A Kentucky Garden of Individuality 
A|PLANTING SCHEME THAT IS FULL OF VARIETY AND PROVIDES MANY INTERESTING RETREATS—THE USE 
OF BEDDING PLANTS FOR BEST EFFECT—HOW A VEGETABLE GARDEN WAS RENDERED ATTRACTIVE 
by Ingram Crockett. 
Photographs by R. S. Crockett 
HE first charm of a beautiful garden is 
its individuality—that something in 
the ‘‘lay of the land,” as we Ken¬ 
tuckians say; in the turn of a walk, 
in grouping, in an indescribable touch 
here and there, something in atmos¬ 
phere and in background. 
I have striven to give my garden 
this charm. It is undulating. It 
bears marks of having grown and of 
being somewhat uncertain as to 
method after several years of 
growth. It is also inconsistent, first 
inclining to formality, and, with the 
advance of the season, running over 
into wild naturalness. 
In the ordering of my garden, so far as it takes ordering at my 
hands, I may say that a poor flower in the right place means more 
to me than a fine one in the wrong place. Along this line I pre¬ 
fer shrubbery to shrubs—massed color to detached—although, of 
course, certain flowers should always stand by themselves. 
The approach to my garden is through curved hardy borders 
that converge at a 
bridge over a brook. 
These hardy borders 
are edged with spirea 
Anthony Waterer and 
low-growing phlox 
and are gradually 
built up toward the 
tall grasses at the 
back with tall varie¬ 
ties of phlox, holly¬ 
hocks, Boltonia aster¬ 
oid es, Helianthus 
multidoriis and Max- 
imilliana, and filled in 
with annuals and 
scarlet cannas. By 
thus filling in I have 
a succession of bloom. 
Back of the grasses, 
and overtopping 
them, are banana 
plants, and beyond the 
brook, and still high¬ 
er than the bananas, 
are four formal catal- 
pas. The effect of the 
whole is tropical. 
Along the brook and around the bridge is Japanese iris. The 
bridge is flanked by tree altbeas, whence the ground rises gradu¬ 
ally to the upper garden. 
Crossing the bridge, which is sodded, a grass walk passes be¬ 
tween hardy beds of iris, lilies, and peonies backed with early 
and late flowering shrubs such as kerria, golden bell, weigelias 
and bocconia. Here again I fill in with salvias, cannas, zinnias and 
single white petunias, which are effective when properly grouped. 
The rise of the ground enables one on the lawn to get the full 
beauty of form and color of these different plants and shrubs, 
while the grass walk running through the garden in unbroken 
green, even over the bridge, gives a vista from the tea-house 
and fountain, past the fine evergreens in the lower lawn to the 
front gate—a distance of about six hundred feet. 
The roses are kept in beds by themselves and a narrow grass 
walk enables one to get at them from all sides. 
The upper garden is level and lends itself to a more formal ar¬ 
rangement as will be seen by the sketch. I have endeavoied to 
arrange the phlox bed with regard to color harmony, adding 
white to it from time to time to soften the general tone. 
Along the walk leading to the sun-dial are lilies, peonies, tri- 
toma and Oriental poppies. 
The bed marked 6 I fill in with dwarf scarlet zinnias beginning 
at the outer borders and building up with tall scarlet sorts toward 
the center which is of King Humbert cannas. This bed is a 
blaze of color until frost. 
The beds in the rear marked 8 and 9 are of various perennials 
— rudbeckias, helianthus, boltonia, and bocconia toward the cen¬ 
ter and giant daisies, asters hardy and annual and old-fashioned 
chrysanthemums near 
the borders. If there 
are bare places I fill in 
with annuals that will 
harmonize and give 
the needed continuous 
color. 
Annual larkspur and 
four o’clocks I find 
most satisfactory and 
I use them extensive¬ 
ly as borders. 
The sun-dial is of 
rough concrete ivy- 
wreathed, in the 
midst of a little grass 
plot bordered with 
box. Its motto: 
“Sun and shadow mark 
the hours 
Of the days of men and 
flowers,” 
is home-made. 
At the end of the 
garden are tea-house 
and fountain in the 
midst of climbing 
roses and clematis 
and scattered about are fruit trees — a pleasant resting place, 
especially at sundown when the wood-thrush is singing and the 
great hanging garden of the after-glow fills the sky with inde¬ 
scribable beauty. 
Nature has done a great deal for my garden by surrounding 
it with noble trees. About it are a score of century oaks, sweet 
gums and sycamores. A black oak with a spread of a hundred 
The path beside the vegetable garden is bordered by a dahlia hedge and an edging of 
nasturtiums, which make it have all the charm of a flower garden 
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