January, 1914 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
35 
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For the house shown on this page this plan is adaptable, 
affords privacy as well as beauty 
to stand on a plot anywhere from 50 by 100 feet to a half 
acre in size; to have porches, as houses with us usually do; 
and let us suppose the ultimate ideal includes seclusion from the 
highway, flowers all the season through, a vegetable garden, 
some fruit — and a general atmosphere of snug comfort and 
homeliness. 
The initial step towards the permanent development of these 
features is, as we have seen, a definite plan for the whole, 
and this plan should be set down on 
paper. The initial step in a plan is 
inclosure; the next is entrance; the 
next is division into the units neces¬ 
sary to realize the ideal adopted, with 
suitable distribution of these; and the 
next and final is planting—or the 
chart of planting from which actual 
work is to be done. 
After all this is done — and not 
until it is done—comes the initial 
step in the work for immediate effect. 
And this is really not an actual step 
at all, but simply a close study of the 
whole situation as it lies before you 
on the map of the place which these 
various activities have helped you to 
develop. Whatever is to be done 
towards the much desired instant re¬ 
sult, must be done within and along the general lines of this per¬ 
manent plan. 
And here a choice between two lines of action must be made. 
It is possible to carry out the permanent plan, in its entirety, with 
temporary material, waiting until fall to plant any of the per¬ 
manent stuff. Or you may develop a secondary plan for the 
temporary and “im¬ 
mediate effect” ma¬ 
terial, and plant a 
great deal of that 
which is permanent 
along with the tem¬ 
porary things, at 
once. 
It is perhaps less 
trouble to do the 
former; but it is 
quite as certainly bet¬ 
ter to do the latter. 
For the sooner things 
of slow growth— 
which all permanent 
things are, compared 
to annuals — are be¬ 
ginning to establish 
themselves, the better 
for the effect next 
year. Some of them, 
to be sure, will make 
quite as good a show¬ 
ing then if they wait until fall for their planting, but others 
will not. Moreover, the annual flowers and temporary things will 
not have ended their display when it is time to put the permanent 
stuff in their places; and you will therefore have to uproot many 
things right in their prime — and endure a return to almost the 
barren state of the beginning, along toward the end of the 
summer. 
The combination which insures the very best results for this 
year and for next is made up of the trees and a portion of the 
shrubs—if there are shrubs; the background specimens usually 
—which are to comprise the permanent planting; hedges if these 
are specified, and all the hardy vines. Then plenty of annual 
vines, together with such rank growing annual plants as are 
adapted to the positions of those foreground shrubs, which will 
subsequently be planted, and plenty of quick growing annual 
flowers. 
The idea of using 
an 
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“annual” as a substitute for a shrub 
seems rather far-fetched at first 
thought, and of course there are not 
many suited to such a position — nor 
do I consider it good garden practice 
by any means, save as it serves such 
a purpose as the one we are consider¬ 
ing. Among the sunflowers there are 
four or five equal to such a demand, 
however; and there is the great castor 
bean in at least two of its varieties; 
and cosmos, dahlias, the giant spider 
plant, love-lies-bleeding, a tobacco, 
and some grasses. And half this 
number will fill the requirements of 
any place. 
Go over the place itself carefully, 
after your permanent plan has been 
developed, and see what its most cry¬ 
ing needs are; and record these with 
a tiny cross on the planting plan. Seclusion, suppose we sav, at 
one point is imperative, immediately; shade for a particularly 
hot corner; clothing around the base of an ugly porch founda¬ 
tion; something to soften the hard lines of granolithic walk that 
leads in from the street; something to give emphasis to the 
entrance—or to the main entrance, if there are two (a main en¬ 
trance should always 
express distinction 
and focus attention 
from without) ; and 
so on. These re¬ 
quirements are the 
ones which quick 
growing, temporary 
stuff must meet for 
this first year; so at 
once you know that 
in these places the 
permanent material is 
not to go, as yet. 
After all this is 
determined, it is then 
a matter of suitably 
adapting the t e m- 
porary plants avail¬ 
able, so that they will 
serve the purpose in 
h a n d. 
The position of this house upon its plot makes the street side the only available space for gardening. 
Hence the lattice and screen shown in the plan above 
among them 
is more 
suited to taking the 
place of a shrubbery screen than the Ricinus. Ricimis Zansi- 
bariensis grows eight to ten feet in height, while R. Cam- 
bodgiensis stops at about five feet; thus just these two in com¬ 
bination may be grouped to make a very dense and effective 
screen. Or a screen of the taller Ricinus as a background with 
double chrysanthemum-flowered sunflower massed against it may 
be planted, if flowers as well as foliage are desired in that par¬ 
ticular spot or direction. 
(Continued on page 64) 
