H ouse and Garden 
Courtesy of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce 
AN AVENUE OF PEPPER TREES—SANTA MONICA 
to the front door is in the middle, to plant a palm 
on each side of it, in the exact centre of the lawn, or one 
palm where the walk is at the side, and then to set out 
somewhere a row of red or pink geraniums, just to 
recall the old home and to remind one how much bet¬ 
ter things grow here, than it would be to think out any 
definite and original plan. If the gardens are 
really large, three or four palms can he “set around’’ 
like chairs in a best room, or the effect can be varied 
by the addition of a century plant, or a cactus, 
these being particularly satisfactory since they 
almost take care of themselves. As to the back 
yard, orange trees are as handy as the cherry or 
other fruit tree in the East. Thus, you have to-day 
the tropical garden of a Southern California city. 
Eden is not quite the Eden that you dreamed of, 
and the landscape fairyland has quite a human 
character. 
But if there are some disappointments for the 
student, there are also compensations in the unex¬ 
pected interest of watching an idea get itself formed. 
Eor there hardly is room to doubt that what will 
some day be a beautiful “California Garden’’ is 
now in the early stages of evolution, and to see a 
thing grow is more interesting, though not more 
satisfactory, than to see it in its maturity. The 
truth is, a great deal of serious thought is being 
given to gardens. The only trouble is that the 
seriousness is not spread among enough people, 
and is laid on too strong where one does find it. 
One group is copying assiduously and with great 
expense and pains the Japanese garden. The 
thing is an exotic, but not so markedly so as oi.e 
might think, where skies are ever blue and balmy, 
where the Japanese vegetation does very well, and 
where the Japs are so numerous as household ser¬ 
vants that it is no surprise to find this other appur¬ 
tenance of the house also Japanese. Yet its essen¬ 
tial diminutiveness so little fits the American char¬ 
acter, particularly in big, generous California, that 
four-fifths of the average sort of people are probably 
ready to consider it a kind of joke. 
Another group is copying the Italian garden. 
Some of this work is pretty well done, and, exotic 
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