HOUSE AND GARDEN 
November, 1910 
295 
will do fairly well, but the bricks 
must be relaid every few years. 
Down near the summer¬ 
house let us make a little pla¬ 
teau about a foot high with the 
earth taken off the walks; the 
plan shows the size. Three 
steps, each four inches high, 
brick on edge, lead up, and three 
similar ones lead down. In the 
center, set half a whiskey bar¬ 
rel, digging out for it until the 
rim is four inches below the pla¬ 
teau ; then border it with brick on edge. Lay 
a small water-pipe to supply this tiny pond, 
with a little waste pipe opening just below the 
rim. 
Build a summer-house as shown by the 
drawings; use 12-in. Colonial columns, 7 feet 
high, set on concrete foundations; with lintels 
made of two 3 x 10-in. joists, planed smooth 
and blocked apart with 3-in. blocks. The slats 
on top will be 2 x 3 in., spaced about a foot 
apart. Paint the whole cream-white. 
On either side of the walk, make your 
flower borders, 2 j 4 ft. wide. Spade them up 
in the fall, cover thickly with good stable ma¬ 
nure and let them stand over winter. Then 
in the spring turn the manure under, work¬ 
ing it well in, and you are ready to plant the 
flowers. The hedge should be planted in the 
spring; evergreen privet is as good as anything 
for this. It can be had of any nurseryman, 
aiid costs from $14 to $15 per hundred plants, 
according to size. These plants should be set 
6 inches apart. It is best to arrange to have 
the nurseryman set them out, paying him a 
small additional sum for the work. Clip the 
privet back to within 6 inches of the ground 
after planting. When it shoots up, cut it 
again 12 inches from ground, and keep it at 
this height for a year; after that let it grow 
up, a foot at a clipping until it is 6 feet high. 
Keep it at this height, except at the summer¬ 
house, where it should be clipped off level with 
the tops of the columns. 
And by the way, remember that the sum¬ 
mer-house is 3 feet inside the rear fence, but 
the hedge is set all the way back to form a 
A section taken through the lily-pool, showing the steps leading 
up to it from the path 
BACK 
—co-«— 
The typical city house plan and 
the formal garden, leaving a 
playground and a drying-yard 
screen, with two small openings, 
one on either side, to give access 
to the other parts of the back¬ 
yard. 
Now for the flowers. As 
soon as all danger from frost is 
over, get a few pounds of dwarf 
nasturtium seed; sow this in a 
little furrow or drill, on each 
side of the walk and about 4 
inches from the bricks. This 
runs all the way back, curving 
up and around the plateau and 
stopping only at the summer-house. Dwarf 
nasturtiums are probably the most satisfac¬ 
tory flowers an amateur can have; they are a 
blazing mosaic of color from May until frost, 
require no care and flower more profusely the 
more they are picked. They are, however, an¬ 
nuals, and one must sow them again each 
spring. 
The rest of the flower-beds may be planted 
as you choose. Put in a good many clumps of 
daffodils, crocus and hyacinths for early 
spring effect; a quantity of Iris, of different 
colors, to follow up these, with plenty of 
cosmos for late summer and fall. Plant 
roses on the sunny side of the walk (corn¬ 
flowers, azaleas, asters, rhododendrons, 
Shasta daisies, etc., can stand more shade). 
Snapdragon, larkspur, dahlias and clove 
pinks, poppies, scarlet sage, stocks, sweet 
williams, phlox and ladyslipper are all very 
desirable, but the colors should be very care¬ 
fully studied before any seeds are purchased. 
The dwarf nasturtiums will range from dark 
vermillion to pale yellow. Be sure you have 
no magentas or light crimsons among your 
other things, to make color discords. Blues, 
yellows, whites and scarlets are all very good. 
And by the way, get the tallest varieties of 
everything, else they will be hopelessly lost 
behind the vigorous spread of the nasturtiums. 
For the “pondlet’’ fill the half-barrel one- 
third full of sand and marsh mud; put sev¬ 
eral cat-tail roots in this, with some water 
lilies; then add the water and a few gold-fish 
and tadpoles. 
(Continued on page 308) 
Details of the summer-house planned for the far end of the main axis. At the left is the side view, at the right the front view along the path. 
These built-up wood columns may be bought in well designed stock sizes 
