May, 1916 
43 
them. A few days more saw the 
ground carefully raked and rolled 
to the finished grade, top-dressed 
with 4" of well rotted stable ma¬ 
nure which was thoroughly spaded 
in, and sprinkled with a generous 
mixture of bone meal, wood ashes 
and nitrate of soda. 
Then came the planting. We did 
not follow our paper plan blindly, but 
adjusted and varied things a bit as 
we went along, stimulated by some 
fine big shrubs that we moved from 
the other house as members of our 
Lares and Penates. With due cere¬ 
mony and a spade the flowers were 
put in their soft beds; the grass seed 
was sown, sprinkled with loam and 
rolled; the sod edges tamped around 
the sidewalk and service yard; step¬ 
ping stones laid in place, and, last of 
all, the little flower seeds were tucked 
in. 
Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Just 
casually stroll around, dig a 
few holes in the ground, and 
lo!—a garden of delight in a 
single night. But—ah, that homely 
little three - letter word with the 
triple-expansion, double action sig¬ 
nificance ! 
Learning by Experience 
We never did try to keep accurate tally 
■of the time and brain cells we exhausted 
on the selection and proper placing of those 
plants. And yet it was fun, genuine fun, 
experimenting and juggling them around to 
suit our liking. Good experience, too, and 
calculated to convince us that we were not 
omniscient. For instance: 
Tall cedars, rhododendrons and junipers 
were chosen for the forecourt. They looked 
superb when first set out, so strong and 
thrifty and gloriously green. But truth 
compels me to admit that during the next 
winter the snow amused itself by coasting 
down the slate roof en masse and annihilat¬ 
ing the rhododendrons; cold blasts from 
the north whistled joyously as they shriv¬ 
eled the leaves; and the following spring 
we had to move what was left of the poor 
things to the corner under the trees where 
their sturdy companions 
welcomed them and took 
them to their hearts. 
Of the junipers, only 
•one survived, a courage¬ 
ous, cheerful soul whose 
ambition was worthy of 
better things. We read 
the burial service over his 
deceased family, replaced 
them with Spiraea Van 
Honttei and some Japan¬ 
ese yews, and discovered 
that, at least up to the 
present time, the problem 
was solved. 
To be sure, there are 
other things around the 
front of the house, little 
accessory flowers that 
give just a touch of color 
and interest, while the real 
•climax of bloom is re¬ 
served for the garden. 
Early bulbs are here, and 
dwarf iris with their va¬ 
ried blossoms and blade- 
like leaves. Later come 
the ferns, columbines and funkias, 
the foxgloves and graceful coral 
bells, befitting the shade, while in 
summer white nicotiana fills an al¬ 
lotted place. 
There seemed to the Chief and me 
no plausible reason why the service 
yard should be but a chill and barren 
place, an altar to Necessity, pure and 
simple. So we adorned it with dog¬ 
wood and kerria, as much for the 
winter red and green of their twigs 
as for anything else, and sowed seeds 
of nasturtiums, annual coreopsis and 
marigolds for cutting. Up the cor¬ 
ner of the house now clambers a 
trumpet creeper, and tied for sup¬ 
port to the fence of the service yard 
stands a frame of tall white boltonias 
for autumn bloom. 
Two innovations we are trying 
this year, and both seem to promise 
permanent desirability. The first is 
a small bed of hybrid perpetual and 
briar roses south of the dining-room 
window, and the other a hotbed and 
vegetable plot in the corner south¬ 
west of the shed. Here the small 
son raises an appetite along with let¬ 
tuce, radishes, string beans, tomatoes 
and a few herbs like tarragon, parsley and 
sage. Also, we planted mint on the shady 
side of the fence where it could not choke 
out everything else, and managed to find 
room for an apple and a cherry tree. 
Tiie Shrubbery Planting 
The brain of your typical modern, super¬ 
homemaking gardener revolves around two 
centers: the shrubbery planting and the 
perennial border. No domicile, these per¬ 
sons would have us believe, can be complete 
without one or both of these features—- 
witness the janitor’s nine-by-twenty sum¬ 
mer home with its leafless tubbed privet 
bush atop the city skyscraper. With how 
great enthusiasm, then, did we turn to the 
problem of how, where and when our 
wooded things should grow ! 
Around the lawn we set a shrubbery 
border, fascinating term! In the shade of 
a large ash tree in the southeast corner went 
a mass (another soul-stirring word) of rho¬ 
dodendrons, andromeda 
and lucothoe. Last fall we 
added a tiny rockery there 
and planted it with hepati- 
cas, blood-root, spring 
beauties, ferns, trilliums 
and other woods growers. 
They came up this spring, 
grateful for our care. 
The spring flowering 
shrubs like magnolias, 
azaleas, forsythias and 
flowering almonds gath¬ 
ered between the rhodo¬ 
dendron group and the 
flower garden. Lily-of- 
the-valley filled in about 
their feet, while under the 
large red maples and ash 
trees at the back were set 
shrubs chosen for their 
shade-enduring qualities 
—honeysuckles, black al¬ 
der, witch hazel, Regel’s 
privet (a drooping vari¬ 
ety) and mock orange. 
That was last year. This 
(Continued on page 62) 
Looking clown the garden in July one is struck 
by its informal comfort and luxuriant growth 
The forecourt as it appeared in 
March, when the actual work of re¬ 
habilitation commenced 
In August the transformation eras complete. Lawn and garden had 
replaced the crudeness of early spring, and a bricked terrace made more 
easy the transition to the house itself 
