7 n*i. 
Joins Wards 
A Spring Border in Mrs. King's Michigan Garden. Dar¬ 
win Tulips, French Lilac with Bleeding Heart nearby. 
Gypsophila, Pink Hollyhock, Zinnias and Hardy Phlox in 
Mrs. King's Garden. (Courtesy Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.) 
HERE IS MRS. KING’S PERSONAL MESSAGE TO 
The Little Garden 
The little garden provides beauty. It offers exciting 
occupation, joyous anticipation as the gardener scans 
the seed and plant lists—happiness as he sees the pic¬ 
tures made by his flowers under the light of morning, 
noon and evening. It gives him pleasure too in shar¬ 
ing the increase of his plants. 
The garden is a place of friendship. If gardeners of 
all nations could meet, comparing notes, is it too much 
to believe that international peace might come? 
The garden is the concern of the whole family. It 
provides a place for play and an out-of-door living 
room. If vegetables and fruits are added to the flowers, 
as always they should be, then what an improvement 
in the family table! With what pride the gardener 
tastes his first peas, his early corn, or watches the 
yellowing apples on his little tree in August! 
With a simple plan on paper to be carried out on the 
ground, with thorough preparation of the soil, and with 
a carefully considered planting there is no reason why 
any small garden should not be successful. A bit of land 
of one's own, some knowledge of design, very little money 
but much thought, imagination, and constant work—these 
and the will-to-garden can bring forth astonishing results. 
"Work is the great reality; Beauty is the great aim." 
There is nothing to take the place of the little garden. It 
is the resource, the delight, the comfort of mankind. 
2 2 MONTGOMERY WARD CBAKSD C ci A a 
FEB 10 1336 
Planning the Little Garden 
The simplest planning of flowers is a border along a 
boundary of fence, wall or hedge. "Bed" is no longer the 
word for the place of flowers today. "Garden" and 
% 'Border" are the expressions now in use. A border is a 
strip of land with edges either curving or straight, for 
attractive groupings of flowers. 
The garden plan should be simple and direct. It should, 
if possible, have balance. Not areas or 'beds' of equal 
size marked off stiffly on either side of a walk, but the 
sympathetic relating of one feature to the others. 
The plan should be sketched on paper before a spade is 
put into the ground. With a definite plan, the smallest 
back yard can be divided to give ample spaces for flowers, 
and for those other growing things, children, and their 
play. A simple plan is a border of flowers on three sides, 
leaving a center of smooth grass. A good tree for shade — 
at the further left hand corner and a few well grouped 
accents in the two farthest right and left hand comers of 
the flower borders — and the plan is made. 
Any scheme for a little garden should be made with 
the idea of fitness for its general surroundings. The 
garden should he where it can be most enjoyed as a picture—- 
for it is a picture — a picture that ever changes. The 
garden never stands still; it is always improving or running 
down, depending upon the constancy and care of those 
who own and work in it. 
J j 
1936 by Montgomery Ward & Co., Inc. 
196429 3—2 opyri9il 
