The Library of Work and Play: Gardening and Farming Part 33

"Who would wish a wild-flower garden without violets? The little sweet wood ones, the big horse shoes, the rare white, and more rare yellow--any and all are worth our while! Violets, at least the most of them, prefer not to be huddled away. I wonder why, when people think of transplanting violets, a dull, dark, moist spot immediately comes to mind? Violets like the sun, like good soil, and plenty of air. Some violets are found in the swamps, but did you happen to notice what long stems they have? Why? The reason is to raise the lovely flowers into the light. Nothing could be sweeter or more satisfactory than a violet bed.

I rather like violets bedded by themselves. They fill in corners beautifully. They grow gladly about trees. They adorn borders. You may cover them, in the fall or not as you like. They are not fussy. Take a north corner at school, a corner not wholly shaded by any means--fill that in solid with violet plants in the fall. That corner always will be a thing of real beauty.

"The bellflower coming in May blooms on until September. The flower is blue, purple or violet. It is a flower found in dry places, on gra.s.sy slopes, along hillsides, and is common to most localities.

"I have a sneaking fondness for mullein. One or two stalks of it give a charming effect in the garden. Its yellow flowers, its tall flower stalk, the thick, hairy leaves--all these are its charms. It is said that these same hairy leaves were used as wicks by the ancients. Anyway, the flowers themselves on the tall stalks that often reach to seven feet, look like gleaming lights on a torch. The mullein has a simple dignity. It grows in the dry fields and along roadsides. So you see it is by no means particular about its habitat, its place of abode.

"Another tall plant is the foxglove. The flowers are gathered together in a sort of spike at the end of the stalk, are large and yellow and really lovely. The plant grows to about four feet in height. It has a bad habit, this downy false foxglove, of absorbing some of its nourishment from the roots of plants near which it stands. This plant, too, is fond of dry places.

"A very gay flower, intensely red, is the bee balm. It is an herb, and a perennial. It is often called Oswego tea, because the Indians are supposed to have used it for tea. Then, again, you will hear it called Indian's plume. This name seems most suitable. I can just imagine a chief strutting around with this gay plume on his head. It likes a somewhat secluded, moist, shady, cool place. I think it would be possible for some of you to make it grow at home. For colour it would be invaluable. The cardinal flower is the only flower more gaudy in red than this bee balm.

"When one comes to orange colour the b.u.t.terfly weed takes the prize.

This flower has a variety of names: it is called pleurisy root, and wind root, and orange root. Would you think that this gay little beggar was a member of the milkweed family? It is. When seed time comes it produces a seed pod like unto the milkweed pod only more slender than this. All summer long the insects hover about it. It is just like a signal to them. "Come over here to me!" it calls to them all. It is found in dry places, in the fields and pastures, along the dusty road sides, and by the sooty railroad track it flashes its signal. You can make this plant feel at home surely. And think of the b.u.t.terflies that will visit your garden all summer long.

"Then later comes old Joe Pye weed. Joe Pye was an Indian doctor but that doesn't seem to have anything to do with his weed. Yes, it has its connection. For when old Joe Pye went out on a case of typhoid fever he carried this plant along; hence, its name. The plant sometimes grows to ten feet in height. Really the swamp is its home. So if you are to use it at all remember that it must have this condition of great moisture, even to swampiness. The flower cl.u.s.ters are of a charming colour, a beautiful dull pink.

"Another inhabitant of wet places is the turtle head. The flower resembles in shape a turtle's or a snake's head, and so receives both names.

"When it comes to Queen Anne's lace, you say that is a troublesome weed.

Yes, it is. But it is truly beautiful with its lacy flower head. A great bouquet of these on the porch, the dining table, or the school piano is a real picture. A clump of these in the garden, if held in check, is simply stunning. How can they be held down? The only way is to let no flower heads go to seed. The little, clinging, persistent, numerous seeds are seeds of trouble. This lovely bother grows in any sort of soil.

"There are numbers and numbers of wild flowers I might have suggested.

These I have mentioned were not given for the purpose of a flower guide, but with just one end in view--your understanding of how to study soil conditions for the work of starting a wild-flower garden.

"If you fear results, take but one or two flowers and study just what you select. Having mastered, or better, become acquainted with a few, add more another year to your garden. I think you will love your wild garden best of all before you are through with it. It is a real study, you see."

XII

LANDSCAPE GARDENING

The subject to-night is a very pretentious one, for no one would expect boys and girls to be landscape gardeners. But many boys and girls have excellent taste and taste is the foundation stone of landscape gardening. This work has often been likened to the painting of a picture. Your art-work teacher has doubtless told you that a good picture should have a point of chief interest, and the rest of the points simply go to make more beautiful the central idea, or to form a fine setting for it. Look at that picture over Miriam's head. See that lone pine, the beautiful curve of the hillside, the scrub undergrowth about the tree, the bit of sky beyond! As soon as one looks at that picture one's eye rests on the pine, and the other features seem to appear afterward.

"So in landscape gardening there must be in the gardener's mind a picture of what he desires the whole to be when he completes his work.

Take, for example, your school grounds. You did a bit of landscape work there, although we never called it that before. The little schoolhouse itself was our centre of interest. How could we fix up the grounds so that the little building should have a really attractive setting? That, I believe, was the thought in each of your heads, although no one of you ever put this into words.

"Notice now with me the good points about that work, and from this study we shall be able to work out a little theory of landscape gardening.

"First there is a good extent of lawn about the building, the path to the door is slightly curved and pleasingly so, a fine little maple stands out rather interestingly on the side lawn, the flower garden has a good ma.s.s effect, the screen of poplar trees at the back acts as a stately rear guard, and the vines over the outbuilding hide what was once a blemish.

