92 
House 6° Garden 
Set Aside Enough 
for Your Hardware 
I N BUILDING or repairing, hardware 
is usually the last item to be con¬ 
sidered. There is seldom enough money 
left to meet requirements. Think of 
hardware from the start. Know the cost 
of it in proper quality. A good man 
to see is the merchant who sells 
MCKINNEY 
HINGES 
He works with good architects. He 
knows builders’ hardware and can save 
you much trouble. He knows the kind, 
quality and number of hinges needed 
for doors of all kinds and all dimen¬ 
sions. He can tell you exactly how 
much all your hardware ought to cost. 
McKinney Manufacturing Company 
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA 
DESIGNING AN INFORMAL PLANTING 
{Continued from page 90 ) 
were now saved and forked into the soil 
to improve its texture. Applications of 
sand, lime, and old manure have helped, 
but even now the soil bakes hard in a dry- 
summer. In a wet one portions of it are 
almost water-logged, since there is no 
outlet for a drain except into a neighbor’s 
garden. 
Around the birch is an interesting pic¬ 
ture of rhododendrons, collected laurel, 
and the early pink Azalea Vaseyi. In 
front are trillium, blue Virginia cowslip, 
lemon trollius, violets, foam flower, hepa- 
ticas and odd little wild flowers. Daffodils 
under the tree drift forward to the still 
larger drifts of scillas in the grass. In 
midsummer the corner is completely filled 
with the swiftly spreading hay-scented 
fern. At point “D” the aforementioned 
screen planting was faced (after the shade 
cast by the new house obligated the re- 
■ moval of some good old peonies, since it 
made them bloom too late to be seen) with 
an intermixture of Japanese yews and 
broad-leaved evergreens like Andromeda 
floribunda, Leucothoe, and the new deep 
pink Azalea Hono-de-giri. Everblooming 
forget-me-not was used as a ground cover, 
but needed thinning almost at once to 
avoid smothering the choicer plants. To 
show a conspicuous splash of color from 
the house, several hundred large trumpet 
narcissus were set out, followed by Darwin 
tulips of deepest rose and cerise. Running 
back under the shrubs are ground covers 
of Solomon’s seal, ferns and funkia. 
Monkshood looks best in a strong round 
clump, and if planted in the spring, speci- 
osum lilies have bloomed later than their 
appointed season for the family’s return. 
Point “ F” is a deep recess in the plant¬ 
ing. Framing this are drooping masses of 
Spiraea Van Hoiitteii, with one blood-red 
Japanese maple for accent, with a ming¬ 
ling of hemlocks. - 4 gainst this background 
stand out—first a double white flowering 
peach, and later a big pink magnolia. The 
ground beneath is carpeted with arabis, 
creeping phlox, violas and forget-me-nots. 
Bleeding heart and pink tulips rise above 
it, to be followed by tall blue Polemoniuni 
coeruleum and Breeder tulips in broken 
tones of violet, pink and gold. Pink orien¬ 
tal poppies and iris of pale yellow relieved 
by tiny coral bells, fill the season until 
June. In the fall is repeated another red 
accent of Euonynius alatus, with tops of 
white boltonias showing behind the fore¬ 
ground shrubs. 
Farther back under the apple tree is a 
combination of deep blue Iris sibirica and 
lemon lilies which though cast out from 
the main garden have proved happy 
here. 
,\mong the stepping stones is a profu¬ 
sion of little flowers: anemones, scillas, 
crocus, violets, poet’s narcissus and prim- 
I roses. At this end the focal point as seen 
from the street is a group of hemlocks 
framing a big pink flowering almond 
“bush”—later a Harrison’s yellow rose. 
A clump of German iris balances that on 
the street side. 
The bay at “ G ” forms a complement to 
the garden spot next the street. Here are 
very early single white peonies, pink pyre- 
thrum and several kinds of herbaceous 
spirea. Last fall we made a feature of a 
great many pastel-tinted hyacinths be¬ 
neath the peonies with patches of purple 
crocus in front. It remains to be seen if 
they are a successful picture. 
Farther along under the pear trees (2) 
the planting becomes woodsy again 
with columbines, wild lavender phlox, 
early yellow tulips, violets, meadow rue 
and Solomon’s seal. For June the corner 
is backed with dwarf deutzias and lemon 
lily. In the fall white boltonias and purple 
asters fill what would otherwise be an 
empty hole in the shade. 
It has been difficult to have much bloom 
after October first. Each year we try to 
increase the stock of chrysanthemums. 
Spring dividing, a little lime, plenty of 
well-rotted manure, and the use of a 
special chrysanthemum fertilizer have 
helped them, but they are often nipped by 
an early frost. Most annuals are too 
gardeny looking, but tall orange and 
lemon marigolds have proved satisfactory 
for color foliage and ability to resist 
frosts. In the extreme foreground orange 
calendulas and the little Tagetes signata 
pumila have ably performed similar ser¬ 
vice. Rudbeckis triloba, a biennial of the 
Black-eyed Susan type, seeds itself lustily 
and is most effective in supplementing the 
yellows. 
This brings us around to the evergreen 
point already described as one of the sa¬ 
lient features. Here are as many big dou¬ 
ble daffodils as the space will hold. Inci¬ 
dentally let me say that the bulbs which 
form so important a part of the scheme 
are not taken up when through blooming, 
but allowed to ripen undisturbed. Some 
of them multiply like the crocus; others, 
like the tulips, run out and have to be re¬ 
plenished a few each y'ear. 
Around the house the planting is sim¬ 
ple but well developed. Two massive bar¬ 
berries lend dignity to the front steps. 
The porch is twined with fragrant honey¬ 
suckle and the red berries of a self-sown 
nightshade. At one side a big wistaria 
climbs to the very housetop, drenched 
with fragrant bloom and filled with the 
buzzing of bees. A little kitchen lawn sur¬ 
rounded by lilacs, spireas, peonies and 
iris, holds what has proved a wonderful 
treasure, two flowering crabs, Malus 
floribunda var. atrosanguinea, which, when 
at the height of their gloiy, almost eclipse 
the entire planting. 
One wedded to the conventional spec¬ 
tacular color effect of the herbaceous bor¬ 
der might find only disappointment in 
this garden. But it has a rarer elusive 
quality, lacking in the bolder type—rest¬ 
ful dignity, breadth combined with inti¬ 
macy of detail, and what is more, abun¬ 
dance of flowers, ferns, berries and ever¬ 
greens to be freely cut and enjoyed. Nor 
is its upkeep burdensome or exacting of 
the services of a skilled gardener. 
CORRECTION 
The owner of the house, a reproduction It was also Mr. Morse’s house which 
of which appeared on page 52 of the Nov- was shown on pages 82 and 83 of the 
ember House & Garden, is Henry N. same issue and for which, regrettably, no 
Morse, not Henry N. Morris as printed, ownership was indicated. 
