September, 1920 
1 i 
! Odds and Ends 
In the Garden, j 
BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD. 
There are bits of garden lore hidden 
by many a roadside, hints that may 
give our gardens a new charm and yet 
how few of us, as we motor or stroll 
by, note these suggestions for future 
use in our plantings. We all of us 
tend too greatly to develop our home 
grounds along conventional lines, we 
till in the low damp swale, raze the hil- 
lock and seek to bring the whole down 
to the same level with smooth lawns, 
dipt hedges, or regular beds of flowers 
as like those of our neighbers as we 
can achieve. With a house of stereo- 
typed design this may prove the proper 
caper, but with our summer bungelow, 
or camp, or even a less architectual 
all-the-year-round house an individu- 
ality based on the natural lay of the 
land may be possible. 
On the one hand we spend consider- 
able cash for immediate effect, on the 
other is an expenditure of time and care- 
ful thought. Is there any real question 
as to which will produce the greatest 
amount of personal pleasure and pride 
in attainment ? 
Our land may be rich or poor, damp 
or dry, but from nature’s own palette 
we may select colors in trees, or shrubs, 
or flowers, ones that will best adapt * 
themselves to their new home. With 
these natives as a background we may 
add exotics from similar situations and 
give the whole that finished touch of 
perfection which man-made plantings 
should possess. 
By the edge of the meadow there is, 
perhaps, a thick massing of shrubby 
growths, planted not in straight lines 
nor regular curves, but irregularly now 
forming promontories about the base 
of an isolated tree or standing alone to 
form a perfect specimen, or, with an 
opening to permit of a vista into the 
woods beyond, a vista that tempts one 
on to further exploration. There is a 
certain spaciousness in a bit of green- 
sward winding behind a projecting 
outgrowth, a spaciousness that loses 
but little of its charm in miniature 
when we carry out the same principle 
at the edge of our bit of lawn. From 
nature also we may pattern our selec- 
tion of companion plants, she is at her 
best when there is a predominance of 
one species ; a grove of pines, of wal- 
nuts, of what you will, has an effect 
not to be found in the conglomeration 
of the new growth of a mixed hard- 
woods. Here also we see a pleasing 
variety of spacing, the trees may be 
close, tall and bare trunked, in clus- 
tered groups of uneven age, or may 
stand alone revealing their individual 
characteristics of development. Both 
in plan and in silhouette we like a cer- 
tain amount of variety in outline. 
With this general scheme in mind let 
us pass on to the minor incidents that 
in themselves form pictures. Mere 
snapshots I will give you. 
A tall red cedar, formal in smooth 
lines, a mass of out-reaching sumac, 
Slower (Brower 
one of the most tropical looking of our 
northern shrubs, and below a creeping 
mat of spreading junipers ; with an 
undergrowth of lavender Mat Pink 
(Phlox subulata ) perhaps a plant of the 
Flame Azalea (calendulacea) or a group 
of Lilies for still later bloom we have 
a planting suited to the poor soil of a 
little rock outcrop. 
On even poorer, gravelly soil there 
is a copse of locusts, a thin under- 
growth of Bush Clover and St. Johns- 
wort, scattered plants of wild Lupins, 
Asters, or, where the sun is welcomed, 
Bouncing Bet, Chicory, or Sweet Fern. 
Many of these in themselves are not 
desirable but they are suggestive. We 
may have the Bush Clover, Lespedeza 
Sieboldi with its rosy-pink pea shaped 
flowers in September or the yellow 
penduliflorum, the Rose Acacia, with 
its hairy branchlets, the dark purple 
racemes of Amorpha canescens, and 
many more. While, among the peren- 
nials, what could be more engaging 
than a collection of sedums and sem- 
pervivums for a ground cover for up- 
standing clumps of Euphorbias, and a 
glowing mass of the orange Asclepias 
tuberosa. 
In better soil we find an old gnarled 
apple spreading above a rounded 
thicket of the gray Dogwood, Cornus 
paniculata, and in the grass near by 
are closed Gentians, their dull blue flow- 
ers turning red with the early frosts. 
Asters there are too and we might add 
the giant leaves of Day Lilies (Hosta 
Sieboldi or subcordata) or even Phlox 
and Yellow Lilies (Hemerocallis) bloom- 
ing in succession, for all will put up a 
successful fight in the good soil. 
