Planning the Home Garden 
By William N. Craig, Massachusetts. 
S( )IL. location, area, environment, are a few things to 
consider when we discuss the home flower garden. 
I am addressing these remarks more particularly to 
those who belong to the ever increasing army of ama- 
teur horticulturists, many of whom have but limited 
facilities for flower growing, and who are not in a 
financial position to spend any considerable sum annu- 
ally on their garden, but who at the same time are 
anxious to get as much pleasure as they can, over as 
large a season as possible, from it. 
For the encouragement of small growers, I want 
to say that while New York and New England are 
popularly classed as boreal regions of ice and snow 
for one-fourth of the year, my experience for a quar- 
tet of a century has proved that in some favored years 
we can have flowers outdoors from January until De- 
cember, and even under the most adverse climatic 
conditions, there are never more than two months 
when we are really without some outdoor flowers. 
In January, on warm southern slopes we usually 
have some Snowdrops open ; one month later, Winter 
Aconites, Crocus, and some Chionodoas open their 
flowers. March gives us these, and Siberian Scillas, 
the early Tulip Kauffmanniana, the little Narcissus 
minimus. April yields a wealth of flowers, including 
early Tulips, many Narcissi, Fritillarias, early Iris 
such as histrioides and cristata, English Primroses, and 
quite a few perennials and shrubs. The late Narcissi, 
cottage and Darwin Tulips, German Iris, Pyrethrum 
roseum, Moutan Peonies, Hemerocallis flava, Lily-of- 
the-valley, dwarf Phloxes, and many other interesting 
herbaceous plants. Alpines, trees, and shrubs bloom 
in May. During the leafy month of June, the regal 
Japanese Iris follows the German, Spanish and English 
types — Columbines, Phloxes, Peonies, early Larkspurs, 
Dictamnus (gas plants), Lupinus, Canterbury Bells, 
Lychnis, Lilium candidum, and many other herbs, not 
to mention Azaleas, Rhododendrons, Roses, and a 
wealth of other trees and shrubs are with us. In July 
come the Larkspurs, Foxgloves, Hollyhocks, Hemero- 
callis, Phloxes, such Liliums as Hansoni, regale, Sar- 
gentioe, and excelsum, and many annuals. August 
charms us with Gladioli, Monthretias, speciosum and 
Henrv, Liliums, Monkshoods, Sunflowers, Beltonias, 
and the early Asters, Kniphofias, and Japanese Ane- 
mones. During September, the Japanese Anemones 
fully assert themselves ; the Michaelmas Daisies are 
in the heyday of their glory ; Dahlias are at their best ; 
so are the majority of annuals and tender bedding 
plants. October gives us late Sunflowers and Asters, 
Anemones, Pompone Chrysanthemums, Colchicums, 
Buddleias still a mass of flowers, and a second crop of 
bloom on many deciduous shrubs. When November's 
surly blasts come to make fields and forests bare, we 
can still find Roses, Anemones, Chrysanthemums ; in 
some years, Dahlias, Witch-hazels, and various an- 
nuals — last November we even had Fuchias, Gera- 
niums, and Salvias flowering at Thanksgiving. You 
will say: "How about December?" On December 
2 last, during a ramble, I found ten varieties of native 
flowers still blooming. We had quantities of Viola 
cornuta, also Primroses, Pansies, and some Dianthus 
in flower. I say, therefore, that we have much to be 
thankful for in the fact that, even in our cold latitudes, 
some flowers are possible in practically each month, 
and that if we consider berry-bearing shrubs which 
every garden should contain, not only for beauty, but 
because they attract our best friends the birds to our 
gardens, we have a continuous panorama of beauty 
the year through. 
All space about the home should not be devoted 
to flower or vegetable growing. A good lawn is an 
indispensable adjunct ; but, too often, alas ! all we see 
is lawn and no flowers. The importance of a well 
kept lawn can scarcely be overestimated; it is no easy 
matter to keep such in condition when we consider 
the droughts we have and the hordes of noxious 
weeds which infest our lawns. The numbers of weeds 
would be materially minimized if garden owners would 
stop the too common practise of spreading barnyard 
manure on their lawns in winter or early spring. This 
habit is a disgusting one ; it is unsanitary and fills the 
lawns full of noxious weeds. Use chemical fertilizers, 
wood ashes, fine bone, or pulverized manures for this 
top dressing. 
A flower garden is, or ought to be, a place devoted 
to the cultivation of trees, shrubs, and flowers of an 
ornamental nature, planted carefully, in order to give 
pleasure over a long season. It should always be of 
very convenient access ; in fact, the true home garden 
should be a veritable part of the home itself, which 
many elaborate American gardens of today certainly 
are NOT. Suitable planting round the boundaries to 
afford all possible seclusion should be very carefully 
done. Plant with some definite object, and allow cer- 
tain plants to develop, using others merely as tem- 
porary fillers. 
With a good depth of loam to support lawns, flower 
borders, or shrubberies, we can reasonably look for 
satisfactory results, as during droughty periods the 
plants will suffer less than those in thinner soil, and 
their growth will be far more luxuriant. Well-rotted 
cow manure, when obtainable, is the best fertilizer ; 
stable manure comes next in value. When these are 
not procurable, pulverized animal manures, humus, 
and well concentrated chemical fertilizers must be 
utilized. 
One of the great faults on both large and small 
estates is overplanting. In many cases, the usual 
habit is to crowd as many trees, shrubs or plants as 
possible into a given space without much regard to 
their eventual development. Shrubs naturally grow- 
ing 10 to 15 feet across will be found planted 24 inches 
apart each way, in order, we are told, to make an 
immediate effect ! In such cases, unless the owner or 
whoever manages his place uses some judgment, a 
tangled mass of shrubbery will grow up where there 
should be a few well developed specimens, each show- 
ing their individuality. 
In the way of flowering shrubs we have a rather 
painful repetition of variety in too many places. If a 
particular plant like Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora 
happens to be an easy doer, everyone feels they must 
needs plant it. Because one man plants a Blue Spruce, 
his neighbors think they should go and do likewise, 
oblivious of the fact that our native spruces with green 
foliage are just as beautiful ; and so on through the 
list. We see the Japanese Hydrangeas everywhere, 
yet we have a variety equally beautiful, just as hardy, 
and flowering over a far longer season, in our ever- 
blooming Hydrangea. Hydrangea arborescens grandi- 
flora, which flowers from June until October, and car- 
