Garden Notes 
HOW THE VINES ADDED AN ELEMENT OF BEAUTY TO THE TOOL HOUSE 
chimney-tops, in time, and 
cover the roof, if you let it. 
There seems no limit to its 
possibilities in this direction. 
Another excellent native 
vine is the clematis. It is 
beautiful when in full bloom, 
its delicate white flowers mak¬ 
ing its foliage look as if flecked 
with foam, when seen at a 
little distance. Later in the 
season, its silky-tailed seeds 
are as attractive as any flow¬ 
ers could be. The writer has 
a beautiful plant of it which 
was allowed to take posses¬ 
sion of a lilac bush, as a sup¬ 
port. It completely covered 
the bush, and was one of the 
most admired features of the 
home grounds, last season. 
In most localities of the middle 
West, this vine can be found 
growing in old fence corners, 
and the edges of woods, and 
it can easily be transplanted 
in the spring. 
There is a variety of clem¬ 
atis of recent introduction, 
which deserves especial atten¬ 
tion, because of its late flower¬ 
ing habit. It is in the height 
of its beauty in September 
and October after most vines have passed into “the 
sere-and-yellow-leaf” stage of their existence. Its 
foliage is a darker, richer, glossier green than that 
of the native clematis, and its flowers are larger and 
wider of petal, therefore much showier. They are 
borne in long sprays. A more graceful or beautiful 
vine it would be hard to imagine. It is of rampant 
habit, and, after the first season or two, will readily 
include the second storey of the house in its field 
of operations. 
Too often we forget that the grounds about the 
house can be made vastly more attractive by the ex¬ 
penditure of a little time, labor and money. Or, if 
we do not forget the fact, we neglect to be governed 
by it, and the consequence is that the house-grounds 
are lacking in little beauty spots which might be 
constructed with very little trouble. Last season 
I was greatly pleased with a house of rustic construc¬ 
tion, which a friend of mine had built at some dis¬ 
tance from the dwelling, ostensibly as a store-house 
for garden tools, but really because he thought a 
structure of some kind would add attraction to that 
part of the grounds. And he was right about it. 
I he building was made of posts set into the ground, 
boarded over, and finished with bark put on as 
shown in the illustration, and a shingle roof. Over 
it was trained the Japan hop of which I have already 
spoken. This was made use of temporarily, be¬ 
cause of its rapid grow T th, but an ampelopsis was 
set out with a view to its covering the structure 
permanently, after the first season. The house is 
a most attractive feature of the place. The children 
of the family petitioned the “powers that be” to 
turn it over to them as a play-house, and very likely 
it will be turned into that this season. But, as tool- 
house or play-house, it serves a purpose which I am 
glad to call attention to, and I trust the picture will 
so please some reader that he will undertake the 
construction of a similar building on his home 
grounds. A roofed, but uninclosed pavilion, with 
vines trained up its posts, makes a most delightful 
summer-house, and one in which the whole family 
will spend a good deal of its time during the hot 
season, if it is made large enough to accommodate a 
hammock and half a dozen chairs constructed on 
lines conducive to ease-taking and solid comfort. 
And the beauty of it is any man or boy, with or¬ 
dinary ingenuity, and a little knowledge of the use 
of tools, can build such a house without the assist¬ 
ance of a professional, and, in the budding of it, 
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