In the open woods are flowering 
Dogwoods to shed their white petals 
among the colorful Azaleas, carpets of 
Violets, and Ferns, and where the sun 
may touch them groups of Lilies nod- 
ding gracefully. Rue ( Thalictrum ) 
there is also, and its foliage is as 
charming an accompaniment as that 
of a Maiden’s Hair Fern for a delicate 
bouquet. In such a place we may 
choose from an infinite number of 
shrubs and plants but the effect is 
heightened by the use of few species, 
some in mass, some in mere touches 
for a bit of variety. 
In the deeper shade our difficulties 
increase, at the foot of an old pine, 
there may be a straggling Hobble 
Bush ( Viburnum lantanoides) and car- 
pets of Partridge Berry, of False Solo- 
mon’s Seal or Lilies of the Valley. I 
have found in such a site also the low 
bush Blueberry that is so difficult to 
establish and, of course, Ferns in va- 
riety. These I think we rarely use to 
the fullest advantage, some day I shall 
have a flower garden in the open, a 
real flower garden and yet occupied by 
the sun loving Ferns. 
Just one more snapshot and I will leave 
you to make your own observations, 
your own adaptations of what you ob- 
serve. There is a quiet pool of water 
in the damp gutter that reflects the 
swords of wild Iris and the overhang- 
ing branches of a common alder. A 
big tasseled sedge rises at the mossy 
edge, the Sundew ( Drosera ) with its 
hairy small leaves vies with the Blue- 
139 
eyed Grass (Sisyrinchiuni) and Forget- 
me-nots carry down a bit of the sky 
above. In our gardens we would be 
likely to use less restraint and our 
small pool, perhaps a sunken half bar- 
rel, would be overgrown with bold 
Japanese Irises, perhaps the iniquitous 
Wandering Jew. I sometimes wonder 
if a real success in the garden line is 
not due more to a careful discrimina- 
tion in the use of material, than it is to 
the knowledge of the plants and their 
cultural requirements. 
R. S. Barre. 
The Wild Garden. 
Any place which has a piece of woodland 
included in its area, or even a rough piece of 
boggy uncultivated ground, presents an 
opportunity for a style of gardening which 
many people would find very satisfying and 
restful. Fifty years ago Wm. Robinson, a 
noted English gardener and author, wrote 
his book “The Wild Garden,’’ in which he 
earnestly set forth the possibilities and 
pleasures of the naturalization of both native 
and exotic hardy plants. Since then the 
wild garden has become quite a familiar 
feature in British gardening and seems to be 
fully as pleasing as the stereotyped bedding 
system so much in vogue when “The 
Wild Garden” was written. We have many 
estates and gardens where ideal conditions 
exist for this kind of work and it is always a 
pleasure to come across places where these 
conditions have been recognized and made 
use of to good purpose. There is a peculiar 
beauty and charm possessed by many of the 
native plants but which shows out to good 
advantage only when grown under conditions 
approximating their native haunts. Treated 
as ordinary garden plants most would suffer 
in comparison with the more showy cultiva- 
ted kinds, but see them growing in masses in 
shady, moist, uncultivated places and there is 
nothing to surpass them. What is there 
more pleasing in the opening days of Spring 
than a broad drift of Bloodroot or the little 
Hepatica, or what more lovely than a big 
colony of the giant white Trillium Violets 
and Wood Anemones, Columbine and Virgin- 
ian Blue Bells, Marsh Marigold and Forget- 
me-not come readily to mind as beautiful 
features in the Spring picture, while at the 
other end of the flowering season, we recall 
masses of Asters, Golden Rod and Joe Pye 
weed just as effective and beautiful in their 
natural setting as the finest well tended bor- 
der plants of the garden. Then there are 
lovely Ferns suitable for almost any situation, 
some for open sunny places, others for shade, 
some which flourish in dry ground as well as 
those which like much moisture. There is 
really a much greater variety amongst the 
native Ferns than might at first thought be 
supposed, some forty kinds being listed by 
one New England Nurseryman. A strong 
point in favor of developing this kind of 
flower gardening, wherever conditions will 
allow, is that all the subjects are quite hardy 
and the labor and expense involved is not 
great. There is every reason to suppose 
that we shall see increasing interest taken 
in this very satisfying phase of gardening. — 
Gardeners’ Chronicle. 
The Shower. 
Pitter, patter, comes the rain 
Up against my window pane ; 
Song birds seek refuge now 
Underneath the apple bough. 
The sun returns — away the rain, 
All the birds come back again, 
Flowers look up to the sun 
Birds chirp gayly, every one. 
— Melvitia Berbert-Hammond, aged 10 years. 
