E*eb. 1907.] '103 Horticulture, 



t 



The garden seat is an accessory that should be welcome 'in any garden. 

 How transient many gardens seem because of the absence of a convenient bench 

 that would invite one to take time enough to enjoy the surroundings. There is 

 hardly a limit to the number of designs suitable for garden seats and benches, and 

 yet how homely is the stereotype affair we so often see in parks and public gardens. 

 Now that composition stone has become so useful for making garden ornaments, 

 there is not much difficulty in finding graceful seats and benches that will last 

 forever. Good ones can be bought for about twenty dollars. Some of the more 

 elaborate seats are covered to keep out the sunlight, and to give a chauce for 

 climbers to grow upon them. Many of these are quite large so that they have the 

 appearance of small summer-houses. 



The much discussed Italian garden is dependent upon such accessories as 

 walls and terraces and steps, but this form of gardening is often misunderstood by 

 people who try to fit it into locations where it is absolutely uncalled for ; and the 

 term Italian garden is applied by the unthinking to any kind of garden that has 

 in the least degree a formal layout. Of course it is on the hill side that this sort of 

 garden is built in Italy A flat situation calls for a different treatment, and, 

 although walls are often used with success in level gardens, they are walls that are 

 quite different from the heavy retaining-wall of the Italian garden ; they are used 

 more as one would use a hedge. Walls and terraces are to a garden what the walls 

 of a house are to its interior. Their excuse for being should be for support or giving 

 an air of privacy and protection. I think you will agree that such gardens have a 

 charm quite distinct from all others. 



Other accessories that serve a useful purpose and are much admired for 

 their ornamental qualities are well curbs, urns and pots, tables, sundials, gazing- 

 globes, and figures. I have seen many little gardens where one of these decorative 

 pieces served as a keynote to the entire situation, around which paths and flower 

 beds were arranged in such a manner as to make an agreeable picture of the whole. 

 At the intersection of paths, at the end of a walk or pergola, or in front of a garden- 

 house are some of the situations where these pieces may be placed so as to give 

 one the impression that they must be where they are or else the garden would lose 

 much of its charm. The relation that these smaller garden ornaments bear to 

 their surroundings mast be as carefully studied as the placing of the larger 

 accessories. I should like to take up in detail each of these smaller accessories but the 

 time alloted for this lecture is not sufficient. However, I want to call your attention 

 to the great possibilities in this field of garden accessories as applied to the city 

 back-yards. These yards, as they exist for the most part in the homes of our Avell- 

 to-do-people, are a disgrace to the community. Neat, some of them maybe, but 

 what ugliness is to be seen when one looks out of a dining-room window and sees 

 an assortment of clothes and clothes-lines, ash-barrels, garbage-boxes and the 

 like, all up down the line. 



Let us hope that the ever increasing regard for our gardens as places that 

 should give comfort and beauty combined will lead to a fuller appreciation of the 

 proper use of garden accessories. 



[Transactions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society for the year 1006, 

 Part. I.] 



