HOUSE AND GARDEN 
August, 
1914 
From a neighboring field were brought blue flags that were planted by the hundred on the margin 
’em outen de las swamp he gwine to, an' lessen dey 
stay close by dis time he sho’ nuff gwine to trim 
dem up.” 
All that summer I had the pleasure of picking 
from one to a dozen lilies a day, for they began to 
bloom the last of July and continued until the frost 
nipped them in October, and the additional pleasure 
of seeing other water gardens spring up from the 
grounds of my friends, some of them larger and 
more elaborate, but none of them nearer to Nature's 
heart or more keenly enjoyed than this one. 
Realization so seldom outstrips anticipation that 
when it does, one feels impelled to pass on the pos¬ 
sibility to others. Of course a water garden pre¬ 
supposes a reliable water supply. In this case a 
windmill supplying our cottage and two other 
neighbors could be depended upon to furnish water 
as often as was needed to make up the loss from 
evaporation and transpiration by plant life. Ordi¬ 
narily the hose was turned on for a couple of 
hours once in two weeks during the hottest summer months. 
A few years later I made another pond on our farm. Here 
the conditions were entirely different. We had an ideal situation : 
the ground sloped gradually from the garden, our water supply 
was the overflow from a spring further up the slope, and we had 
a beautiful forest background. 
But the despised modeling clay which had made the first pond 
such a simple and inexpensive thing to construct was lacking 
here, and as inclination and means have obliged me to practice 
only the free and inexpensive ways of gardening, which really 
give the greatest happiness for the least expenditure, a cement 
pool was not to be considered. Knowing that I had neither moles 
nor water rats to burrow through my pond walls, I decided upon 
a puddled clay bottom and sides. 
The men who were doing the excavating were fearful that stiff 
clay would not be found on the place, but a charge of dynamite 
which was fired to dislodge a sulky granite boulder from the 
pond site disclosed a bed of blue clay. This I hailed with delight 
and instructed the men to use it in covering the sides and bottom 
of the pond to a depth of four inches, after it had been well 
worked and kneaded to the consistency of puddle. One end was 
dammed up and here I was obliged to use cement, but the shoulder 
came below the water surface, and the hard edge of walling was 
disguised by the judicious use of moss-covered boulders. 
One must remember, however, that no rocks of any kind can 
possibly be an ornament unless they are natural or appear to be 
so, and are associated with suitable plants. 
Here we used the native shrubs as a background, and I have 
gratefully observed that those found within a radius of a few 
miles give a better effect and grow more vigorously than those 
ordered from a distance. An old lady in the neighborhood shame¬ 
lessly shared her sumac and wild cherry, and that most generous 
of all shrubs, the lovely white alder, informing Eli with a know¬ 
ing wink that she ‘‘w’ant going to let it get out in the neighbor¬ 
hood that I was collecting such rubbish.” 
The rugged old boulders that were rolled up from the bed of 
the pond and which were sparingly used as rockwork on one 
side, simply demanded pine trees as companions, and these too 
came from a nearby pasture. 
Whenever we see natural waterfalls we see either close by or 
at a distance still higher ground from which the water has sprung. 
So in this case I was glad to have my tiny streamlet visible above 
the waterfall as it found its way through crisp mint and sweet 
flag. And, as the water supply in this case is somewhat limited 
during a dry season, we contrived a little cave in the inlet end 
of the pond which gives that most necessary thing, a dark back¬ 
ground. The tiniest stream as it falls over this can be inveigled 
into giving out a pleasant tinkle, and the background gives a 
double life and charm to the little stream as it flows over the 
mossy boulders and trickles finally into the pool. 
We had the pond site plowed up first, then two 
men with a team scraped out the soil to a depth of 
three feet in the center, and about one foot near 
the edges. We gave it an irregular pear shape, and 
covered the bottom with good garden soil. The 
work of planting is of the very simplest descrip¬ 
tion. The lily roots, which were the overflow from 
my first pond, were placed in ancient pieces of bur¬ 
laps with soil as ballast, and dropped into position; 
sometimes we simply fastened a stone to a root and 
dropped it into place, being careful always to use 
old, tender pieces of burlaps, that the roots might 
escape easily. 
They were planted in May, and the pond was shel¬ 
tered, though not shady, for water lilies must have 
full sunlight. The second year we had from fifty 
to seventy-five blossoms at a time from May to 
October. 
The plants used in the margin and banks of the 
pond were cow parsnips, the native blue flag, the 
(Continued on page 108) 
My ideal was an informal garden, where children might have a safe and glorious time 
