TREATMENT OF THE GROUND. 
Be it ever so humble, there is no place like a garden- 
nothing that educates, soothes, and encourages, like the 
cultivation of flowers, and the smallest plot of ground 
devoted to this use is worthy of the most reverent care in 
its arrangement. 
Flowers can not but be pleasing, even in the straightest 
or the most irregular of beds, and they will answer the 
purposes of cutting as well in an awkward grouping as in 
a more graceful one. This is no reason, however, why the 
garden itself should not be made an ornamental object; 
and this can easily be done by the home gardener without 
applying to a “professional landscapist.” To arrange the 
plants according to their relative heights, and as far as 
may be with regard to contrasting colors, is all that need 
be attempted in a small space. 
To give the small garden a large look is ingeniously 
managed by as extensive an entrance as the place will 
admit, and having the central plants low—that nothing 
may be lost by breaks or divisions. In this case the 
shrubs and tall plants should be carefully placed at the 
extreme end. “Be your garden large or small, the paths 
should always be amply wide enough for two to walk 
abreast with ease. A fifty-foot garden can actually be 
made to look stately by having two or three wide walks 
in it.” 
