HOUSE AND GARDEN 
AI AY, 1912 
An effective garden arrangement with a circular central bed divided in half and four curved corner beds 
allow for the paths, and more 
space will be needed if the 
plants used are likely to have 
much of an overhang. Or a 
square plot may be laid out in 
four beds in either one of two 
ways— with a square central 
bed and four L-shaped corner 
ones, or with the same corner 
beds curved on the inside to 
follow the lines of a circular 
central bed. 
In the actual planting, even 
of a five-piece design, the pos¬ 
sibilities are so numerous that 
a lifetime would be too short 
to begin to test the combina¬ 
tions on one plot of ground. 
Whether the grower wants 
form, color, fragrance, or all 
three, the trouble will always 
be what to select from the em¬ 
barrassment of riches ; this, too, 
after reaching the sensible con¬ 
clusion that only the annuals 
that are long of bloom and tol¬ 
erably comi)act of habit are 
worth while as weaving mate¬ 
rial. Beds in all of these three 
designs should be edged with some low-growing flower, leaving 
to individual preference the question as to whether the filling be 
a massing of one variety or a patterned array of several. When 
it comes to a border, either straight or entrancingly crooked, 
formality can be thrown to the four winds. And it may well be, 
save in the case of a straight border, where not infrequently for¬ 
mal edging, at least, is desirable. A border with any curves at 
all is best planted in patches of irregular shape. The same is 
true where a border spreads in one or more places to two or three 
times its width or where, instead of a border, there is a large 
bed of a greater or less degree of regularity. 
These patches, which it is rather pleasant to call colonies, are 
the saving grace of borders and unconventional beds- — where it 
is seldom advisable to plant annuals in straight rows, unless it be 
for an edging. One way to use them most eflfectively is, work¬ 
ing from the rear, to make precisely the same sort of irregularity 
that a coast line follows with its capes and bays. Other varieties 
are then employed to fill in the "bays" and the space between the 
walk, turf, and the line of 
"capes.” In the case of a bor¬ 
der along a meandering path, 
or a large bed of irregular 
shape, an admirable plan is to 
arrange the colonies something 
on the "craz3’-quilt" order. If 
the colonies are of generous, 
but varying, size, this arrange¬ 
ment does not look patchy. 
Now and then let a plant or 
two from one colony stray 
over into the next one; this 
makes a good “bridge” at any 
time, and when the color con¬ 
trast is sharp renders the pic¬ 
ture more agreeable to the eye. 
The cost of a garden of an¬ 
nuals may be so exceedingly 
low that the mone}' end will 
appear a negligible quantity. A 
few five-cent packages of flow¬ 
er seeds and you are through 
with spending money for a 
whole season. Nearly one hun¬ 
dred annuals are within the 
nickel limit. Most of these are 
desirable in one way or an- 
(Contimied on page 55) 
At the right of this straight path hollyhocks are planted; at the left, irregular clumps of well-known annuals 
