Selecting Garden Furniture that Fits Landscape Architect 
(See illustrations on the two preceding pages) 
S PEAKING from an architectural 
standpoint, the kind of garden one 
builds should be influenced chiefly 
for the sort of house for which it is 
made, and, similarly, the type of furniture and 
accessories one puts into a garden should be 
carefully chosen to conform to the particular 
style of the garden they are to decorate, 
Sundials, benches, archways and gates are 
too apt to be unrelated objects, bought with- 
out any special reference to each other, and 
with very little thought as to whether they 
carry out the main idea of house and garden. 
The house is the starting point from which the 
architecture of the garden should take its 
keynote; and the furniture of the garden, in 
turn, should be in keeping with the style of 
both, in order to develop a pleasing whole. 
The picture of the centre garden, shows 
just such a well knit house and garden; the 
white painted arbor, the rough stone wall, 
the hollyhocks and phlox, all bespeak the white 
clapboard house which shows through the 
branches of the big maple. The conventional 
stone bench in Dr. Woodward’s garden, is 
well used in connection with the carefully 
finished masonry wall, and the white trellis 
and bench against the brick wall of the St. 
Martins garden, carry out the brick and white 
scheme of the house very pleasingly. 
Incidentally the promiscuous use of white 
painted furniture is not to be recommended. 
Most of the stock furniture available, comes 
in white or green, and the purchaser takes it 
“as is,” without realizing that the manufac- 
turer is able and willing to furnish it in any 
other color of paint or stain, or totally un- 
painted if desired. Green paint is apt to be 
out of harmony with Nature’s greens, and 
white paint is as often staring and unrelated 
to the architecture of the garden. The nat- 
ural wood finish of oak, allowed to take on 
the mellow, silvery tones of age, is probably 
the most widely adaptable finish, for it is 
native enough in appearance to be at home in 
any garden of not too formal a character. 
One of the most important points for con- 
sideration in choosing wood garden furniture, 
is its enduring quality, a subject on which Mr. 
Herbert Mathews has very interesting things 
to say about cypress: “Weather resisting 
wood is the great essential in the manufacture 
of wooden garden furniture, and architectural 
wood working of all kinds for the garden. In 
England old shipp are purchased and the wood 
utilized for outdoor architecture. We in this 
country are fortunate to have cypress which 
grows in swamps covered much of the time 
with water. It is customary to dig canals 
in which to tow the logs to the mills, or to 
construct railroads through the swamps, 
as the trees grow 75 to 140 feet in height and 
three to six feet in diameter. Few cypress 
trees are large enough for lumber at an age of 
less than two centuries, and many do not 
reach sufficient size until they are much older. 
The wood is straight, easy to work, and 
very desirable in contact with the soil. What 
we are mostly interested in is the Bald Cy- 
press (Taxodium distichum) which is generally 
termed in advertisements the “wood eternal.” 
The hues of naturally aged wood may be 
simulated by means of gray or gray-brown 
stain if one is impatient for effect, but the 
real textuTe is impossible to gain except by 
seasons of wind and rain and heat and cold. 
Stone or cement is more formal in character 
than wood and introduces a somewhat more 
pretentious note into the garden. This fact 
should be considered in connection with the 
degree of formality of one’s house and the 
corresponding effect desired in the garden. 
The generally prevailing notion that figures 
of any sort mean an ambitious or pretentious 
treatment of the garden, is not necessarily 
true, for the effect is largely dependent upon 
the type of figure chosen. The two little 
lead figures illustrated, for instance, are 
delightfully informal in character and wood- 
land in spirit, and would be at home in the 
least architectural of gardens. More classic 
figures such as busts of philosophers or sculp- 
tured Dianas recall the Italian style which is 
stiffer in character. 
The main idea to be kept in mind in making 
a choice of any garden furniture, is the note 
it will contribute to an architectural scheme 
which should embrace house and garden and 
be fairly consistent throughout. 
Transplanting Out of Season C TJS, LER 
DON’T LET OVERCAUTION PREVENT YOUR MAKING NECESSARY IMPROVEMENTS— REALLY CAREFUL HAND- 
LING THE SECRET OF SUCCESS AT ANY SEASON 
W HAT to do when one does not know 
what to do” is an enigma without 
which a gardener’s experience is 
lacking in completeness. I he need, 
sometimes the desire, to transplant out of 
season sooner or later confronts every gar- 
dener and the answer is seldom to be found in 
one’s trouser pockets no matter how deep one 
may thrust one’s hands into them. 
My advice is do it any way, ignoring the ordi- 
nary dread of transplanting out of season, for it 
is largely a matter of attitude. A friend writes 
me from Minnesota that he has transplanted 
Iris with very good success ten months in the 
year. He is an Iris enthusiast and your en- 
thusiast is always rationally willing to take a 
chance. I have repeatedly transplanted Iris 
in bud and flower and though, as might be ex- 
pected, the bloom was slightly impaired, the 
plants did not suffer. 
The man who is ready to transplant Iris ten 
months in the year insists upon it that in our 
latitude shrubs should be planted only in 
spring. His insistence does not make it a 
fact, however, it merely shows his attitude 
in the matter. If he knew Lilacs as he knows 
Iris, he would know that a Lilac can be moved 
whenever and wherever an Iris can be trans- 
planted. And the method is no more difficult 
except that from the nature of the case there 
is a very much larger bulk to be handled. A 
giant could transplant a large Lilac bush as 
easily as an ordinary man can move an Iris. 
So imagine yourself a giant, take your time, 
be careful, and the trick is done! 
Move as much soil as possible, with the 
Showing the proportionate amount of soil to be taken with 
a shrub transplanted "out of season” 
roots, but do not despair of success if a con- 
siderable quantity does shake loose. 1 he 
32 ? 
secret of success as far as I have been able to 
determine, seems to lie in having as many 
particles as possible clinging to the root-hairs 
and to get these into their new home undis- 
turbed. It is a poor plan to puddle the roots 
and it is better to have the soil while trans- 
planting a little too dry rather than too wet. 
Once in its new location, an abundance of 
water must be given to each plant. Root 
pruning is a great aid to success in transplant- 
ing out of season. Now all this is easily, 
almost subconsciously done in moving so 
small and compact a plant as an Iris though a 
much more difficult matter in moving so large 
a plant as a Lilac or other shrub. 
Moving perennials out of season is much in 
the nature of repotting. In the greenhouse, 
the gardener does it all the time, but out-doors 
we are just a little unused to the situation. 
After re-potting, the gardener watches his 
plants carefully, giving them plenty of water 
and a little shade if need be. Now out-doors 
transplanting is really about the same in pe- 
rennials where a good lump of soil can be 
lifted with the roots. That part of the work 
surely is no more difficult, though it differs 
a little in the very nature of the case for the 
water is not confined in a pot and evaporation 
is far greater. This necessitates greater 
watchfulness — nothing else. It is no trick to 
move perennials even in bud and flower. 
First of all the new bed must be well pre- 
pared, with a deep friable soil free from lumps, 
then by carefully cutting around the roots 
with a sharp spade a lump of soil can be 
moved with the plant as to make it virtually 
