Combining Beauty and Comfort With Stern Utility 



STEPHEN F. HAM BLIN, Author of "Book of Garden Plans" ' 



HOW ONE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT SOLVED THE PROBLEM IN HIS OWN HOME PLOT- 

 CITY LOTS 



-ADAPTING THE SCHEME TO 



[Editor's Note. — So great is the zeal of many of us to cause the soil to produce food for man that shady lawns and gravelly fields that bore 

 only indifferent grass are being urged to bring forth potatoes, beans, lettuce and kindred truck; yet little more than the original seed may in some cases 

 be harvested. Owners of plots of good garden soil have then a double duty. While fine lawns and flower beds may now bear humbler but more 

 sustaining crops we make extreme utility our aim — and it is well. Though the present extreme demand for food may lessen in a few years, we may 

 be sure that there will still be for some time to come a use for all the vegetables and fruits that a man can produce on his. land, however small its 

 area. The proportion of our purely ornamental plantings will be slow to increase; the ideal is a harmonious combination of the two kinds of develop- 

 ment, which after all is only getting back to first principles in garden making.} 



CAN we not, while we make use of 

 the soil about our house for every 

 food crop that we can grow, still 

 retain in large measure the beauty 

 with which we wish it surrounded? Cannot 

 beans, pears, rhubarb and plums, while they 

 occupy the ground formerly given wholly to 

 ornamental herbs, shrubs and trees, still give 

 us really the same effects? Though supremely 

 useful, may not our plantations be also 

 beautiful? I think so; and with this idea in 

 mind the present lot planting has actually 

 been worked out. Perhaps it may help other 

 garden builders who have much the same 

 problem. 



As will be seen from the plan, the lot is 

 larger (75 x 220 ft.) than one usually finds in 

 the suburbs, but even with the small 50 x 100 

 ft. lot the same general scheme may be 

 carried out. The soil is very fertile, it will 

 yield heavily with intensive cultivation, for 

 it is in the market-garden region about 

 Boston, Mass. 



There are no trees on the lot, and none for 

 shade will be planted, as those on the street 

 and on the next lot to the east give the lawn 

 sufficient shade, while the land south of the 

 house is to be wholly open to the sun for the 

 sake of the crops. A high Spruce hedge on 

 the east lot line shades a part of the garden 

 from the morning sun, so here a wire trellis 

 bears a crop of grapes for the table and 

 preserving. For this region a good succession 

 is afforded by Moore's Diamond, Concord 

 and Delaware, with the native Fox grape 

 (Vitis labrusca) for canning. 



The rear of the lot is bounded by the high 

 wire fence of the Athletic Field. As excellent 

 views are to be had from the house in this 

 direction only a low (6 ft.) screen is desirable. 

 For fruit as well as flowers and screen of 

 foilage I vote for the Japanese Goumi (Elaeag- 

 nus multiflora, alias edulis and longipes). 

 The fruit is like small red plums with the 

 acidity of red currants, but different from 

 either. For eating 

 out of the hand and 

 preserving it is excel- 

 lent, and there are 

 no bugs or diseases 

 to spray. It is orna- 

 mental in leaf, flower, 

 and fruit. 



/ T"*HE lot on the 

 -*■ west has not been 

 developed, but as the 

 boys make it a way 

 to the Athletic Field 

 it will be well to pro- 

 tect the garden. The 

 cheapest garden fence 

 is 6-ft. woven wire 

 covered with Hall's 

 Honeysuckle. This 

 may be clipped after 

 the blooming season, 



and a very neat hedge results. For variety 

 a few plants of the new Lonicera Henri may 

 be added. While its purplish flowers are 

 not as attractive as the white of Hall's, 

 the foliage is practically evergreen; the habit 

 of growth is identical. 



A S THE house is set rather near the 

 ■**- street the lawn area is small, but back 

 of the house enough is saved for the children 

 to play croquet, and a summer house will 

 give shade (and fruit) from the grape vines, 

 while Rambler Roses add flowers. Instead of 

 grapes I want to grow Actinidia arguta for 

 its fruit, if I can get cuttings from a fruiting 

 plant, for not all vines are fruit-bearing. The 

 fruit is green, like a stoneless plum, and the 

 taste for it must be acquired as for olives. 

