The Garden Magazine, January, 1920 



205 



given up altogether to summer flowering plants and the sum- 

 mer vegetables, with many trees for shade during the hottest 

 part of the year. The winter place will need many ever- 

 greens and shrubs with showy berries. The place at the sea- 

 shore must have a certain amount of protection from the 

 sea winds at all seasons. Only the all-the-year-round home 

 needs the all-the-year-round garden. Which is yours? 

 Think first of this, then measure it by the standard of the 

 complete place — and then decide what it needs to have added 

 or taken away. 



M 



Is Your Garden Friendly? 



ANY gardens are attractive in themselves and yet do 

 not seem to invite to use and enjoyment. Is yours like 

 this? If it is, it is probable that it is not united with the 

 house in the proper way — and possibly it is too distant as 

 well. The very basis of garden design should be union with 

 the house. Study your garden plan now with a view to 

 finding out where it is weak in this respect. You will find 

 that many steps between the house or the porch down to the 

 garden will interrupt the continuity that must be felt if 

 intimate use of the garden is to be common. Similarly a 

 change after it leaves the house in the direction of the walk 

 that leads to the heart of the garden will sometimes be enough 

 to dissociate them. In fact their union may be said to be 

 very sensitive indeed, there are so many seemingly unimpor- 

 tant things that can destroy it. 



Lack of shade in the garden is another reason for its being 

 little resorted to; and lack of places to rest is of course a very 

 real reason for not spending much time therein. Examine 



its possibilities with a view to putting trees where they will 

 furnish shade without taking too much sun away from things 

 that need it, and search out the places where a bench may 

 stand or an arbor or rest house be built. And at remote 

 points it is well to make it a rest house that is shower 

 proof, so that a summer rain will not mean a rush for 

 indoors. 



Are your shrubs massing into a thicket of broad sweeping 

 lines, or does constant pruning keep them separated and in- 

 dividual? One of the most irritating faults of many other- 

 wise excellent gardeners is the insistence with which they 

 prune and shear and "shape up" everything they can get 

 their hands on. Remember that shrubbery masses once 

 planted are not to be pruned at all but allowed to grow as 

 they will, with interweaving branches and a survival-of-the- 

 fittest effect that duplicates nature's wild growth. This is 

 contrary altogether to the plantsman's instinct to give every- 

 thing an equal chance; hence he must be restrained from his 

 efforts to do this. Keep away from shrubbery with the prun- 

 ing shears — and make everyone else do the same. 



ON TH E cultural side now is the time to learn " by heart " 

 if you are wise, the points of nature's clock. They are 

 not many nor difficult to memorize. Yet they are an infalli- 

 ble guide to practically every gardening operation. Why 

 not make use of them? 



i . When Lilac buds open plant the hardy, early things. 



2. Plant corn (and all moderately tender things) when the 



leaves of White Oak are as large as a squirrel's foot. 



3. When the blackberry is in full bloom all danger of frost 



is past and all the rest may be safely planted. 



AN ENGLISH GARDEN OF FINISHED ELEGANCE 

 The dense background of trees and shrubs around the rockery border enframes a lawn for play and recreation. The greenhouses with kitchen 



garden beyond are made part of the picture effect 



B^B^S 



