132 SUBURBAN GARDENS 
requirements in the garden scheme which 
shrubbery alone can meet. Screens are 
needed, sometimes to obscure something which 
lies beyond the boundaries; sometimes for the 
seclusion of the place from uninvited inspection 
from without; and again for the hiding of 
utility features in one part from the garden’s 
politer portions. No individual shrub, how- 
ever, will provide an effectual screen — for to 
be effectual a screen must conceal the thing 
which it is meant to hide so completely that no 
suspicion of its presence will arise as one looks 
in its direction. The screen that falls short 
of fulfilling this requirement is worse than a 
failure; it is an aggravation, permitting as it 
does a suspicion of the thing hidden and rous- 
ing curiosity accordingly. 
The suburban garden, lying in the midst of 
other suburban gardens, is not expected to 
suffer from outlying uglinesses that need hid- 
ing, however; but seclusion for the garden and 
its occupants makes a certain amount of screen- 
ing as much of a necessity here as anywhere — 
unless the walled garden is adopted. And I 
do not anticipate that many will be willing to 
take up so decided an innovation for a con- 
siderable interval — so the shrubbery screen 
will have to serve for a time, undoubtedly; 
