38 
]fmi$ frn; ||g imiku. 
HOW TO HAVE A FLOWER-GARDEN. 
In the first place, let us suppose that the spot in¬ 
tended for your garden lies on the side of the house 
most sunny and sheltered. Having, then, this de¬ 
sirable situation, take a horse and plough and break 
the ground deeply and thoroughly. When you have 
broken it up by ploughing in one direction, haul in 
what coarse manure—such as chips, corncobs, 
leaves, and unrotted stable accumulations—you can 
procure and afford, scatter broadcast over the ground, 
and with along, diamond-pointed scooter or a narrow 
turning plough, plough it in, ploughing this, the second 
time, crosswise the former ploughing. This operation 
gives what the farmer calls “ body ” to the land, and is 
absolutely prerequisite to first-rate success at flower- 
growing. Your soil having been thus completely 
brokeu and pulverized, scatter lighter fertilizers— 
fine particles of stable manure, leached ashes, and 
guano, if convenient—over the whole, and with a 
short-toothed harrow mix it with the surface. Na¬ 
ture, you observe, always lays her richest soil on the 
surface. Be sure that for the foregoing you use a 
horse and a plough. Discard the spade and fork as 
a failure. Being now possessed of a soil capable of 
developing the most perfect flower for fulness of 
size and vigor of appearance, and of a location 
where the sun, that great painter of nature, may 
lay on those living colors which only himself can 
make and mix, you will next proceed to lay off the 
walks. This second feature of your work will not 
require less taste than ingenuity. Your walks may 
be either straight or curved. It is a principle of 
philosophy, you know, that curvilinear and round 
figures possess more ease and grace, and therefore 
more beauty, than angular and straight forms. But 
in this matter of arranging your walks be governed 
by the size and shape of your garden. If your gar¬ 
den be very small, perhaps a single broad, straight 
walk leading from your door to your gate might be 
all-sufficient. Anything less or more might destroy 
the effect altogether. If, on the other hand, your 
garden be large or of ordinary dimensions only, let 
your walks be straight or curved according to the 
situation of the most prominent objects you design 
for the decoration of your beds. For instance: if 
you design having a rockery or a summer-house, 
decide on its location, and from the front door of your 
dwelling (the most eligible point for such a purpose) 
determine the course of your roads. If, from the 
point where you stand, it is your decision that a 
straight walk would more naturally lead to the 
rockery and past it on to some other part of the gar¬ 
den which it might be desired to render accessible, 
then by all means let that walk be straight. But if 
a curved walk would more easily reach those con¬ 
spicuous objects, then, in that event, emphatically 
let your walk be curved. When the gate stands 
directly in front of the door of your dwelling, the 
walk connecting these two points (gate and door) 
should unquestionably be straight, as a “ straight 
line is the shortest distance between two points,” 
and tins chief or “front walk” serves more for 
usefulness than for ornamentation. In this active 
American country of ours, where every man is a 
business man, the effect is ill to have his approach 
from the street to his door obstructed by a great 
clump of shrubs or a broad bed of tiny annuals, to 
avoid which he must follow a needlessly lengthened 
and meandering walk. Besides, if your friends or 
acquaintances, less familiar than yourself with the 
arrangement of your garden, should choose to call 
after tea for an hour’s pleasant confab, the evening’s 
enjoyment might be lessened no little to have those 
visitors tell you that they attained your door only 
after a long and embarrassing wandering over and 
through your bushes and briers ; or (as the case may 
be) your ardor toward those friends might possibly 
be sadly abated, to go out the next morning and find 
the mat of delicate grasses and tender bloomers 
lying just in front of your door all ruthlessly tram¬ 
pled under foot. Such a state of things might irresis¬ 
tibly provoke the coarse and unwomanly expression 
of “ See where that ugly fellow and his uglier wife 
put their elephant feet last night, right down on my 
poor little Pansies; I wish they had put off their 
coming until daytime,” etc., etc. Now, for the fore¬ 
going and other reasons which might be seasonably 
mentioned, let your front walk be “ straight as an 
arrow,” and not only straight but broad also—the 
king’s highway of your garden. Having determined 
as to the course of your several walks, whether 
straight or curved, the next immediate labor is to 
dig them out or throw them up, as your fancy may 
dictate; for either plan the spade, heretofore rejected, 
must now lie called into service; the hoe is a poor 
