DECEMBER, 1908 
repens, and over the low retaining walls 
close by, two species of mesembryanthemum 
—the small-leaved variety bearing pink 
blossoms that hide the plants under an 
almost solid sheet of color in spring, and 
the coarser-leaved, large-flowered cerise 
species which blooms most profusely in 
summer. 
The mesembryanthemums, which seem 
indifferent to water are particularly adapted 
to the long, dry season of this land. 
Along the fence at the lower end of the 
garden were planted slips of Japanese honey- 
suckle, contributed by a neighbor. In 
eight or nine months they were making a 
perceptible screen over the fence. 
A feature of our garden which has given 
special pleasure is a cactus bed, 8x15 ft. 
We selected for this the highest part of our 
lot, in full sunshine, removed the surface 
earth to the depth of six inches, filled the 
excavation about half full of coarse gravel, 
shoveled the original soil on top of this, 
rising toward the middle of the bed, and 
then spread sand over all to the depth of 
two or three inches. Some large stones 
and pieces of broken rock were scattered 
around for picturesque effect, and the 
whole formed a miniature sandy knoll like 
a bit of desert. 
We purchased from a dealer a dozen small 
plants in 2- and 3-inch pots, costing on an 
average about twenty-five cents apiece—two 
mammillaria, two echinocactus, two cereus 
and half a dozen opuntia — and to these 
we have added from time to time slips from 
friends’ gardens and specimens collected 
“in the wild.” If you are going to like 
cactuses at all, you are going to like them 
hard, and you will find it fascinating in the 
extreme to watch the growth of these strange 
creations of nature, while the opening of 
the first blossom on your nursling plants 
will make a red letter day in your garden 
life. 
At the rear of the house facing the garden 
is a large porch. There is no roof, but a 
framework of beams overhead, as in a 
pergola, makes a support for vines. A 
Lamarck rose was planted at one front post 
aude ay Reve d/Or sat the other. hey 
were sticks a couple of feet high when set 
out in March, but a season’s growth sent 
them both over the top beams bursting into 
a mass of bloom the following April. This 
rose-embowered porch makes a pleasant 
vantage ground from which to enjoy the 
garden. 
For a home-like, every-day sort of flower 
garden such as we have designed ours to be, 
with “something doing” all the year round, 
fragrant, pleasant to the eye, restful to the 
spirit, with shady spots and sunny —a 
garden suitable for people who cannot afford 
a gardener and who have themselves only 
a limited time to devote to its care — we 
have found the following list entirely satis- 
factory for this part of Southern California. 
The flowers named are all of the simplest 
culture, and comparatively free from disease 
and insect pests. The first list includes 
the dry autumn months, until the rains 
set in, usually in November: 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
227 
Eight months after the garden was started, showing the first terrace with its arroyo-stone wall 
FOR SUMMER BLOOM 
Alyssum (sweet) Mignonette 
Canna Nasturtium 
Calendula Pansy 
Coreopsis Petunia 
Daisy (Shasta) Penstemon 
Gaillardia Phlox 
Geranium Pink (Japanese) 
Heliotrope Portulacca 
Lobelia (blue) Poppy (California) 
Marigold (French) Salpiglossis 
Mesembryanthemum, cerise Verbena 
Zinnia 
FOR WINTER BLOOM 
Alyssum (sweet) Marguerite 
Calla (white) Mignonette 
Carnation Nasturtium 
* Calendula Pansy 
Daisy (English) Pink (Japanese) 
Geranium Stock (Cut-and-come-again) 
Heliotrope Verbena 
Violets 
Hollyhock and snapdragon might be 
added to these for both winter and summer, 
as they grow easily and bloom abundantly, 
but unfortunately they are exceedingly 
prone to certain rust and fungous troubles 
that make unsightly foliage. 
I make little mention of spring months, 
for almost anything that will bloom any- 
where will bloom in Southern California 
then, when the ground is one vast reservoir 
of moisture. If one has the time to prepare 
the beds and start the seedlings in the proper 
way, and is content with a short season 
of flowering, he can have in Southern Cali- 
fornia from March until the end of June a 
succession of all the old-fashioned favorites 
of the Eastern garden, with a magnificence 
of bloom unattainable there. We have 
never seen anywhere such wonderful beauty 
of foxgloves, Canterbury Bells, larkspurs, 
columbines, sweet William, poppies (Shirley 
and Japanese), irises, etc., as in the spring 
gardens of this vicinity. 
Of course, much depends on how the 
plants are watered, and on page 238 I have 
told our methods for doing this work. 
A Reve d’Or rose, two feet high, set out in March grew eight feet in a year’s time 
