House and Garden 
A good plan in arranging a garden is to have 
a large central bed, which may be either a water 
pool for lotus, a rockery or bed of flowers, or even 
a large circle of emerald turf, surrounding a sun¬ 
dial, or a garden table and seats, surmounted by an 
immense Japanese umbrella, and the beds and paths 
radiating from this. The beds, starting from this 
more or less restricted centre will be narrow at first 
but will gradually widen as they near the limits of 
the garden. 
In planning a garden it should be borne in mind 
that the paths must be used for something more 
than to walk in. The wheelbarrow or band cart 
must be a frequent visitor, at least during the fall 
and spring months when the care of the garden is 
much in evidence, and ample room for movement 
should be provided as nothing is more annoying 
than narrow paths to work in; narrow paths, too, 
are unsightly and give the garden a crowded, untidy 
effect. 
The nature of the paths must depend largely 
upon the amount of expenditure one feels like mak¬ 
ing; dirt paths need constant weeding and are ex¬ 
ceedingly unpleasant to work on, while gravel, so 
dear to the heart of the English gardener, makes 
work on them a penitential season, especially when 
performed on one’s knees. A well drained cement 
walk is, perhaps, the ideal walk, but must be con¬ 
structed with a keen eye to the drainage, that it may 
dry promptly after a rain and not hold water on its 
surface. For a cheap, comfortable walk, perhaps 
no better material can be found than common hard 
coal ashes, sifted and laid three or four inches deep 
and well rolled. If in addition to this it is given a 
foundation of a few inches of gravel, a smooth, elas¬ 
tic walk, which dries quickly after rain and costs 
practically nothing, is secured. Sod walks are beau¬ 
tiful, but impractical. They require an amount 
of care that is out of all proportion to the effect, 
the grass is constantly encroaching upon the beds 
and must be kept cut out with the spade, while it is 
difficult to run the lawn mower close enough to the 
edge to trim evenly without doing more or less in¬ 
jury to the beds, thus necessitating the use of the 
shears. 
Then, too, the paths are always wet in the early 
morning and late afternoon and immediately after 
a rain—just those times when one most cares to 
work or stroll in the garden. The ideal path should 
dry quickly after rain, be elastic to the tread and 
smooth to kneel or work on. 
In planning the hardy garden, those plants which 
give the longest season of bloom should be selected 
for the more conspicuous positions, which will be, 
usually, from the centre of the garden, especially if 
this centre is composed of a bit of lawn and seats. 
Many of the early blooming varieties of hardy 
shrubs and plants, while very beautiful in them¬ 
selves, have so short a season of bloom that they 
should be massed well toward the back of the beds 
and the front of the beds filled with lower growing 
forms or annuals. There are many edging plants, 
both among the perennials and annuals that may 
be utilized here to good advantage, chief among 
these is the double English daisy, which is in bloom 
from the first vanishing of the snows until they 
come again. The schizantlms is another pretty bor¬ 
der plant of the annual calendar, suitable for edging. 
1 he new varieties grow about a foot high and during 
their season of bloom are a solid mass of flowers; 
unfortunately they die quickly after blooming and 
must be removed. A very good edger for the hardy 
beds is found in the summer oxalis, which starts 
promptly from spring planted bulbs and blooms 
continuously all summer. There is, also, a dwarf 
zinnia that is very desirable here, being of an in¬ 
tense cardinal scarlet, about a foot in height and a 
most profuse bloomer all summer. The hyperi- 
cum is a very desirable, low growing, perennial 
that may be planted in front of masses of taller plants 
and is very beautiful. 
In arranging the garden some attention must be 
paid to the color scheme if an harmonious effect 
is to be realized. It should be remembered that 
while red and blue do not combine harmoniously, 
different shades of red, as magenta and scarlet, are 
scarcely more happy. On the other hand most 
shades of red, rose and pink are beautiful with lav¬ 
ender, and a liberal amount of white much in¬ 
creases the brilliancy of the other colors. Blues 
should, as far as practicable, be planted in the rear 
as it increases the apparent distance, thus increas¬ 
ing the (apparent) dimensions of the garden, while 
such colors as scarlet and yellow, when planted in 
the rear, by bringing the boundaries nearer decrease 
the apparent size of the garden. 
If the garden space is limited to one garden and 
there is, consequently no separate rose garden, the 
front of the perennial beds affords a desirable place 
for the hybrid perpetuals, and teas, thus assuring 
a continuity of bloom throughout the season. Roses 
grown in connection with the hardy garden, however, 
must not be mixed with other plants but have a 
clear space to themselves and be kept free from 
weeds and well cultivated throughout the summer. 
These radiating beds, starting from a narrow point, 
and increasing in width towards the rear are very 
satisfactory for growing roses as the front rows can¬ 
not hide those in the rear, but allow all to be seen, 
while the hardy shrubbery in the rear forms a back¬ 
ground, which shows off the roses to good advan¬ 
tage. 
Another point that requires careful consideration 
in planning the garden, that is in deciding what 
plants shall be grown, is to guard against planting 
trouble in the form of plants that spread from the 
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