14 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



January, 19 lo 



American Homes and Gardens Garden Competition 



The Second Garden Prize of Fifty Dollars 



Won by Charles D. Davies, 

 Englewood, New Jersey 



N THE making of a garden, which is it more suggestive of a nursery than a garden. Thanks to 



situated in Englewood, N. J., on a lot the price lists, I was saved this objectionable feature. 



50x150 feet, the desire was to have a self- I thought I would like to enclose my garden on both 



made home spot with enough originality sides and on the rear with a privet hedge. At six Inches 



about it to warrant me conscientiously apart I needed 700 plants. The growers quoted these at 



calling it "my garden." When I took the five dollars a hundred. This staggered me, so I bought 



place it was nothing but a sand heap, and 100 privet at auction for three cents each, and from cut- 



my knowledge of gardening was equally barren. tings raised the balance. In about five years I had 350 



The first thing I did was to read everything on the sub- feet of hedge three feet high and solid to the ground. To 



ject that came within my reach. I also got busy, and be- gain the largest appearance of expanse to the lawn which 



came "the man with the hoe," the rake and the spade, surrounds the cottage, I avoided cutting it up with flower 



Time went on and I was delighted to see order coming out beds or shrubs except on the borders. I avoided also the 



of disorder. Things grew, even the weeds, while I slept, planting of large trees or shrubs which would be out of 



which was precious little, for I had "gardenitis" of the proportion to the size of the place. As may be seen from 



most pronounced type. I soon awoke to the fact that the the plan, I avoided straight lines; nature never works that 



price of a well-kept, weedless garden Is eternal N'igilance. way, and I tried to conform to her teaching. The unsightly 



I also became aware that a garden in Its development clothes posts so glaringly obtrusive In small gardens, were 



is not of mushroom growth. It takes more than a day or removed and other means to their end adopted. 



a year for it to take on form and beauty. My motto was 

 "work and be patient." One miniite a day spent in a gar- 

 den for twenty years amounts, with compound interest, to 

 nearly a month's work. That beautiful elm cost only one- 



The stone foundation of my cottage stands about four 

 feet above the ground. This I covered with ampelopsis 

 veltchi, which is not allowed to run on the woodwork of 

 the house. This forms a pleasing background for a bed 



half minute a half-century since. One's garden is a savings of shrubs and flowers and gives the cottage the appear- 

 ance of having been set down In their midst. This bed, 

 which runs from the entrance to the rear of the cottage, 

 contains the following hardy shrubs and plants, which give 



great satisfaction In 

 constant change of 

 color, Improve with 

 age, and require 

 th^ least amount of 

 care: Japan maples, 

 azalea mollis, lUi- 

 um aurantum and 

 r ubrum, hybrid 

 roses, larkspur, 

 blue and white 

 platycodons, deutzia 

 and hardy chrysan- 

 themums. Interme- 

 diate spaces are 

 filled in the spring 

 with asters (raised 

 from seed In cold 

 frame), geraniums, 

 and gladiolus. On 

 paper It may look to 

 some as If this kind 

 of planting was a 

 jumble or a riot. 



bank for the Investment of minute fragments of time, and 

 at every moment for months together, my garden was ask- 

 ing something at my hand and it saved what I gave it, and 

 at the same time 

 gave me pleasure 

 and health. 



Of course, I re- 

 alized that nothing 

 pretentious could 

 be accomplished on 

 so small a plot, 

 and that I must of 

 necessity go slow, 

 on account of the 

 limited dimensions 

 of my purse. Con- 

 sidering the num- 

 erous shrubs and 

 plants to choose 

 from, and the many 

 which the cata- 

 logues assured me 

 "no garden should 

 be without," I was 

 in danger of over- 

 crowding the place, 

 which would make 



A garden in New Jersey 



