FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
87 
er garden, as such, should be at the rear 
or side of the place, the same as all other 
strictly personal appurtenances are; but 
the flowers and bright leaves may be free¬ 
ly scattered along the borders and near 
the foliage masses. What kind of shrubs 
and flowers should be planted is wholly a 
secondary and largely personal considera¬ 
tion. Be sure that the main plantings are 
made up of hearty and vigorous trees and 
have lots of them, then get the things 
liked best. There is endless merit in the 
choice of species, but the point to empha¬ 
size is that the arrangements or distribu¬ 
tion of the plant is far more important. 
If one has no area which he can make 
into a lawn and upon which he can plant 
green masses, what then may he do? 
Even then there may be an opportunity 
for a little neat and artistic planting. 
Even if one lives on a rented farm, he 
may bring in a bush and herb from the 
woods and paint a picture with it. Plant 
it in the corner by the steps in front of the 
porch, at the corner of the house, almost 
anywhere but in the center of the lawn v 
Make the ground rich, secure a strong 
root and plant it with care, then wait. 
The little clump will not only have a beau¬ 
ty and interest of its own, but will add 
immensely to the furniture of the yard. 
About its base one may plant stray plants 
and these may be followed by pansies, 
phlox, petunias and other simple assets. 
Very soon one finds himself deeply inter¬ 
ested in these random and detached pic¬ 
tures, and almost before he is aware, he 
finds that he has rounded off the corners 
of the house, made snug little arbors of 
wild grapes, covered the rear fence and 
the outhouses with trumpet vine or yel¬ 
low jasmine, all growing wild in our 
Florida woods. He soon comes to feel 
that flowers are most expressive of the 
best emotions when they are daintily drop¬ 
ped in here and there against a back 
ground of foliage. One’s place grows to 
be a reflection of himself, changing as he 
changes, and expressing his life and sym¬ 
pathy to the last. It is this partnership of 
nature which makes the farmers’ children 
in after years always think of the old 
place as “Home, sweet home.” 
In planting flower beds around the 
house it is essential that perfect drainage 
be afforded, therefore for the best results, 
have troughs put on the eaves of the house 
with downward outlets to carry off the 
water from the roof. Many beautiful 
flower beds are ruined by the drip from 
the eaves in heavy rains. In planting the 
lawn, care should be taken as to the prep¬ 
aration of the soil. Use well decomposed 
stable fertilizer well incorporated. The 
use of muck is not advised, as when incor¬ 
porated with sand and other soils, it loses 
its fertility, so making it practically use¬ 
less. There have been many flower beds 
and lawns rendered unfit by the use of it. 
The lawn should be as level as possible be¬ 
fore planting and when ready, roots of the 
desired variety, such as Bermuda, St. Au¬ 
gustine, etc., can be planted in checks 2 
inches square, or in drills 12 inches apart, 
with tufts 6 inches apart. The latter 
method allows cultivation to keep down 
the weeds. 
In planting flower beds well decom¬ 
posed stable fertilizer should be freely 
used, well incorporated and buried period- 
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