deeply where they will be out of harm’s way during periods of 
drought. If the preparation of the soil can be done in the fall, 
so much the better, as the ground will settle and be in fine con- 
dition for planting in the spring. Spring planting is usually to 
be preferred to fall planting, as it sometimes happens that the 
plants are thrown out of the ground by frost and greatly injured 
when planted late. They have no time to make new roots to 
anchor themselves in the earth before frost comes. This “heav- 
ing,” as it is called, sometimes happens to well established 
plants during a severe winter, and is one reason for applying a 
mulch of strawy manure to the surface of the border in the fall. 
It is also a matter of routine work in the perennial garden to go 
around in the spring and replace those plants whose roots have 
been partly exposed by frost upheavals. 
The size of the border is largely determined by the size of 
the area available for gardening. In large gardens the peren- 
nial border may be from fifteen to twenty feet wide and a hundred 
or more yards long. In such a garden the border does not neces- 
sarily assume a straight line, but may with advantage follow the 
contours of a belt of shrubbery. In a very small area the peren- 
nial garden may be nothing but a narrow strip along the 
boundary line, but nevertheless most interesting and enjoyable. 
One of the most delightful gardens the writer has ever seen was 
made on the site or an old orchard and was about an acre in 
extent. Many of the trees were left in place, and, although as 
fruit bearers they were negligible, they were most emphatically 
a success along aesthetic lines. Their gnarled and picturesque 
appearance was charming at all times, but in the spring, when 
covered with blossoms, their beauty w r as entrancing. This area 
was bounded by a low box hedge, and supplied with walks of 
irregular shaped flagstones informally meandering in every 
direction. The shade cast by the old trees enabled woodland 
plants to be grown to perfection, and in the open spaces sun 
lovers brightened the garden from spring to frost. 
As a general rule (of course there are exceptions), the best 
effects cannot be obtained in a border less than six feet wide. A 
wide border gives endless opportunity for providing that element 
of variety and surprise so desirable in a garden. By bringing, at 
intervals, some of the taller growing plants toward the front of 
the border, little bays may be formed which serve to shelter and 
partly hide smaller plants. Thus the whole beauty of the garden 
is not revealed at once; as one walks along fresh subjects are con- 
stantly coming into view to charm the eye with their beauty, and, 
perchance, the nose, with their fragrance. 
Endless combinations are possible with plants of the hardy 
