THE GREENING L A N D S 



BACK-YARD TREATMENT 



This is the north side of Greening's Office Building. On 

 account of the shade the shrubs near the house are Symphoricar- 

 pos, Rubra and Berberis Thunbergii. The clump of shrubs on the 

 lower right-hand corner is a solid bed of the same Berberis 

 trimmed compactly; those in the background are Philadelphus 

 Coronarius, Berberis Purpurea, and Spiraea Van Houttei. The 

 tree is a Silver Maple. Note the graceful curve of the walk. 



The curves in this walk are sensible because they give sensi- 

 ble service. They are the most direct route to the various en- 

 trances; moreover, the street walks are near, and they are straight, 

 as is also the short approach from them. In laying out walks 

 it is well to keep in mind that curves are beautiful only as they 

 are natural. Posing and artifice are just as vulgarly repulsive in 

 a garden as in an individual. And, besides, a garden that is all 

 curves is not restful: there is no place where the mind can rest. 

 It is a fault which, in logic, is called " reasoning in a circle." 



A BED OF PAEONIES 



This bed of Paeonies is on the edge of a woodlot in a deep, 

 natural loamy soil, and its grand show of flowers is a sight to 

 behold. The condition is that of seminaturalization, for the 

 paeony must have some cultivation; but the point is that it gets 

 along with very little care. 



When established in good soil the paeonia will last a great 

 many years — a generation or more. Fifty-eight years ago a lady 

 now living on Lafayette avenue, Detroit, planted some paeonias 

 which she had brought from her girlhood home and the plants 

 are yet in full vigor. She is old and feeble now, but the "pinys" 

 she planted in her youth enrich the evening of her life with all 

 their wealth of bloom. 



For over twenty years the Paeonia has been a neglected plant. 

 Other oldtime favorites fared a similar fate. Gardeners have 

 been looking for newer things, some of which were good; but new 

 friends can never take the places of the old. And so it is that 

 in our day there is a return to grandmother's favorites. The 

 Psonia is the first to gain renewed recognition. She is " the first 

 fruits of them that slept." 



Plate 170. A Bed of Paeonies 



