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May 18, 1917. NORTH SHORE BREEZE and Reminder vars 11 
Gardens for the Little Folk of North Shore 
A Talk About Little Miss Mary’s 
:. Vegetable and Flower Garden Plans 
By LILLIAN McCANN 
Mistress Mary, quite contrary, 
How does your garden grow? 
With silver bells and cockle shells 
And pretty maids all in a row. 
OW does your garden grow? Mother Goose asked 
contrary Mary a long time ago. Now I am asking 
Mary out upon the North Shore. For if Mary wants to 
have some real fun and pleasure for herself as well ‘as 
for her friends let her plan and care for a garden this 
season. 
‘ Have a little garden, simple or elaborate, just like 
mother’s. Have it flowers or vegetables, preferably a 
combination flower and vegetable garden. Have your 
mother’s gardener help you plan it and ask him for the 
best plants and seeds with which to plant the little plot. 
Foremost and always take his advice. 
Of course, this year all of the grown-ups are going 
to raise vegetables for the most part and the little Marys 
will want to do the same in many cases. But whether it 
is flowers or vegetables that they grow, their little gardens 
will add much to their happiness. 
In the meantime study and read up on all you can 
about gardens. Mother’s gardener will then appreciate 
his little co-worker all the more. 
You would enjoy reading Frances Duncan’s “Mary’s 
Garden and How It Grew.” This little Miss Mary be- 
came an assistant and very close friend to an aged gard- 
ener who-guided her through the mysteries of his art, in- 
cluding garden plans, planting, pruning, budding, making 
cuttings, transplanting, and the many necessary things 
to do in the spring when the garden is just beginning to 
waken. She also learned how to put the garden to sleep 
_in the fall. 
Think how nice it would be to leave a dear little 
garden asleep: at your North Shore home when you go 
back to your city home next fall! 
The Mary in the book grew so interested that she 
and a few of her friends formed a Horticultural club otf 
their own. Membership was limited to those who had 
a‘garden. ‘These little garden-lovers met in each other’s 
garden or home, examined gardens, read papers or ‘“‘com- 
ositions” on such subjects as, “Toads,” “Thinning Seed- 
lings,” “Watering,” “Weeding,” and kindred topics. And 
then the climax for these children was a grand flower 
show by their club in September. Let me add that “re- 
freshments” were always enjoyed by the club after the 
exhaustive papers were read and discussed. Boys as 
well as girls were among the members. 
Another delightful book especially suited to my 
North Shore Mary is “The Mary Frances Garden Book 
or Adventures Among the Garden People” by Jane Eayre 
Fryer. This little Mary plans a garden around her play- 
house. It is an exquisite little creation with walks, sun- 
dial, and everything complete. Then Mary learns about 
flowers and vegetables and bees and bugs from her big 
brother who has learned it at school. 
Speaking of gardens, vegetable gardens in particular, 
does my little Mary know of those thirty or more little 
wardens over. on the Children’s Island ¢ Last summer | 
visited them and found that the children in the Sant- 
tarium, the older girls mostly, were adept in vevetable 
growing. The beds were laid out neatly around “Clover 
3reeze” cottage where the girls keep house by themselves 
under a “big sister,’ half playing hostesses one week and 
doing the work while the others are the guests. And de- 
licious, crispy things come out of their gardens. — By all 
means, Mary, take your little friends and visit their gard- 
ens this summer, and see for yourself. Nowhere have | 
seen radishes pinker or finer looking than were on the 
dinner table the day I visited the Island last August. 
They had just been brought in from the gardens. 
Now, to your garden, Mary. Of course all gardens 
must have a beginning, and this must, of necessity, be in 
the brain. It is a good thing to start early on the plans 
for your garden. Draw a diagram of it. If you don’t 
have a plan long before you are really ready for it you 
are apt to plant too much of one thing and leave out 
something very important in the way of a plant that would 
lend just the right charm to your particular garden. How- 
ever, don’t make too much work out of this garden plan- 
ning. It is really just like drawing a map. 
If you have no garden at your country home, it would 
be ideal if you could take a trip out to the Shore in the 
early spring and choose the spot yourself with mother’s 
permission and the advice of your gardener. Or, per- 
haps, this could be done without the visit. If neither 
could be arranged for before the season’s family settling 
you could, at least, have the plans made in a general way, 
and know just about what you want when you begin the 
little garden. 
Let this be a very individual affair. From the great 
variety of annuals and perennials from which you may 
select your flower friends you have a multitude out ‘of 
which you will never tire of trying a few new ones each 
season. Perhaps’ at first it will be hard to know just 
which ones to select. You may have a few choice favor- 
ites and always want to have these in your garden. But 
tastes vary with years, and the dear flower friends you 
sometimes cast aside to try a new one will come back to 
you just as cheerfully and sweetly some other time if you 
ever want to take it into your garden and heart again. 
However the plot may be assigned to you for your 
garden, let us imagine that you have it. You must know 
its size. It would be fun to measure it yourself with a 
yard-stick or a garden stick notched at the half-foot 
marks. These sticks come in handy in planting later. 
Suppose your garden measures 15 x 25 ft., or 20 x 24 ee 
or whatever the size, proceed to make a plan of it as you 
doamap. Take a large piece of card board and let every 
foot be represented by one inch in your diagram. If you 
have two gardens adjoining, it may be well to give the 
flower garden the greater amount of space. It could be 
oblong and the vegetable garden small and square. But 
this, you know, is a matter of taste, Perhaps at first 
Mary would rather plan just her flower garden. 
Now, will you have a path through the center of your 
flower beds? Will you have a border? How will your 
garden be enclosed? Will low plants surround it on the 
sast, south and west sides in order to welcome the sun- 
shine in? How about the north side? How can it be 
protected, if necessary? Do you want a little tea-house 
in the middle or side? You see plans are everything. 
And without the neat and well defined plan you cannot 
so thoroughly enjoy the next step in gardening, 
