May, 1909 AMERICAN HOME 
barn, and on the slope be- 
low it, as well as above 
GROVE OF : 
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STAND GARDENS 195 
there is a big and rather 
tumble down stone fence, 
OF ALG, 3 
it, is the place for your @. ge one SARA ESS covered with bittersweet 
garden. At this Nature : ep 088 ad ae and mosses; and the whole 
gives your arm a tight Se SES afc affair looks down over a 
pinch, and wishes to know 9 \ ae broad valley, and to the 
: 3 ga “3 4 3 
if you can see these things. Se C) mo Axe age right it peeks through 
Nature has only one text, Se hk S058 Se she % sce rae mountains into a blue dis- 
and that is: ‘He that ee Asem G oondE cee e rata ee joc tance. To the left you 
hath eyes to see let him NI Page BOSS ia ee see a village, and far 
see.’ Other people she @ isreocees= COMPOSTS Bowe beyond that just the edge 
turns over to their non- easeccnessl We Gasol wane t Saiaie: of a city. You will have 
sense, and lets them build 
imitations of city houses 
out on the hillsides. 
There are lots of these affairs strung along the streets and 
stuck up for show. This is why Nature stops talking, and 
looks at you. She wants to know if you have imagination 
enough to see what you ought to create. There are some 
old apple trees in sight, and a grove of lindens. Those apple 
trees, says Nature, are old relics of the earliest white people 
when this country was full of Indians. If you trim them 
rightly they are good for a hundred years yet, so do not 
plan to cut them down. In that linden grove is the place for 
your beehives, and the bees will not only feed themselves 
from the flowers, but feed you. In this way, and in some 
others, Nature works at you to see if she can open your eyes 
to what she has already done to prepare for your coming. 
It is plain that you must not undertake too much at once. 
I know a lot of rich city fellows who are at work creating 
country homes. Most of them have spent a large amount 
of money in grading and leveling, and trying to carry out 
some Grecian ideal. One of them has a Greek portico be- 
hind a wretched lot of untrimmed apple trees, and his half 
finished ideas are scattered over forty acres. It will take 
him ten years to spite Nature, or at least flout all her notions, 
and get his own spaded into the hillside. My impression 
is very strong that this sort of home belongs either in a city 
or close by it. I found in Florida a ninety thousand dollar 
house built on a small lake, with every possible Philadelphia 
appurtenance, and surely the two things did not mingle. To 
make a home in the country means, at the very outset sim- 
plicity and naturalness. To make my view a little more dis- 
tinct I propose to give you two or three plots, of grounds and 
houses, that are easily workable, and will not cost the owner 
all told over five thousand dollars. This sum will not be 
felt, provided the owner has the good sense to begin easy 
and make his home building a growth. Be sure that you 
will see a little better every year, and what you ought to do 
is to work out your advanced seeing in form. N. O. Nel- 
son, the great co-operationist and town builder, gave me this 
compliment, the best I ever had: ‘Well, you have not only 
told others how to do it, but you have gone and done it your- 
self; or rather, you 
Sketch plan of a four-acre homestead 
neighbors enough in the 
distance, and there are cat- 
birds and bluebirds not 
to mention goldfinches for more or less close companions. 
They hop around and scold a little as we walk through the 
acres. ‘The land rolls and pitches, but there is a fine plateau 
that rolls gently toward the roadway that winds down 
through an avenue of oaks. You found this spot when you 
were a boy and your city dreams have been of a chance to 
work and sleep right there. Where you would like to place 
your house there is a grove of chestnut trees, and scattered 
oaks and maples give a superb study of tree contour. We are 
going to have this place, and adjust ourselves to it, and it 
to ourselves. We understand that just as little as possible 
is to be done in the way of change. Even that group of 
sumach bushes must continue to show its crimson every fall. 
We could not improve it by digging up what Nature has 
planted, and placing instead spireas and lilacs. It will never 
do to cut the place up with too many drives and formal 
paths. In New England you will find a good many such 
places as this, where Nature’s hints have been accepted and 
art has been avoided—or rather artfulness. Orchards crown 
the sunny slopes, and gardens are fondled in little rich hol- 
lows, while behind the house one slips naturally into shrub- 
beries, made mostly of native shrubs, and the whole leading 
easily into some glen where the water runs and laughs and 
talks. 
Not a few places in New England are so outlined with 
rocks and hills, by nature, that it is impossible for anyone to 
spoil them. We cannot superimpose artfulness to displace 
the simplicty and gracefulness, and in some cases the rug- 
gedness of Nature’s thought. 
Most of my readers will, however, be compelled to con- 
tent themselves with smaller and plainer places, generally 
not very far removed from town life—places where there is 
not much diversity, and probably neither rocks nor brooks 
and not much in the way of groves and knolls. We will 
visit a four acre homestead, six miles by trolley from a city 
of fifteen thousand people. It is nicely located for garden- 
ing, and the owner proposes not only to get a good share of 
his food from the soil, but to sell a snug Smee. I have 
watched his place 
are always doing grow, and have ad- 
2459 OEE te at sn ssh Yo sta Wa 2 eh Diy DY WL my CORON he) OS See ea : 
it. Sostnts 4, ffi Eats we ia TD vised the owner 
My first chart a apriee = HAD PEGE TADIE CAMDEN, yp vee pee from the outset. 
supposes you to |" 7% Bs aia reapers = om | Here is the chart of 
have happened on Lake Va H it as it stands to- 
an old pasture lot ® f 3 pr day, but the charm 
where no one has “ A of it is that the plan 
ever before Jet him- is very flexible, and 
self go back to Na- a oe es Rott. SR Se 8 OR is modified accord- 
ture. There are 5 a * ae Sp ing to the develop- 
natural arbors made pet a fi nae ESS e. e e ee a 8 ae 4 ment of the owner’s 
out of wild grapes [# (OP sre Br . aaneal laedeas: 
and wild plums; [EVeg= «<\ \N ANS a ie ES a ide * # The whole, you 
Virginia creeper a ae! ag << \’ SN eis Basia see, 1s arranged 
climbs over the HIGHWAY in such a way 
stumps and trees; A naturally planted country place as to save labor 
