The first thing to plant in a seashore garden is a wind-break of privet and native trees, for without it the sea wind can be counted on to shrivel off leaves from the most 
promising plants 
PLANTING A WIND-BREAK—NATIVE GROWTHS FOR NATURAL EFFECTS—LILIES AND GRASSES 
V. F. Penrose 
D O you want a garden in the sand where east winds rage? 
First plant privet as a hedge. By the hundred or thousand 
rates it will not be very expensive, and you must have protection. 
Of course, the native bay is more according to nature, but it 
does not grow so quickly. When you have a dense growth of 
privet there is something to break the sea wind, which baffles 
most gardeners, and can be counted on to shrivel off leaves from 
the most promising vines and trees if unprotected. 
Top-soil is necessary if you are in a hurry and cannot allow a 
lot of manure to ripen and lie fallow on your sand, to be dug in 
after a full winter. Fall planting gives the best results for most 
things, and top-soil, plus manure, will hasten matters. I save all 
cuttings from shrubs and flowers to mulch with in the late fall or 
during the hot, dry season. Tamarisk makes a wind-break in 
Bermuda, but it seems to need first a good wind-break itself in 
New Jersey, then grows dense with much clipping, forming an 
attractive background for shrubs and flowers. 
As stone houses are not always to be found, foundation plant¬ 
ing around a frame house, especially with evergreens, means much 
damage to it in the necessary every three-years’ painting of all 
your woodwork. And are you not a little weary of the same 
style of planting wherever you may go? By our ugly lattice¬ 
An arbor can be made from cedar posts covered with wire netting, over which vines 
—clematis and honeysuckle—can grow 
work around the high-set porches, deciduous, tall things like boc- 
conia and boltonia, which grow up from the roots, have proved 
most attractive and suitable. The painters do not hurt them. 
They grow, when such work is done in the fall, or early spring, 
in fine style. Mallow marvels could be used in the same way if 
desired. Remember, however, that they must be cultivated 
during their growing season — June. 
Ailanthus glandulosa, the female form, helps make high walls, 
if you want protection from neighboring eyes, as we did. It 
hides ugly garages, etc. For it is often the “etc.” that must be 
considered. Red cedars transplant easily, and are usually to be 
had for the digging, along inland roadsides. Many native 
growths may be had, but often you will find better results with 
nursery stock. Elders will grow twelve feet tall. You must be 
content to wait three years for real transformation unless you 
can afford to buy large stock, and even then it may die down. 
My native gardener advised me to “buy small things.” His ad¬ 
vice has proved its own worth. 
Catalpas are most attractive in the native growth. The clipped 
and formal planting, Catalpa Bungei, may do for some large 
places where “style,” more than beauty, is “the thing,” but the 
(Continued on page 370) 
It is best to follow native growths — let the privet be untrimmed, fc>-ming a background 
for lilies and border plants 
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