HOUSE AND GARDEN 
February,1910 
An ingenious pergola-like boundary that is a well defined boundary 
without shutting out a glimpse of the garden 
The old idea that no boundaries make for spaciousness is exploded. 
Spaciousness is not gained and all privacy is lost 
the outside world and suggest its aspect of refuge and snug 
retreat, of safe and pleasant harbor. And the smaller the place 
and more thickly settled the neighborhood, the more imperative 
the need for this defensive setting apart, the greater the gain 
from this resolute planting out of the big world and planting in of 
the little, individual one. 
Suburban plots are usually small and cramped, to be sure, 
obviously too small for a marginal planting of trees and shrubs, 
but no matter how tiny the place may be there is some suitable 
enclosure for it. It is simply a question of finding out what that 
•may be. 
Seldom is anything better for the small place than a hedge. 
Whether it shall be evergreen or deciduous depends upon the 
amount which is appropriated for its cost—have the former if 
possible — and whether it shall be formally clipped or left to grow 
in natural, informal abandon depends upon its owner’s taste 
partly, and partly upon the style of the house and the place 
generally. 
Among evergreens the hemlock spruce ( Tsuga Canadensis ) 
stands quite apart to my mind—pre-eminently the loveliest and 
best in all respects. No amount of shearing destroys the feathery 
grace of its young growth, its deep rich color is always fine winter 
and summer, it grows rapidly, is perfectly hardy, not difficult 
to transplant and not particular about soil, providing there is a 
fairly constant supply of moisture down below the surface. 
Plants up to a foot high are listed at $15 per hundred; two 
feet high they cost $40. They may go into the ground two feet apart 
but eighteen inches is better, insuring thicker growth much earlier of 
course. Compared to this, privet at $3 per hundred or even at 
$5, which is the price of strong, bushy plants from which a five- 
foot hedge may be produced in three years time in rich soil, is 
decidedly cheap. This also may be trimmed as much as one 
wishes and into any shape. The best form for any hedge is the 
inverted wedge shape, altogether too rarely seen. This allows 
the lower branches to get their full share of sunlight and air and 
it also catches less snow during winter and saves the strain and 
breaking down common after ice storms and blizzards. 
Set privet plants nine inches apart and cut down uniformly to 
within six inches of the ground at time of planting, or even closer 
if the plants are not stalky. Privet branches in whorls of three 
wherever it is cut; in order to secure a good strong base these 
branchings ought to be very close to the ground, and though it 
seems a pity to sacrifice so much on the height of the plants, a 
season’s growth more than makes it up—and then the hedge is 
well begun. 
The English hawthorn {Crataegus oxyacantha), well beloved 
and famous, makes a charming flowery hedge either trimmed or 
untrimmed, if the pruning is done at the right season. In com¬ 
mon with other spring-flowering plants its bloom is borne on 
wood formed the previous season. Never prune it later therefore 
than the middle of summer—say the first of August — else you will 
destroy the next season’s flowering wood. It is generally best 
to confine the trimming of all this class of shrubs to the fortnight 
immediately following their blooming period, unless the plant bears 
ornamental fruits. Even then these will have set and may be 
spared, enough of them at least to make a brave winter show. 
Berberis aquijolium and Berberis Thunbergii, though seldom 
used for hedges, are splendidly adapted to them, whether trimmed 
or not. 1 he holly-like foliage of the former colors splendidly 
and persists late in the fall while the latter forms a dense broad 
mass of twiggy growth so well protected by its tiny thorns that 
nothing will molest it. 
Nature offers the best possible model for boundary planting on 
a larger scale. Observe her treatment of any irresponsible water¬ 
course whence some truant brooklet loiters and hurries alternately 
on its way; or of an old roadside where she is left undisturbed, or 
along an old fence or roughly piled stone wall. 
Look first at the form — the general shape — of the mass of wild 
growth. Its irregular skyline will impress eyes that are opened to 
It is only on the larger estates that one can have boundaries of trees, 
shrubs and flower borders in combination 
