HOUSE AND GARDEN 
February, 
1914 
SOME PLAIN EVERY DAY REASONS 
FOR BUILDING OUR GREENHOUSES 
r-|-\HIS ad. has nothing to do with the happiness giving flowering 
side of a greenhouse; but why Hitchings greenhouse will keep 
on keeping you happy. 
When your house is new, the paint clean and white and the plants 
almost vigorous, it makes you feel as if your money was well invested. 
A month or so later when you are having difficulty in getting heat 
without forcing your boiler, the edge of your enthusiasm is taken off 
a bit. 
When it developes that the arrangement of the house is such that 
in the short days of mid-winter the compartment intended for roses 
is shaded so that blooms are scanty, it makes you wonder a bit. 
When the glass loosens and slips down and some of your choicest 
orchids freeze, you look at the roof and wonder if it’s right or not. 
When summer comes and the carnations are sweltering in the heat because the ventila¬ 
tion is insufficient, you have about lost patience and wonder why you hadn’t looked into 
all these things before putting your money into the house. 
Then it is you begin. to think of what we told you about our long experience in plan¬ 
ning, building and equipping greenhouses and how we would take the entire responsibility 
off your hands and you could feel sure you were surely getting the most efficient, practical 
house. One that was worth every cent we asked for it. 
All of which is, of course, supposing you had bought your house by the yard measure of 
price, and lost sight of the after costs that must inevitably happen where quality is 
sacrificed to price. 
Putting it briefly you can depend on Hitchings & Co. For so superior a house, you 
will be surprised when you really look into it’s every detail; how reasonably it is priced. 
If you want a dependable house at a reasonable price, we would like to hear from you. 
We have a catalog of more than usual interest which you are welcome to. 
Hitchi 
and 
in 
s 
NEW YORK OFFICE, PHILADELPHIA OFFICE, 
1170 Broadway Penn. Bldg. 15th & Chestnut Sts. 
Factory, Elizabeth, N. J. 
A “BULL-DOG” 
Adjuster of this same breed of ours is illustrated on 
page 1 5 of the January House and Garden in an article 
on casements. It shows how handily the Bulldog 
is operated from inside the screen. It’s a Necessity. 
All About it in Our New Free Booklet. 
The Casement Hardware Co. 
9 South Clinton Street - Chicago 
first house, extended, will divide the plot 
whereon it stands into four sections of 
different size. We are, of course, at lib¬ 
erty to eliminate any one of these exten¬ 
sions, however, or two, or even three, of 
them, confining ourselves to the remaining. 
Here again is something for special con¬ 
sideration and individual decision. 
One of the important things which it 
may be well to take note of right here is 
the fact that the gardens as a whole need 
not, and usually never will, balance on 
these extensions of the house axes. They 
may, of course; but it is a matter entirely 
of convenience and taste—and sometimes 
of chance—whether or no they will. If 
we suppose some feature at the extreme 
boundary centered on the axis A (page 
112), for example, with the connection of 
either a long strip of greensward, a walk 
or anything else it might be possible to 
think of as such connection, the divisions 
on either side of this axis may be treated 
in any preferred fashion and still never in¬ 
terrupt the unity of the building with the 
gardens. This unity will indeed be pre¬ 
served, even supposing the entire space on 
both sides the axial line to be an irregular 
parklike expanse of lawn, shrubbery 
bounded, with trees at varying, natural in¬ 
tervals planted upon it. 
The unity may be weakened, however, 
by such treatment as this last; and instead 
of quite the same distant alignment, I 
should bring the unifying axial motif up 
close to the house. In preparation for a 
broad, sweeping lawn treatment, change it 
to some simple thing like a flight of steps 
descending from an open terrace, which 
should run the length of the building, or to 
a sun-dial court or some similar definitely 
formal feature, complementing the house 
lines and form; and then from this let the 
lawn sweep away to the boundaries of the 
place—these, of course, always being en¬ 
closed with planting and with a wall or 
fence outside of this, on the actual lot 
line. 
Nothing in the world is more lovely 
than such a sweep of lawn, lying partly in 
the sunlight and partly in the shade of 
fine trees, where it actually is a “sweep 
but I grow more and more certain with 
every problem that I meet, that to attempt 
this sort of thing with the average subur¬ 
ban place is one of the greatest mistakes 
that can be made. For suburban limita¬ 
tions give the lie to all such assertions of 
rural splendor; and truly suburban ideals 
offer, I believe, something much better for 
the suburbs. Why sacrifice, therefore, 
that which can be had in the suburbs for 
that which obviously cannot? Why have 
no real garden just for the sake of 
attempting to create an illusion of space— 
of attempting to cheat, in ether words, 
and to seem to have that which is not? I 
say “attempting” advisedly, for the effort 
is never successful; no one is ever de¬ 
ceived into believing that 100 by 100 feet 
comprises a landscape. 
On the other hand, why not have that 
which may so easily be had? Why not 
In writing to advertisers please mention House & Garden. 
