What Can be Done in Ten Years 
In the long bed in the lower garden there 
are great groups of London-pride (scarlet 
lychnis) and tall tiger-lilies, but these do not 
harmonize with the beds in the terrace bor¬ 
der, and the plants are very encroaching, so 
they are not allowed to appear in it. 
If expense were no object, it would be 
easy to plan a perfect little formal garden 
just below this terrace, on which the house 
would look down; but where no animals 
are kept on a place, it is wise to limit the 
garden to such a space as can be properly 
enriched without too large an expenditure. 
It is all very well to dream of wide ex¬ 
panses, of mymds of plants of one kind, 
of rods and rods of different flowers, but 
these require a gardener and no end of food. 
Merely cutting the flowers means a great 
deal of labor and much time ; and if a gar¬ 
den is to be kept in condition, all blooms 
past their prime must be removed every 
day. One can be a slave to a row of sweet- 
peas, which promptly grows shabby if neg¬ 
lected for a very short time, and the arrang¬ 
ing of flowers in vases may take hours. To 
those who are short handed, I recommend 
a certain indifference to neglect and wild¬ 
ness in the more distant sections of the 
garden, for Nature herself will see that the 
untrained luxuriance has its beauty, and yields 
its harvest of bloom in sweet succession.. 
One word about a border on the north 
side of a house, if such be desired. It must be 
remembered that in summer the sun rises far 
to the north of east and sets far north of west, 
so that whatever is there planted gets a good 
deal of sunlight, both in the earlv morning 
and late afternoon, so it need not be given 
over wholly to ferns and other shade-loving 
plants, if there are no trees to intercept the 
full light. Pansies will bloom all summer, 
and tuberous begonias will rejoice in just 
such an exposure, so that one can be sure 
of a blaze of color all the time. 
Nothing is more effective in the curves 
of the garden borders or shrubbery than a 
mass of tall larkspurs of varying blues, which 
can be kept blooming steadily by cutting the 
stalks down to the ground so soon as they 
have flowered. T hese are exquisite in con¬ 
trast with the tall white lilies which blossom 
in midsummer. 
With regard to transplanting hardy flow¬ 
ering plants, I find that with proper care 
not to disturb the roots, they can be moved 
from place to place at almost any time, if set 
in good soil, and kept well watered and 
shaded for a few days. 1 have sometimes 
brought home in my hand or in a valise, in 
midsummer, some perennial from a friend’s 
garden, and have not been disappointed in my 
hopes that it would bear the change and live. 
So many are the 
lovely flowers with 
which one longs to 
crowd the borders, that 
each attempt to speak 
of a garden extends it¬ 
self into an essay. The 
rose alone demands a 
chapter, the lily an¬ 
other, and who shall 
chronicle those lesser 
beauties which, as says 
the poet, are the stars 
of earth’s firmament. 
After all, it is not the 
myriad varieties which 
make your garden 
lovable, but the spirit 
which animates it, the 
suggestion it affords, 
the changes forever 
possible. No garden is 
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