HOUSE AND GARDEN 
January, 1910 
fulfil the purpose winter and summer; if they cannot be used 
entirely it is well to make them form a large portion of every such 
group. 
Lack of space need not exclude them, for a hemlock hedge will 
take up as little room as anything; it may be brought to any 
desired height and will stand shearing into any form. And its 
impenetrable wall of soft, thick, beautiful green is lovely enough 
to need no excuse for being. 
But it is well, usually, when a screen has to be situated near at 
hand, to present it, itself, as a feature, frankly drawing and center¬ 
ing attention upon it, instead of attempting to make it unobtru¬ 
sive and unnoticed. Such an attempt is bound to fail when the 
distance is short; and the irritating suspicion which constantly 
recurs when the vision is intercepted by a group that, of itself, 
is not interesting enough to distract attention, is something to be 
avoided if possible. It is a subterfuge to feature the screen, but a 
perfectly excusable one. 
Countless ways to make such a barrier itself of special interest 
will suggest themselves, according to a situation. With a hem¬ 
lock hedge a semi-formal treatment is excellent; a pedestaled 
faun or a row of them, placed before it at intervals of ten to fifteen 
feet and gleaming white against the green will never grow weari¬ 
some. Or if these seem too ambitious for the rest of the place, 
substitute a sun-dial, an urn or a garden seat, with a flanking pair 
of small pyramidal boxwood or juniper trees, or a pair of flower¬ 
ing shrubs. Ramblers or pillar roses, gathered up and tied to a 
straight young sapling, take up very little room and grown this 
way are marvelously effective, lending themselves especially to 
cramped quarters. Simpler than anything else would be a row of 
these to form columns of bloom against the hemlock’s dark green. 
Privet grows much faster than hemlock and costs a great deal 
less — and it holds its bronzy leaves persistently even against wind 
and snow and frost. So, for prompt results, and cheaper, it is 
very satisfactory indeed; even without a leaf upon its branches 
an old privet hedge that has been properly trimmed is so twiggy 
that it very effectually hides the thing beyond it. 
Where there is room enough a thick planting of arbor vitae, 
hemlock, spruce or cedar, left untrimmed to form a natural back¬ 
ground for a border of flowering shrubs, cannot be improved upon. 
Low-growing evergreens may be used in place of the shrubs if one 
has a fancy for them rather than the latter’s summer bloom. 
11 
These conifers do double duty, protecting the garden and hiding dairy 
sheds only a hundred feet away 
For screens to be placed at a distance, on a place of consid¬ 
erable size, 1 should always recommend conifers as the dominant 
note, with deciduous trees beyond in as natural and forest-like 
relation as possible; a facing down of mountain maple ( Acer 
spicatum), the dwarf and very beautiful mountain pine ( Pinus 
montana, variety Mughus), or the low-growing junipers ( Juni - 
perus communis, varieties Canadensis, vulgaris, nana or pendula), 
will help in duplicating the appearance of a natural thicket. 
Whatever the thing may be that mars the outlook from within 
a dwelling or offends the eye at any point of the surrounding 
grounds, 1 should like to urge that something be done to annihilate 
it, promptly. There is no excuse for contemplating a neighbor’s 
chicken yard from the library windows, nor for tolerating a view 
of his tool house or wood pile from the front gate, for a little con¬ 
triving will find a way to hide them. Similarly, even remote 
objects may be blotted from the landscape; if not in one way then 
in another—for what a bush will not hide a pine tree will. 
The process whereby the outer world is included in one’s 
private grounds or garden—the “planting in” process—is obvi¬ 
ously not altogether that, literally. Rather is it a great deal more 
than that, for the term applies of course to any arrangement 
Quick-growing poplars against a wall make an 
adequate screen 
The white marbles break the monotony of and lend interest to the dense evergreen 
hedge, which hides a roadway winter and summer 
