54 
HENDERSON’S PICTURESQUE GARDENS 
A Back Yard Transformation 
Back yards — what barren wastes too many of them are ! An 
old barrel or two, a few heaps of ashes decorated with rusty cans, 
and the results of household accidents ! Such was the forbidding 
desert-like aspect of our picture on the right, before the new 
occupants transformed it into an oasis of verdure and flowers, pleas- 
ing to behold from the back windows. A refreshing plot of grass, 
confined, it is true, by the angular boundaries of a high board fence ; 
but the harsh effect has been softened with climbers and borders 
planted with varied hardy and annual plants. It is not to be won- 
dered at that the vine-embowered retreat in the rear was found 
necessary to secure privacy from the neighbors’ admiring eyes. A few 
flower seeds and plants would create a similar result in many 
communities. 
Suburban Home Environments 
The American suburbanite, if he be something of a 
traveler, breathes a deep sigh of relief on returning 
from abroad, at the open, free-to-all charms of his own 
and his neighbor’s home environments. The united 
stretches of lawn, the colored flower beds; the street, a 
sylvan avenue of arching elms, all to be viewed from a 
cool vine -decked piazza, with an opportunity to salute 
a passing friend : this is typically American, and in re- 
freshing contrast to the walled grounds usual to many 
European homes, where custom has handed down 
notions of such exclusiveness that they must be shut 
off from the outside world with barriers of stone or 
brick 8 to 12 feet high, crowned with broken glass 
from which even the vines shrink! An unbroken stretch 
of lawn forms the charm about suburban homes. 
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