442 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



December, 19 13 



Soooo^ooooS^^SooooSoooo^df 



Around the Garden 



A MONTHLY KALENDER OF TIMELY GARDEN OPERA- 

 TIONS AND USEFUL HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS 

 ABOUT THE HOME GARDEN AND 

 GROUNDS 



All queries will gladly be answered by the Editor. If a personal 

 reply is desired by subscribers stamps should be enclosed therewith 



r^cocccSxxoo^ Fq^ X^OCOCX&OOOO^X J^ 



DECEMBER AND GARDENS 



By Gardner Teall 



APPY is he whose garden passeth from Sum- 

 mer's glories through Autumn's gorgeous- 

 ness into Winter's immobile whiteness with 

 that grace that will lead one to have faith 

 in its Niobe-like awakening when Spring 

 shall breathe again upon the face of the 

 frozen earth. There is nothing more dismal and bleak 

 than the prospect afforded the eye by the sight of an un- 

 kempt garden, snow covered and dreary. Why is it our 

 garden-makers dream only of Summer's green and jewel- 

 colored season and take little heed of the white days when 

 Jack Frost shall be about? Surely, a clump of Evergreens 

 just there, a hedge here or a cluster of Rhododendron 

 shrubs would turn the whole deserted garden spot into an 

 area pleasant to look upon. I know one garden-maker 

 who has had the good sense to leave standing a row of 

 Sunflower stalks, each one crowned with the seed-pod. As 

 you may well guess, the birds have shown their apprecia- 

 tion and day after day they flock hither and chirp appre- 

 ciatingly away. It is sorrowful enough to be missing the 

 flowers, without mourning for the flown birds. Every 

 garden ought to have its little bird shelter. I have often 

 thought it strange that sun-dials were left so bleak through 

 wintertime. A wreathing of Bittersweet or a massing of 

 Rosa rugosa would insure gaily colored berries for Winter 

 decoration. The red of the Rose hip clinging to the brown 

 stems of the bushes is one of the compensations Nature 

 awards when she seems to have taken so much from our 

 gardens. The old 

 stone wall will be 

 looking sear and 

 grey, but it will re- 

 mind you to plan for 

 planting its crevices 

 with all sorts of flow- 

 ering things for next 

 Summer's adorning. 

 Then when another 

 Winter will have 

 come to your door, 

 you will find the wall 

 covered with an in- 

 teresting network of 

 vines and stems, like 

 a weaving of silken 

 threads of brown. I 

 wonder if the time 

 will ever come when 

 every man whose 

 home boasts a few 



Plan now to plant old stone walls with all sorts of flowering things next season 



acres will have its little vineyard? December must not pass 

 without pruning the grapevines. It is so much better to do 

 this now than to wait for March, when the winds of this 

 season will more certainly subject the newly pruned vines 

 to damage. As there will be plenty of leisure for the gar- 

 den-maker in December, he should utilize some of it by 

 carefully inspecting all of his trees to see which have dead 

 limbs that need sawing off at this time. The perennials 

 which stick up from their border beds should be trimmed 

 off, and they should be protected by a mulch, for nothing 

 is more trying to plants than the process of thawing and 

 freezing and freezing and thawing again throughout the 

 varying temperatures of Winter's changeable weather. 

 However, perennials should not be covered with any dress- 

 ing as heavy as that of manureal mulches. Vines, too, will 

 need looking over. It is almost pitiful to see how these 

 are often neglected, being dragged to earth by ice and 

 snow, when a little care and forethought would have made 

 it possible to give them just the support they needed in 

 the way of tacked-up fastenings of cloth or of leather 

 strips, or a stake support. If you are experimenting with 

 plants in cold frames, remember that you should cover 

 these frames at night with straw mats and shutters. If you 

 neglect this, you will probably regret it, however mild the 

 months may appear to you to be. You may, perhaps, need 

 to turn from the defensive to the offensive and sally forth, 

 hatchet in hand, to chop down any Wild Cherry trees in 

 your neighborhood if your garden has been troubled this 

 season just passed with tent caterpillars, the pest to which the 

 Wild Cherry so generously, though involuntarily, offers its 

 "hospitality." Indoors, December will find us busying our- 

 selves with planning 

 the Yule-tide decora- 

 tions. It is then we 

 will wish our gardens 

 could yield us some 

 of the things that go 

 towards brightening 

 the setting of the 

 holiday season. The 

 red lips of the Rose 

 bushes and the Ever- 

 greens we need will 

 remind us to make 

 another season more 

 provident for our 

 Christmas time inten- 

 tions. Why not spare 

 holiday greens from 

 our outdoor stock 

 for trimming the sun- 

 dial, the fountain or 

 the garden seat? 



