56 
House 
& Garden 
GARDEN ON A BUDGET BASIS 
of } our Garden, It Will Cost Something, and Its Best Results 
Follow a Calculated Distribution of Funds 
PUTTING THE 
Whatever the Size 
T O most ardent gardeners, is not the budget 
a dreaded scarecrow, an uncouth figure 
of dollars and cents, whose ugly arms 
wave away pleasure from the garden? Of 
course, for the richly gilded few a budget may 
not be needed, but it is indeed a minority who 
count no cost, chartering platform cars to bring 
old giants of box bushes great distances to 
their estates, or electing to have a ready-made 
garden laid out by the most expensive land¬ 
scape architects and filled with everything 
ready to bloom. And yet, do not the majority 
of gardens suffer because, although their 
owners scrupulously calculate every penny of 
expenditure indoors, they will rush recklessly 
into garden planning and schemes of arrange¬ 
ment and color without thought of whether 
their appropriation will see the work through 
to completion? 
The garden should be put on a cost basis 
before operations are started, for then there 
need be no enforced stoppage of work with its 
inevitable incomplete effects. Whatever as¬ 
sures the health of the garden and saves time 
ELLEN P. CUNNINGHAM 
in caring for it eliminates waste and releases 
lunds for extras, hirst the actual requirements 
are surveyed—the needs of the soil, cost of 
necessary labor, required tools and machinery 
(especially those for saving time and labor), 
plants and shrubs for replacement purposes, 
new seed, etc. As to labor, an estimate of its 
cost may be based on a general statement that 
one man can care for so much land, although 
there can never be an accurate manual for this 
part of the budget, of universal application, as 
is the case with estimating the number of plants 
to a given number of feet. Local conditions 
must enter into the labor apportionment. 
Tools are a subject for more study than is 
imagined by those who read merely garden 
books rather than the equipment lists found 
in the last pages of good seedsmen’s catalogs. 
Here again no universal sum can be set down, 
since individual conditions affect the number 
and variety of implements required. But that 
is no reason for the individual omitting a def¬ 
inite sum, in advance, which can be set aside 
for the tool equipment. 
Insecticides and remedies for plant diseases 
should also be included in the apportionment 
of the budget, as replacing plant materials is 
costly. On the whole, does it not pay to begin 
at the back of a seed-dealer's catalog, rather 
than with the novelties on the first pages? 
Assuming that each person knows how much 
money went into the budget, and having de¬ 
cided how much can be spent for seeds, bulbs 
and plants, the method of ordering is worth 
considering, as will be seen by a few hints. 
Compare prices in different catalogs, thus 
sometimes making quite a saving. Further, 
much is saved by ordering at hundred and 
thousand rates. Thus, order twenty-five in¬ 
stead of two dozen, perhaps paying less; and 
in the same way order two hundred and fifty 
in place of two hundred and twenty-five, as 
many dealers allow hundred and thousand 
rates for quarter amounts. Also, buy seed at 
ounce rates—not by several packets. Co-op¬ 
erative buying is another helpful way of secur¬ 
ing a saving, when friends, or members of gar¬ 
den clubs, combine in securing large quantities. 
FOR THE WINDOWS OF A DARK ROOM 
Several Interesting Treatments Are Possible to Give Such a Room 
Light and a Pleasant Prospect 
O N the lower floor of many small city 
houses—and sometime in suburban 
houses too—one finds a room that 
appears to be forgotten by the sun. The 
close proximity of other buildings or tall 
trees cuts off direct light and leaves the 
room in a perpetual gray tone for most of 
the day. Often, too, the windows of these 
rooms present anything but a pleasant 
prospect; one has no desire to look out 
Irom them. In curtaining such windows 
we must both increase the light and create a 
prospect, an illusion of pleasantness with¬ 
out instead of the drabness of the real facts. 
The first is the function of the glass 
curtain. Made of shimmery golden silk 
gauze, it filters the light and tinctures it 
to a warmish glow that spreads over the 
room. I his would be one choice of treat¬ 
ment for the dark, back-of-the-house 
pocket. A wide mesh net of coarse weave 
dyed to yellow or orange might be another 
treatment. For a third one might adopt 
a scheme used last year by Parisian deco¬ 
rators. Lengths of vari-colored tape are 
attached to a rod at the top and bottom of 
the window and stretched taut. The pieces 
of tape are set an inch apart. Their colors 
can be chosen from the color scheme of the 
room, following the principles which apply 
where regular curtains are employed. 
.4 cut-out design of trees and flowers appliqued on 
net stretched taut over the window gives a diffused 
light and an imaginary outlook to this London 
back room 
From a London residence—and London 
is filled with these dark, back rooms— 
comes a suggestion that could readily be 
applied here. The window space is cov¬ 
ered with a light net on which has been 
appliqued a cut-out design of a branch¬ 
ing tree. In this treatment the light is 
not only filtered but a pleasant prospect 
created. To give the window finish, simple 
over-drapes are used, pulled well back so 
that none of the precious sunlight is cut 
off. Instead of the appliqued decoration, 
one might use wool and make a rough 
crewel work design of tree and flowers and 
vines. The foundation net will be stretched 
on a frame fitting into the window and, 
of course, no shades will be necessary, as 
the net accomplishes all the needs of pri¬ 
vacy without excluding much light. 
I he roller shade of glazed chintz also 
offers a solution for such windows. The 
background of the chintz should be a light 
t ]n t—orange or yellow or white—and the 
figures more pronounced in color. If the 
woodwork of the window possesses good 
architectural lines, there is no necessity for 
using over-drapes, but if one feels that 
over-drapes are necessary, use a fabric 
light in texture and translucent—a gauze, 
satin or silk. In this way surprising im¬ 
provement may be wrought. 