 When cooked it gives a new preserve. 



A COMPOST pile (screened by the vines) 

 saves greatly in the item of fertilizer. 

 Into this go all the lawn clippings, leaves 

 raked from the lawn, all vegetable refuse from 

 the kitchen and garden, and when mixed with 

 soil it gets ready for the next season's plant- 

 ing. On the south foundation wall of the 

 house there is a coldframe of six sash, and a 

 shady section for winter storage. By using 

 double-glass and heat from the basement 

 through windows in the cellar wall, lettuce 

 and such green salads can be grown all 

 winter with little care, and seeds started for 

 early garden planting — no fuss with manure 

 or heating pipes. 



*TpHE greater part of the lot is vegetable 

 ■*■ garden. It is arranged first of all to 

 make plowing of the central panel easy, with 

 little area to be dug over annually with the 

 spade. The walk is permanent, of turf, 

 cinders, or gravel (clean cinders are dry and 

 weedless), and should be used to avoid 

 walking on the plowed soil. The strip between 

 the walk and the fences should not be plowed 



•)*:;_ CURRANTS J 



CURRANTS 

 TOMATOE-S 



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(there is not room to turn the horses) so it is 

 rilled with permanent plants as a boundary 

 planting, but instead of flowering shrubs and 

 herbs we have asparagus, blackberries, rasp- 

 berries, currants, and gooseberries. 



This lot is large enough for a few fruit 

 trees, and fruits are fully as valuable a home 

 product as vegetables. The trees also give 

 height, shade, interest and accent to the 

 garden, just as purely ornamental trees will 

 do; flowers in spring; and most useful fruit in 

 summer and fall. The choice of varieties is 

 a personal affair, and modified for each 

 section of our country. For this region near 

 Boston and for home use I have planted one 

 Bartlett pear, one Transcendent crab, one 

 Crawford's Early peach, and one Orange 

 Quince — these four more for the preserves 

 than the fresh fruit — and three Japanese 

 plums (Red June, Abundance and Satsuma 

 for succession) to be eaten from the tree; for 

 I don't care for cooked plums. One of the 

 plums may be a Sweet cherry, but the tree 

 will get too big, and I can get more fruit in 

 proportion from a plum. For fresh fruit the 

 year round I depend upon four apple trees, 

 placed 40 feet apart, these other trees being 

 used as fillers. The apple trees may shade too 

 much of the garden some day, but perhaps 

 onions and potatoes will be cheaper by then. 

 I want apples every month, so I got four young 

 Baldwins (very hardy and thrifty in New 

 England and a standard winter sort) and 

 grafted upon each a branch of an early, a 

 mid-season and a late variety, getting the 

 scions from orchards in the town. One tree 

 is thus equally Williams Favorite, Graven- 

 stein, Roxbury Russet and Baldwin; the 

 second, Yellow Transparent, Mcintosh Red, 

 Yellow Bellflower and Baldwin; the third, 

 Golden Sweet, Porter, Tolman's Sweet and 

 Baldwin; and the fourth, Red Astrachan, 

 Snow, Wealthy, and Baldwin. Thus I shall 

 be absolutely certain to have plenty of apples 

 each year, though each variety bear heavily 

 but every third year, 

 and no season shall I 

 get such loads of fruit 

 that a large part is 

 wasted. 



I I 



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BLACK RASPBE.RRIEJ 

 j v *> 



SCALE. IN FE.E.T 



Adapting the small lot to a "utility plus beauty' 



^~DWAT*F APPLES. 



basis of planting. Plenty of flowers for ornament as well as things good 

 in abundance to eat 



23 



A ROUND the walk 

 **■ on its inner side, 

 as it is not easy to 

 plow close to the fruit 

 trees, there are strips 

 of perennial salad and 

 sweet herb s — rhu- 

 barb, curly dock, 

 horseradish, dande- 

 lion, lovage, sage, 

 thyme, etc. — and the 

 more temporary bush 

 fruits, as blackcap 

 raspberries and wine- 

 berries. 



The true vegeta- 



