142 SUBURBAN GARDENS 
given to the dreariest time of the year in plan- 
ning the garden. Summer is fair and gracious 
and pleasant enough without much coaxing or 
cajoling; but late autumn and winter, and raw, 
muddy, early spring are rude and gloomy and 
sullen and sulky more of the time than not — 
yet rarely a thought of conciliation is given to 
them. Winter garden effects are hardly worth 
calculating in the summer home, of course, but 
most suburban homes are for all the year 
rather than for its garden season only. There- 
fore the winter season should be as definitely 
included in making plans as the summer; if 
need be I would advise sacrifice of the latter 
in order to favor the former. 
Shrubbery furnishes the great medium for 
winter beauty in the garden, with perhaps a 
touch of evergreen planting to give depth. 
The shrubs which, by means of colored bark or 
persistent berries, contribute most to the winter 
phase of garden making, however, are not the 
shrubs which furnish the choicest blossoms in 
summer — or that furnish bloom over the long- 
est period. It is this to which I had reference 
in suggesting the sacrifice of summer in order 
to favor winter. A liberal use of what we may 
call the fine winter-effect shrubs will curtail the 
number of summer-effect varieties that may be 
