Selecting Garden Furniture that Fits 



(See illustrations on the two preceding pages) 



RUTH DEAN 



Landscape Architect 



SPEAKING from an architectural 

 standpoint, the kind of garden one 

 builds should be influenced chiefly 

 for the sort of house for which it is 

 made, and, similarly, the type of furniture and 

 accessories one puts into a garden should be 

 carefully chosen to conform to the particular 

 style of the garden they are to decorate, 

 Sundials, benches, archways and gates are 

 too apt to be unrelated objects, bought with- 

 out any special reference to each other, and 

 with very little thought as to whether they 

 carry out the main idea of house and garden. 

 The house is the starting point from which the 

 architecture of the garden should take its 

 keynote; and the furniture of the garden, in 

 turn, should be in keeping with the style of 

 both, in order to develop a pleasing whole. 



The picture of the centre garden, shows 

 just such a well knit house and garden; the 

 white painted arbor, the rough stone wall, 

 the hollyhocks and phlox, all bespeak the white 

 clapboard house which shows through the 

 branches of the big maple. The conventional 

 stone bench in Dr. Woodward's garden, is 

 well used in connection with the carefully 

 finished masonry wall, and the white trellis 

 and bench against the brick wall of the St. 

 Martins garden, carry out the brick and white 

 scheme of the house very pleasingly. 



Incidentally the promiscuous use of white 

 painted furniture is not to be recommended. 

 Most of the stock furniture available, comes 



in white or green, and the purchaser takes it 

 "as is," without realizing that the manufac- 

 turer is able and willing to furnish it in any 

 other color of paint or stain, or totally un- 

 painted if desired. Green paint is apt to be 

 out of harmony with Nature's greens, and 

 white paint is as often staring and unrelated 

 to the architecture of the garden. The nat- 

 ural wood finish of oak, allowed to take on 

 the mellow, silvery tones of age, is probably 

 the most widely adaptable finish, for it is 

 native enough in appearance to be at home in 

 any garden of not too formal a character. 



One of the most important points for con- 

 sideration in choosing wood garden furniture, 

 is its enduring quality, a subject on which Mr. 

 Herbert Mathews has very interesting things 

 to say about cypress: "Weather resisting 

 wood is the great essential in the manufacture 

 of wooden garden furniture, and architectural 

 wood working of all kinds for the garden. In 

 England old ships are purchased and the wood 

 utilized for outdoor architecture. We in this 

 country are fortunate to have cypress which 

 grows in swamps covered much of the time 

 with water. It is customary to dig canals 

 in which to tow the logs to the mills, or to 

 construct railroads through the swamps, 

 as the trees grow 75 to 140 feet in height and 

 three to six feet in diameter. Few cypress 

 trees are large enough for lumber at an age of 

 less than two centuries, and many do not 

 reach sufficient size until they are much older. 



The wood is straight, easy to work, and 

 very desirable in contact with the soil. What 

 we are mostly interested in is the Bald Cy- 

 press (Taxodium distichum) which is generally 

 termed in advertisements the "wood eternal.' 



The hues of naturally aged wood may be 

 simulated by means of gray or gray-brown 

 stain if one is impatient for effect, but the 

 real texture is impossible to gain except by 

 seasons of wind and rain and heat and cold. 



Stone or cement is more formal in character 

 than wood and introduces a somewhat more 

 pretentious note into the garden. This fact 

 should be considered in connection with the 

 degree of formality of one's house and the 

 corresponding effect desired in the garden. 



The generally prevailing notion that figures, 

 of any sort mean an ambitious or pretentious 

 treatment of the garden, is not necessarily 

 true, for the effect is largely dependent upon 

 the type of figure chosen. The two little 

 lead figures illustrated, for instance, are 

 delightfully informal in character and wood- 

 land in spirit, and would be at home in the 

 least architectural of gardens. More classic 

 figures such as busts of philosophers or sculp- 

 tured Dianas recall the Italian style which is 

 stifFer in character. 



The main idea to be kept in mind in making 

 a choice of any garden furniture, is the note 

 it will contribute to an architectural scheme 

 which should embrace house and garden and 

 be fairly consistent throughout. 



Transplanting Out of Season 



C. L. MELLER 



North Dakota 



DON'T LET OVERCAUTION PREVENT YOUR MAKING NECESSARY IMPROVEMENTS— REALLY CAREFUL HAND- 

 LING THE SECRET OF SUCCESS AT ANY SEASON 



WHAT to do when one does not know 

 what to do" is an enigma without 

 which a gardener's experience is 

 lacking in completeness. The need, 

 sometimes the desire, to transplant out of 

 season sooner or later confronts every gar- 

 dener and the answer is seldom to be found in 

 one's trouser pockets no matter how deep one 

 may thrust one's hands into them. 



My advice is do it any way, ignoring the ordi- 

 nary dread of transplanting out of season, for it 

 is largely a matter of attitude. A friend writes 

 me from Minnesota that he has transplanted 

 Iris with very good success ten months in the 

 year. He is an Iris enthusiast and your en- 

 thusiast is always rationally willing to take a 

 chance. I have repeatedly transplanted Iris 

 in bud and flower and though, as might be ex- 

 pected, the bloom was slightly impaired, the 

 plants did not suffer. 



The man who is ready to transplant Iris ten 

 months in the year insists upon it that in our 

 latitude shrubs should be planted only in 

 spring. His insistence does not make it a 

 fact, however, it merely shows his attitude 

 in the matter. If he knew Lilacs as he knows 

 Iris, he would know that a Lilac can be moved 

 whenever and wherever an Iris can be trans- 

 planted. And the method is no more difficult 

 except that from the nature of the case there 

 is a very much larger bulk to be handled. A 

 giant could transplant a large Lilac bush as 

 easily as an ordinary man can move an Iris. 

 So imagine yourself a giant, take your time, 

 be careful, and the trick is done! 



Move as much soil as possible, with the 



Showing the proportionate amount of soil to be taken with 

 a shrub transplanted "out of season" 



roots, but do not despair of success if a con- 

 siderable quantity does shake loose. The 



32? 



secret of success as far as I have been able to 

 determine, seems to lie in having as many 

 particles as possible clinging to the root-hairs 

 and to get these into their new home undis- 

 turbed. It is a poor plan to puddle the roots 

 and it is better to have the soil while trans- 

 planting a little too dry rather than too wet. 

 Once in its new location, an abundance of 

 water must be given to each plant. Root 

 pruning is a great aid to success in transplant- 

 ing out of season. Now all this is easily, 

 almost subconsciously done in moving so 

 small and compact a plant as an Iris though a 

 much more difficult matter in moving so large 

 a plant as a Lilac or other shrub. 



Moving perennials out of season is much in 

 the nature of repotting. In the greenhouse, 

 the gardener does it all the time, but out-doors 

 we are just a little unused to the situation. 

 After re-potting, the gardener watches his 

 nlants carefully, giving them plenty of water 

 aiiu " little shade if need be. Now out-doors 

 transplanting is really about the same in pe- 

 rennials where a good lump of soil can be 

 lifted with the roots. That part of the work 

 surely is no more difficult, though it differs 

 a little in the very nature of the case for the 

 water is not confined in a pot and evaporation 

 is far greater. This necessitates greater 

 watchfulness — nothing else. It is no trick to 

 move perennials even in bud and flower. 



First of all the new bed must be well pre- 

 pared, with a deep friable soil free from lumps, 

 then by carefully cutting around the roots 

 with a sharp spade a lump of soil can be 

 moved with the plant as to make it virtually 



