April, 1913 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



169 



the picture of the lawn with its surrounding 

 trees and flowering shrubbery. 



The small flower garden which divides 

 the front lawn from the back is well placed 

 on the side of the piazza. Besides the 

 shrubbery bounding it on the front and 

 the woods at the back, a trellis for vines 

 on the side opposite the piazza hides it 

 from the neighbor's kitchen. The charm 

 of many a flower garden is due to its 

 bounding lines. 



The plants are placed very close together 

 to cover the entire space, because, sitting on 

 the piazza or standing by the railing, you 

 get a bird's eye view looking down into the 

 bloom. Larkspur, peonies, thermopsis, 

 coreopsis, phlox and yellow day lilies were 

 some of the suggestions for this garden. 



Being in so secluded a spot, shut in on 

 all sides, it does not need to be kept in 

 continuous bloom. 



It is not easy to handle a steeply sloping 

 piece of ground such as this one in back of 

 the house. Many people avoid such lots 

 because they do not know what to do with 

 them, they do not see any possibility to 

 make them attractive and let them grow 

 up rank with weeds and washed into deep 

 gullies, for it is impossible to make them 

 into lawns. 



One of the very best ways to treat such 

 a sloping piece of ground is to transform it 

 into a bit of woods. Such treatment is 

 in harmony here with the low informal 

 character of the house and the simplicity 

 of the front lawn. 



Even if the ground is devoid of trees; a 

 wood's effect can be created in a com- 

 paratively short period of time through the 

 planting of some extra sized trees and a 

 thick planting of shrubs and small trees. 



On this lot it was not the problem of 

 creating a wood, for the slope was part of a 

 century old forest, it was the problem of 

 preserving the character and spirit of the 

 woods through the planting of shade-loving 

 shrubs and woodsy flowers. 



The trees are tall tulips and oaks with 

 an undergrowth of birch, white dogwoods, 

 sumach, and ferns, and added to these are 

 hemlocks, azaleas and rhododendron. In 

 the original design the hemlocks were to have 

 been planted in an irregular band around 

 the boundaries. It would have added 

 a great deal to the planting in giving the 

 contrast between evergreen and deciduous 

 trees and by making an interesting back- 

 ground for the rhododendrons and azaleas. 



Rhododendrons for this kind of use ought 

 to be the hardiest kind, R. maximum, that 

 can be obtained by the carload direct from 

 the woods, instead of the more expensive 

 and often tender varieties of foreign im- 

 portation. The azaleas, too, ought to be 

 natives. Azalea nudiflora, Vaseyi, calen- 

 dulacea and viscosa will give a blooming 

 season from April to July. 



The plantation could be made pri- 

 marily of evergreens, adding junipers, white 

 pine, Japanese yews, laurels and androm- 

 edas, but it is better to make it pri- 

 marily of deciduous material. In winter, 



the red-twigged dogwoods {Cornus alba and 

 stolonifera) near the hemlocks would give 

 a splendid color contrast; in early spring, 

 the spice-bush and the Cornelian cherry 

 {Cornus mas) would brighten the woods 

 with yellow about the time the forsythia 

 blooms; elders and clethra will give sum- 

 mer bloom while the viburnums, dogwoods, 

 and mountain ash would give much autumn 

 color. 



The road is a frank straightforward 

 piece of engineering to get from the street 

 level to the barn at a grade possible for a 

 horse. The curve is a little steep for an 

 automobile but is quite possible except in 

 very slippery winter weather. The road's 

 very picturesqueness is due to its utility, 

 for the curve which is a necessity provides 

 a series of woodland pictures; the best of 

 them is seen from the dining room win- 

 dows and from the piazza. The open glade 

 where the road runs along the back of the 

 house provides a small laundry yard. 



The building of the road and the grading 

 of the slopes will make a lot of this kind 

 more expensive than ordinary lots, and the 

 repairs on the road and of the banks will 

 raise the cost of maintenance, but a thick 

 plantation of shrubs and trees and ground 

 covers on the slopes will with their simple 

 beauty be of utilitarian purpose in prevent- 

 ing the washing of the slopes. In buying 

 the plant material deal with a good reliable 

 nursery. Such planting may cost more in 

 the beginning but the yearly cost of main- 

 tenance will be comparatively small. It is 

 not the initial cost that counts. Your garden 

 ought to be planted with the amount to 

 spend each year for up-keep clearly in mind. 



The cost and maintenance of this place 

 and all the plant material mentioned here- 



tofore, trees, shrubs and flowers of good 

 stock and hardy variety will be little in 

 comparison to the yearly outlay so many 

 people have for shows of dwarf evergreens of 

 foreign importation that are not accli- 

 matized, and for the yearly renewal of 

 beds of tender plants that last long enough 

 to make a season's gaudy show at the very 

 time of year when colors should be of deli- 

 cate shades and the green foliage of decidu- 

 ous shrubs should be abundant to make the 

 summer heat seem less intense. 



In such a place as this one the lawn is so 

 small a space that it is easily cut and the 

 edges trimmed in half a day. The main 

 work comes in the spring and fall when the 

 shrubs need pruning. Pruning is a serious 

 art, by slow degrees from cautiously cut- 

 ting away dead and old wood, you become 

 initiated into its finer points and become 

 bolder with the knife. It is the art of pre- 

 serving the character of each individual 

 shrub. The quality that you will learn to 

 love on your place, that quality of seem- 

 ing always to have been there, comes to 

 a great extent in pruning shrubs so care- 

 fully that they seem to grow at their own 

 free will. 



Trees and shrubs, for the most part those 

 of deciduous material, should predominate 

 over flowers for they will give interest to 

 the garden in all seasons. In spring they 

 will cheer with delicate flowers ; in summer 

 they will rest with abundant green and 

 shade; in autumn and winter they will 

 enliven the garden with bright fruit and 

 colored twigs. This is one of the most 

 important points to keep in mind in the 

 planting of small places, for the suburban 

 garden is the setting for the house that is 

 in use all the year around. 



This charming picture was attained by planting undergrowth material among the existing trees 



