PLANNING THE HOME GROUNDS 



15 



countries where the inhabitants, 

 ahnost to a man, appreciate the ele- 

 gancies of gardening, the little places 

 exhibit the utmost variety of charac- 

 ter in their composition. 



It is all too true that thousands 

 of gardens arid grounds all around 

 our American homes are bare to des- 

 olation. The democratic idea and 

 feeling against planting of hedges 

 and the lining off of one's property 

 makes for deadly uniformity. The 

 arguments that unhedged or un- 

 fenced grounds would be contrary to 

 the best artistic conception and treat- 

 ment of a city or suburb as a whole, 

 ought not to be allowed to sway the 

 property owner from making the 

 most and the best of his own place. 

 There is a school of landscape gar- 

 deners and city planners who seem 

 to set their face against this, en- 

 couraging the open community type 

 of home grounds. The latter will 

 never get us anywhere as a nation of 

 garden lovers, and almost entirely 

 precludes the practice of the finer 

 gardening. We plead rather to see 

 places nicely hedged or railed off, so 

 that stray dogs and unceremonious 

 persons may be kept at a proper 

 distance, but most of all for the sake 

 of the enjoyment and encourage- 

 ment of that quiet privacy without 

 which the true pleasures of garden- 

 ing cannot be attained. 



Which is the best — to have a 

 big, bare lawn and a few trees, or an 

 odd group of shrubs here and there, 

 or the trimly hedged and fenced 

 grounds, with flower borders, speci- 

 men trees and shrubs, beds and 

 belts of Roses, arches of Roses and 



o ® n 



O O 



Suburban lot fenced, on 40x100 ft. 

 A low hedge divided off the vege- 

 table garden. Fruit trees and 

 bushes were lined by the side of 

 this, while pillar Roses, dwarf 

 Roses, neat shrubs and beds of 

 flowers were elsewhere well dis- 

 posed. The vegetable plot was a 

 model of good cropping, contain- 

 ing Tomatoes, Corn, Beans, Beets, 

 Celery, Carrots, Spinach, herbs 

 and salads. Raspberries lined the 

 fences. This ran east and west 



