HOUSE AND GARDEN 
February, 
i 91.0 
Back in the days of our Colonial ancestors they understood the 
value of the picket fence or hedge 
it at once, likewise its varying width upon the ground — here thick 
and dense, there sparse and thin. This irregularity and the vary¬ 
ing form are more important than its color or than the variety 
of plants composing it, for the picturesque charm which distin¬ 
guishes it is almost entirely owing to these. 
Then note that the direction of such a boundary changes, 
even though it may follow a generally straight line, and that the 
corners are never sharply turned. And finally, record carefully 
the fact that Nature uses lavishly one or two kinds of plant and 
allows only a fugitive specimen here and there of others, half 
hidden among them. 
A solitary umbel of flaming bunchberry which once caught my 
eye from beneath a mass of sumach and elder along a meadow 
boundary near a patch of old woods, always recurs to me in this 
connection. Who but Nature — unless possibly a Japanese — ever 
composed with such cunning simplicity? Fifty bunchberries 
would have made more show—but how much less of an 
impression! 
Even where the space permits a border planting varying from 
ten to twenty feet in width, it is better to limit the varieties to 
three or four, rather than risk the jumbled and crowded effect 
which results from the use of too many. Trees may accent a 
point here and there but they are not necessary, for with four 
kinds of shrubs, properly selected, a sufficientlv varied skyline is 
assured without them. 
The dwarf Juneberry or shadbush (Amelanchier Botryapium), 
which reaches 20 feet in height, the kinnikinic or silky dogwood 
Whether the boundary be a fence or a hedge, it is advisable to 
mark the entrance with a wooden gateway or arbor 
A low hedge pushes through this Vancouver, B. C., front fence, 
making a secure protection and an attractive boundary 
(Cornus sericea), growing to 10 feet, the elderberry (Sambucus 
Canadensis), attaining anything from 5 to 12, and Thunberg’s 
barberry (Berberis Tbunbergii), which stops at 4 feet, are a quartet 
from which any desired combination may be worked out by care¬ 
ful planning. 
Reedy grasses help in reproducing Nature’s careless liberality 
if they are used moderately and in her way. The great reed 
(Arundo donax), which towers to 20 feet and sometimes higher, 
the pampas grass (Gynerium argenteum ) or the native spike grass 
(IJniola latifolia), the former reaching 10 feet, the latter 4, are all 
hardy and good though the latter is undoubtedly best for use with 
shrubs where a natural effect is sought. The others are too 
dominating and overtop a modest border with their rank, tropical 
luxuriance. 
Within the outer boundaries of a place there are numerous 
lesser “limits” to be marked; the service or kitchen yard needs 
its screen, the vegetable garden its protection, the chickens their 
restriction, and perhaps a rose or flower garden its shelter and 
seclusion. 
Each of these inner boundaries should be made the motif for 
some particularly individual treatment, thus combining utility 
and beauty. A high service yard lattice is the best possible place 
for those fruit trees which in English and European gardens are 
trained on walls. 
Arbors and trellises should always mark a boundary instead 
of being set aimlessly down without any reason for being there. 
In fact if there is any one thing about garden design that 1 believe 
needs emphasizing more than another it is this:—nothing should 
ever be built or planted without a reason; a reason, mind—not 
an excuse. 
Finally, never leave a fence or wall or other boundary un¬ 
planted. Whether the defense which you have adopted is a brick 
wall or chicken wire strung on gas pipe, be not satisfied with 
it and it alone. Give it clothing; if there is only room for a hedge 
inside it or for vines to clamber through or over it, have the hedge 
or the vines. Let the living green frame the lawn and furnish 
the background for flowers or whatever may be introduced. 
Not a single summer need go by with such a fence or wall 
barren, for sweet peas or morning glories—get the Imperial 
Japanese variety — will cover it in no time, while the slower,hardy 
stuff is making growth. The evergreen honeysuckles are, of all 
fence-climbers the most satisfactory, to me at least; not only 
because they are so hardy, and practically evergreen, but because 
they blossom freely and fill the air with such delightful fragrance. 
Planted at ten-foot intervals and “layered” for a couple of years— 
a long branch from each plant laid down along the fence to root, 
covered lightly at the joints with earth—they form a growth in a 
very short time so dense and compact that it is virtually a hedge. 
