WHAT SHALL MY GARDEN COST? 
ELIZABETH LEONARD STRANG 
Landscape Architect 
Author of “Shrubs and Flowers for the Friendly House Front” (Apr., 1923, G. M.), “The Making 
of a Rock Garden” (Jan., 1921, G. M.) and other articles 
Gaining a Maximum of Effect with a Mini¬ 
mum Expenditure of Time, Effort, and Pence 
HETHER we shall own the garden, or whether it is to 
own us, becoming with its insatiable demands a verit¬ 
able tyrant consuming all our precious hours of ease, 
is for us to determine. In garden making excellence 
has its price, and we must pay for what we get in time, in money, 
or in work. But the price may be too high, if it be at the ex¬ 
pense of leisure, home 
companionship, and that 
mental agility incompati¬ 
ble with excessive mus¬ 
cular effort. 
Many, not knowing 
how to apply their re¬ 
sources to the best ad¬ 
vantage, entirely forego 
the pleasure of a garden; 
others with abundant 
means at their command 
fall far short of attaining 
beauty, because much 
energy is misapplied 
through an imperfect 
conception of what is ar¬ 
tistic and desirable. 
It is our present pur¬ 
pose to show what is es¬ 
sential in garden making 
for a maximum of effect 
with a minimum of effort. 
Are not few flowers and 
much pleasure rather to 
be desired than lavish 
abundance attained at 
too great a cost, heresy 
though it be to say so? 
To begin, these points 
arise in order: first the 
preparation of the soil; 
second, maintenance; 
third, design as affecting 
maintenance; fourth, the 
selection of the plants 
themselves; and last, 
their effective arrange¬ 
ment. 
Getting the Ground 
Ready 
A ssuming that one 
L is prepared to ex¬ 
pend a fair sum in the 
beginning, with the ex¬ 
pectation that it will 
take less to keep it going 
afterward, the most fun¬ 
damental preliminary is 
the preparation of the 
soil. It is possible, 
though not desirable, to 
skimp on this by choos¬ 
ing plants adapted to 
“PLANTS SO THICK THAT THERE IS NO ROOM FOR WEEDS” 
A lovely sweep of sky-blue bloom where Forget-me-nots (Myosotis 
palustris shown above) cover the ground so thoroughly as to preclude 
all possibility of weeds, thus lightening the gardener’s obligations 
adversity, but of that anon. The venerated rule for perennial 
beds says: “ Dig all beds two feet deep, remove all gravelly or 
sandy sub-soil, replace with good loam with which is incor¬ 
porated one fourth leaf mould, one fourth well-rotted cow 
manure, the whole to be well mixed and screened through a 
one-inch mesh. Heap up beds four inches to allow for settling, 
and top-dress with bone- 
meal, wood ashes, and 
nitrate of soda, sprinkled 
on until the ground looks 
white.” It pays—for 
years to come, there is 
no doubt about it. You 
will save its cost in the 
lives of many plants, and 
in buying fewer of them 
because they grow so big. 
But it is initially expen¬ 
sive. 
Another way, almost, 
if not quite as good, is 
to trench, putting the old 
sods upside down in the 
bottom, then four inches 
of well-rotted manure, 
fill with good loam, 
and add another four- 
inch layer of manure 
well-spaded in, heaped 
up and top-dressed as 
before. 
Sometimes, when deal¬ 
ing with the rejuvenation 
of an old garden it is in¬ 
expedient to take out all 
the plants and remake 
the soil, though it is a 
nice thing to do every 
five years. I n such cases 
top-dress heavily in the 
fall with manure, work¬ 
ing it in as well as possi¬ 
ble with a fork between 
the plants. All fallen 
leaves are to be saved 
and worked in to make 
humus. If the soil is 
soggy, a load of sand 
well mixed in effects a 
great improvement. If 
barnyard manure is hard 
to get, pulverized sheep 
manure which has not so 
many weed seeds, does 
well enough, provided 
that leaves are used in 
place of the manure, to 
break up the soil and 
improve its texture. 
Plants, like people, need 
plenty of breathing- 
262 
