The Gardens and Grounds of Mt. Vernon , Va. 
is charming. The fresh green of a lettuce 
bed is delicious against the scarlet poppies. 
The crisp gray-green roses of the “cabbage- 
patch” are finely set off by a broad belt of 
sweet peas in purpling bloom. There is 
superb decorative suggestion in the pattern 
of the running cucumber vines against the 
umber earth. The squash are fine in the 
juicy green of their broad furry leaves punc¬ 
tuated with yellow blooms. The effective¬ 
ness of the vegetables in form and color as a 
setting for such flowers as chance among 
them suggests arrangements of esthetic in¬ 
in stone or brick with good broad “ cheeks.” 
But what a good landscape-architectural result 
we have in the arching of the grapevine over 
its rough posts, through which the eye follows 
up the gravel path between the old box to 
the lawn gate ! And the shrubs on either 
flank of the steps occur happily. Beauty is 
so easily reached in the ordering of simple 
elements. 
Where there is a good wall, as at Mount 
Vernon—and no enclosure is more economical 
in the long run, more profitable always, for 
the kitchen-garden,—it is a pity that it should 
-- 
THE BARN 
terest in the kitchen-garden. The French 
potager is made frequently a place of beauty 
bv this means. The mere symmetrical 
arrangement of beds and rows is pleasant to 
the eye, and grassed walks between give an 
air of elegance. The sodded slope, dropping 
down in two steps from the upper to the 
lower terrace of the kitchen-garden, at Mount 
Vernon has this sort of value. The grape¬ 
vines trained along its crest have a charming 
grace, and even the path worn at its base has 
a certain formal value. 
Those wooden steps which show in the 
picture would be better for “ risers,” better still 
MT. VERNON 
not be put to its best usefulness by the train¬ 
ing of fruit against it. Wonderful results, 
at once practical and beautiful, are gotten in 
that way. Certain of the finer varieties of 
apple yield marvelously when so treated. It 
gives opportunity for guarding against insect 
enemies, for the removal of superfluous buds ; 
and it ensures to a judiciously limited amount 
of fruit the best conditions for perfect sunning 
and shading and faultless development. 1 
do not mean to say that there could be any¬ 
thing more beautiful than the natural branch¬ 
ing of an apple-tree, but we may enjoy that 
in the orchard. Here in the kitchen-garden 
472 
