THE SITE 
7 
Nothing shows off a fine border so well as a 
background of trees, and in the smallest garden 
there is generally an atrocious muddle called a 
shrubbery which may serve as a border when 
altered. I can recall a small front garden 
with such a shrubbery on one side and a laurel 
hedge on the other, and a round bed and 
gravel sweep in the centre ! That garden 
was seized upon by a merry party one after- 
noon, and that tangled and unkempt muddle 
was hacked at, and grubbed up, and generally 
reduced, until all that was left was a fine, 
sweet-bay tree, a good laburnum, a couple of 
Scotch firs, a laurestinus, and some old apple 
trees. The ground was enriched, the laurel 
hedge opposite cut well back, and now that 
garden, small as it is, charms everyone who 
sees it. The front gate was removed and a 
quick hedge planted. The two old apple trees 
stand sentinels on a plot of grass in front of it. 
The gravel sweep has been squared and divided 
into a little garden of Dutch design, the beds 
all edged with box, and in and out of the old 
shrubbery have been planted great bushes of 
yellow and flame azaleas, iris in variety, from 
the small and fragrant early purple to big clumps 
of silver-edged flags, and tall white Florentine 
iris. A group of creamy spiraeas toss their 
