AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
Around the Garden 
A MONTHLY KALENDAR OF TIMELY GARDEN OPERA- 
TIONS AND USEFUL HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS 
ABOUT THE HOME GARDEN AND 
GROUNDS 
- December, 1911 
All queries will gladly be answered by the Editor. If a personal 
reply is desired by subscribers stamps should be enclosed therewith. 
DECEMBER IN OUR GARDENS 
HIS is the month whose very name suggests 
the cozy seclusion of indoors by the fireside, 
with a peep through the sheltering window 
panes at the landscape divested by Mother 
Nature of every semblance of summer attire 
save for the welcome relief of a bit of color, 
here and there, from the Evergreens that forethought of 
wisdom has led us to plant against the all too monotonous 
sombreness of the winter landscape. ‘his will be the time 
for planning the gathering of Christmas greens. ‘Those 
of us who are so fortunate as to live in the countryside 
will be spending our holiday hours, now and then, in walk- 
ing over the hills and through the wooded lands with eyes 
alert for our Christmas greens, and best of all for the 
Christmas tree itself. 
UT there are things for us to do even nearer home. 
The trees are now foliage-bare and the dead leaves 
we may have neglected to rake up last month should be 
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own, if we but seek it 
lhe December landscape has a beauty all its 
gathered together and used as a mulch for every growing 
thing that shows its withered stalk above ground. 
HERE will be some of us who are blessed with the 
possession of grapevines. Perhaps we have planned 
to wait until March to prune them; we may even have done 
this last year, but this is the better season for such work 
and the vines will be far less liable to damage if we do not 
delay the pruning time. In some parts of the country winter 
is a time of freezing and thawing spells, and if we do not 
wish the things of our gardens to suffer great injury by these 
atmospheric extremes we should see that our shrubs and 
plants are banked up with a manurial mulch or with soil 
when needed. 
NE of our readers, in writing of his garden experi- 
ences throughout the past season complained of the 
sorrowful state of affairs brought about by a veritable 
havoc wrought by the miserable tent caterpillars that have 
proved themselves a blight to so many growing things. If 
this has been the experience of others it might be well for 
them to look around the garden, seeking to discover if there 
are any Wild Cherry trees about. If so, such trees should 
be destroyed without loss of time, for unhappily enough, 
they draw the tent caterpillars to their vicinity as surely 
as the moth is drawn to the flame. One must not forget 
that coldframes for Violets and other plants must be cov- 
ered these cold nights. [he inexperienced amateur is apt 
to forget this and to rue his carelessness. 
URNING our attention to the spot which marks the 
border of Hardy Perennials whose beautiful blossoms 
gave us such delight this past summer, we should busy our- 
selves in cutting off all their dead tops, giving the plants 
a light mulch, being careful that it is a light mulch and not 
a heavy manurial covering. 
OW one would welcome the invention of something 
to take the place of the old coverings we have to use 
for the protection of Roses and vines in winter time! But 
ugly as straw and matting and other forms of blanketing 
may render the things outdoors, there is ample consolation 
of everything to offset this visual annoyance in the gar- 
den’s own season, which the months will bring back again. 
After all, we have had indoors and firesides given to us for 
winter, so let us try to be as thankful for that as we are 
for our gardens in summer, and when we stand in the room 
laden with Evergreen boughs, Holly and Mistletoe, wishing 
one another a Merry Christmas, we shall surely have within 
our hearts that garden of joyousness that makes us forget 
any of the bleak, drear things outside. 
THE AMERICAN HOLLY 
NOTE apropos of the American Holly (Ilex opaca) 
vat is appropriate to the season. ‘The mention of Holly 
is apt to call up to the mind’s eye the vision of Christmas 
in England as we associate it especially with the land of 
our kinsmen across the sea, forgetting that in our own fair 
