io8 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
February, 1914 
condition proved so great for the satisfaction of an occasional naturally and there is a well in the corner, but we have not yet 
week-end that I gave it up. dhe turf has been steadily improv- installed the pump and series of V-shaped wooden troughs I 
ing, however, and some day I shall put it in condition again. have in mind for an artificial irrigation. Of course, the town 
Another operation carried on with the tennis court, and which water might be used, but would be rather expensive in such 
helped supply the 
needed top-soil, 
was the drive¬ 
way to the barn. 
With the lower¬ 
ing of the Post 
Road some years 
before we took 
the house, the 
bam had been 
left high and dry ; 
there was no way 
to reach it by 
carriage or mo¬ 
tor, for terraced 
walls skirt the 
property on all 
four sides except 
in one place at 
the southeast 
corner. Here a 
cart could enter 
by being dragged 
up a steep slope, 
and this was the 
natural place to 
begin our drive¬ 
way. The slope 
was reduced by 
cutting four feet 
from the sharp 
Against the barn is a garden seat constructed of three discarded doors. Triangular holes sawed in the back 
suggest the Roman baluster motive; the seat is sloped slightly backward to shed the rain water 
quantities. 
Under the pres¬ 
ent conditions,, 
strawberries have 
produced enor¬ 
mously without 
the slightest care 
being given 
them; corn and 
potatoes have 
been fairly suc¬ 
cessful ; but the 
past few seasons 
have been too- 
dry for other 
vegetables, 
and no one has 
had time to at¬ 
tend to them or 
even pick the peas 
or beans. It is 
gradually dawn¬ 
ing on me that a 
tennis court is 
not the only 
plaything that 
needs constant 
attention! 
I must confess 
each year my 
gardening zeal 
hill-crest, where tests with an iron bar driven into the ground diminishes. I suppose a man who is busy with city work should 
showed that the rock would allow it without much blasting. The limit himself to one hobby, whether gardening, sailing, tennis or 
drive was first drawn on the short turf with lines of whitewash what not. If he try to include several, he seems to fail in enjoy- 
as one would mark out a tennis court; then the curves were ing any of them. It is no light work to keep a boat in condition; 
studied and, where awkward, were washed out with broom and tennis is not a pleasure unless the court is constantly cut, raked, 
water and re-drawn until 
from all directions they 
seemed natural and graceful. 
Next day the top-soil was 
dug away between the lines 
and carted to tennis court 
and garden; then stones and 
ashes put in place of it. The 
digging was not completed 
the first year, for the local 
supply of stones and ashes 
gave out; but as soon as more 
collected, we dug again from 
the roadbed and threw the 
ashes in. Of course, the area 
had first been covered with 
an inch or so of ashes to 
make it uniform in appear¬ 
ance. All the good soil has 
now been dug away and replaced; we intend soon to finish it with 
either gravel or crushed trap. 
Half-way up the drive, sheltered by the rocks, is the children’s 
sand-pile, where tent or wigwam alternates with railroad tracks. 
Beyond is the garden, rather unkempt and not developed as it 
should be. We have terraced its steep slope and are gradually 
getting out the stones and increasing its fertility. The plot drains 
Evidently the old house had been one of the trim, dignified New England dwellings; 
the porch, a late acquirement, grafted on in old age 
weeded, watered, rolled; a 
vegetable garden is depress¬ 
ing if the plants are strug¬ 
gling against drought and 
cut-worms and choked with 
weeds! So the man who 
would have all these things 
finds himself rushing vio¬ 
lently from one to another, 
all his effort spent in prepar¬ 
ing for play without time for 
playing, with the sickening 
consciousness that each thing 
he has attempted is half 
done. The Back-to-Nature 
books avoid this phase; me- 
thinks I must hereafter enjoy 
my Nature vicariously, in the 
person of a stout Italian. 
The Italians as one finds them here are amusing fellows. They 
seem to have a natural instinct for gardening, but in mechanical 
things they lack ordinary sense. One never begins cutting the 
grass without searching for a screw-driver and monkey-wrench, 
and if I have not managed to hide everything of the sort or if 
D. is not obdurate, he starts to “feex” my carefully adjusted 
(Continued on page 126) 
