December, 1907 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



479 



The Winter Garden 



By Eben E. Rexford 



|OST persons who are owners of gardens 

 seem to be under the impression that we 

 must close the summer vokime of Nature's 

 book at the end of the season and not re- 

 open it until the winter is over. In other 

 words, we get very little pleasure out of 

 the garden for six months of the year. 

 This is completely wrong. There is no good reason why the 

 home grounds should not be attractive the year round if we 

 plant for winter as well as summer effect. 



We can not have flowers in winter, but we can secure 

 color-eftects with but little trouble that will make good, to 

 a considerable extent, the lack of flowers. Without these 

 the winter landscape is cold, dreary, and monotonous to most 

 persons. But there are always elements of wonderful beauty 

 in it to those who have "the seeing eye." And there is ample 

 material at hand with which to give it the touches of bright- 

 ness that can make it almost as attractive as it is in June. 



If the reader will carefully study the two illustrations 

 which accompany this article, he will admit that the winter 

 garden has many attractive features which the summer gar- 

 den can not boast. These illustrations are summer and 

 winter views of the same spot, taken in one of the Brooklyn 

 parks. The summer view shows a wealth of foliage and 

 bloom, and is one of Nature's beauty-spots that we never 



tire of. But the winter view has in it a suggestion of breadth 

 and distance that is most charming, brought out strongly by 

 the naked branches of the trees against the sky, and the 

 glimpses of delightful vistas farther on, which are hidden 

 by the foliage of the summer view. Note how the ever- 

 greens stand out sharply against the background, and how 

 clearly every shrub and branch is outlined by the snow. 

 Whatever color there is in the landscape is heightened and 

 emphasized by the contrast. Here are little touches full of 

 exquisite beauty, none of which belong to the summer 

 garden. 



Most of us plant a few evergreens about our homes. 

 Sometimes we are so fortunate as to locate them where they 

 will prove effective. Oftener we put them where they can 

 not do justice to their beauty. They do not belong near the 

 house. They must be admired at a distance. You must be 

 far enough away from them to be able to take in their 

 charm of form at a glance, to observe the graceful sweep 

 of their branches against the snow, and to fully take in the 

 strength and richness of their color. None of these things 

 can be done at close range. Looked at from a respectful 

 distance, every good specimen of evergreen will afi^ord a 

 great deal of pleasure. But it might be made to afford more 

 if we were to set about it in the right way. Why not make 

 our evergreens serve as backgrounds against which to bring 



In Winter»There Is a Charming Suggestion of Breadth and Distance 