implement for such an undertaking. This part of 
the work must not be indifferently done, having one 
section of the walk broader and another narrower, 
but every inch of it must be done by rule. If a dug- 
out walk be preferred, throw out the dirt evenly and 
to a uniform depth of about three inches its entire 
length. If a raised walk be chosen, throw up the 
dirt to the height of three inches, evenly and uni¬ 
formly. The width of your minor walks should be in 
proportion to their respective lengths, in no case less 
than three feet, however. Of the number of walks 
needful to traverse and distinguish your garden your 
own taste must judge ; some writers urge the import¬ 
ance of having but few walks, and I think, myself, 
that many gardens are shamefully disfigured by a 
multiplicity of pig-paths and Indian trails indiscri¬ 
minately threading them. Perhaps it might be well 
to have each half or division of your garden (made 
by your Broadway) subdivided by but a single walk, 
allowing either to the one on the right or on the left 
a short branch-road leading to some favorite shrub or 
arbor of vine that could not otherwise be naturally 
approached. But on this point no definite rule can 
be laid down: the size and shape of your garden, 
together with a cultured taste, must govern. If 
your garden is large enough, and your pleasure sug¬ 
gests, you may have an hundred walks, keeping con¬ 
stantly in mind the nature and habits of the bushes 
and plants you intend cultivating, and never forget¬ 
ting the important truth that tender plants cannot 
endure our long, hot summers if the soil be too 
greatly drained. Yes, you may have as many walks 
as you please, for, after all, you have made your 
garden more for your own than for anybody else’s 
entertainment. Assuming your garden to be at 
last laid off, and that, too, in accord with a happy 
and healthful taste, you will now border your walks, 
and consider what to plant generally, where to plant 
it, when to plant it, and how to plant it. To treat 
each of these heads separately and minutely were to 
overreach the office of this article. But to your 
borders: Have done with box, and border with some 
hardy perennial, low-growing grass—whatever kind 
is best adapted to your climate. Your grass once es¬ 
tablished, you have beautiful, substantial edgings of 
green distinguishing the different divisions of jour 
garden, and not rough, unsightly rows of box, fenc¬ 
ing off each bed as a garden of itself. The grass, 
too, will hold the borders firmly to their places, there¬ 
by securing for all time the tidy and distinctive cha¬ 
racter of your walks. 
Now what shall you plant ? Anything you want 
and can afford ; the soil is ready. But if you would 
have the prettiest effect, do not crowd your ground. 
Put out only the best plants. Place on one bed the 
showy Tritoma; on another the magnificent Pampas 
Grass. In some half-shaded spot put the Dragon 
Tree ; and in still another, not less shaded, plant the 
Caladium. Put in the centre of this bed an im¬ 
proved variety of the Ganna; while in the centre 
of that division you may set an ever-blooming Bose 
of fine variety. On the most conspicuous corners of 
the several beds group free-flowering Geraniums of 
hardy habits. Nearest the door (particularly if the 
door faces the east) you may have a small plat of 
mixed grasses to relieve the reflection of the summer 
sun. In some partly sequestered nook have a rich 
bed of Pansies, apparently placed there by accident. 
The bloomers you design for cut-flowers should grow 
near the walks. If there are trees in your garden 
(there ought not to be many) adorn the surface about 
their bases with shallow-rooted shade-loving plants. 
The preceding directions for planting are not intend¬ 
ed to be followed literally, but humbly to illustrate 
a general plan for an ordinary garden. With your 
soil prepared and your walks arranged you may set 
out what shrubs and plants you like, taking care to 
avoid a crowded appearance; this much done, sub¬ 
scribe to some meritorious, first-class work on flowers 
and floral subjects, and you cannot fail of success. 
Mbs. Elba H. 
“ I shouldn’t think there would be such a word as 
‘ breakfast,’ ” remarked a young linguist to his 
mother the other morning. “ Why not, dear J ?” ask¬ 
ed she. “Because, ma,” replied the boy, “it an’t 
natural. Things never break-fast—they break- 
loose.” There was a sad bewilderment of expression 
in the face of that mother as she gazed speechlessly 
upon her precious son. 
There is a precocious six-year-old boy who is won¬ 
derful on spelling and definition. The other day his 
teacher asked him to spell “ matrimony.” “ M-a-t- 
r-i-m-o-n-y,” said the youngster promptly. “Now 
define it,” said the teacher. “ Well,” replied the 
boy, “ I don’t know exactly what it means, but I 
know mother’s got enough of it,” 