"Let us go back to the lawn. A good extent of open lawn s.p.a.ce is always beautiful. It is restful. It adds a feeling of s.p.a.ce to even small grounds. So we might generalize and say that it is well to keep open lawn s.p.a.ces. If one covers his lawn s.p.a.ce with many trees, with little flower beds here and there, the general effect is choppy and fussy. It is a bit like an over-dressed person. One's grounds lose all individuality thus treated. A single tree or a small group is not a bad arrangement on the lawn. Do not centre the tree or trees. Let them drop a bit into the background. Make a pleasing side feature of them. In choosing trees one must keep in mind a number of things. You should not choose an overpowering tree; the tree should be one of good shape, with something interesting about its bark, leaves, flowers or fruit. While the poplar is a rapid grower, it sheds its leaves early and so is left standing, bare and ugly, before the fall is old. Mind you, there are places where a row or double row of Lombardy poplars is very effective.

But I think you'll agree with me that one lone poplar is not. The catalpa is quite lovely by itself. Its leaves are broad, its flowers attractive, the seed pods which cling to the tree until away into the winter, add a bit of picturesqueness. The bright berries of the ash, the brilliant foliage of the sugar maple, the blossoms of the tulip tree, the bark of the white birch, and the leaves of the copper beech--all these are beauty points to consider.

"Place makes a difference in the selection of a tree. Suppose the lower portion of the grounds is a bit low and moist, then the spot is ideal for a willow. Don't group trees together which look awkward. I never should have Peter and Myron march together in school. Why? Because they look wretchedly together. Myron makes Peter look short and Peter causes Myron to look overgrown. So it is with trees. A long-looking poplar does not go with a nice rather rounded little tulip tree. A juniper, so neat and prim, would look silly beside a spreading chestnut. One must keep proportion and suitability in mind.

"I'd never advise the planting of a group of evergreens close to a house, and in the front yard. The effect is very gloomy indeed. Houses thus surrounded are overcapped by such trees and are not only gloomy to live in, but truly unhealthful. The chief requisite inside a house is sunlight and plenty of it.

"There are no shrubs on the school grounds. You had spoken of doing that but bulbs took up the attention of the girls this fall. And as for you boys--you were attending to your own crops. Shrubbery is very pleasing if properly placed. It is just the thing to fill in corners near buildings, to help define the turns in walks, and to use as hedges.

Usually one shrub standing by itself is not nearly so pleasing as one tree by itself. It has a squatty and isolated appearance. There is a corner close by the school building where shrubs should go. Why?

Because the place looks bare and staring, and the building is very ugly at that point; the shrubs would fill in the s.p.a.ce, and make the building look much better.

"As trees are chosen because of certain good points, so shrubs should be. In a clump I should wish some which bloomed early, some which bloomed late, some for the beauty of their fall foliage, some for the colour of their bark and others for the fruit. Some spireas and the forsythia bloom early. The red bark of the dogwood makes a bit of colour all winter, and the red berries of the barberry cling to the shrub well into the winter. This list of shrubs which Philip has made out will be a help to you in this work.

PHILIP'S SHRUB TABLE --------------------------------------------------------------------- COMMON NAME BOTANICAL NAME HEIGHT COLOUR SPECIAL POINTS --------------------------------------------------------------------- _March_ Spice Bush _Benzoin_ 6-15 ft. Yellow Flowers appear _odoriferum_ before leaves.

Crimson fruit in fall. Aromatic odour.

Daphne _Daphne Mezereum_ 4 ft. Purple The only hardy deciduous daphne. Plant in light soil and in shade.

_April_ Barberry _Berberis- 2-4 ft. Yellow Prefers dry soil. Berries _Thunbergii_ all winter.

Golden Bell _Forsythia_ 5-8 ft. Yellow Flowers appear before _suspensa_ leaves. Hardy; free from insects.

_May_ Red-osier _Cornus_ 4-8 ft. White Red branched. Plant Dogwood _stolonifera_ in moist soil.

j.a.panese Snow _Deutzia_ 1-3 ft. White Very beautiful when Flower _gracilis_ flowering. Needs well drained soil.

j.a.panese _Viburnum_ 8 ft. White Not as likely to have s...o...b..ll _plicatum_ lice as common s...o...b..ll. Larger b.a.l.l.s.

Lilac _Syringa_ 15 ft. Purple Very fragrant. Will _vulgaris_ grow anywhere even in some shade.

_June_ Deutzia _Deutzia_ 1-3 ft. White Hardy; flowers showy.

_Lemoinei_

Weigela _Diervilla_ 6 ft. Pink May have white or red _Florida_ White flowers. Flowers under Red trees. Lives where other shrubs die.

Spirea _Spiraea_ 4 ft. White Most showy of spireas.

_Van Houttei_ Grows anywhere.

Mock Orange _Philadelphus_ 10 ft. Varieties Fragrant; _Coronarius_ of different makes good screen.

colours.

Smoke Bush _Rhus cotinus_ 4-10 ft. Purplish Hardy. Beautiful all summer. Purple colour changes to smoke colour.

_July_ Spirea _Spirea_ 3 ft. White Flowers run from white _b.u.malda_, to deep pink. Late var._Anthony_ flowering. Hardy.

_Waterer_

Sweet Pepper _Clethra_ 3-10 ft. White Moist soil or sandy.

Bush _alnifolia_ Late blooming; fragrant flowers.

_August_ Althea, Rose _Hibiscus_ 12 ft. White to Very hardy. Plant in of Sharon _Syriacus_ purple any good garden soil.

_September_ Hardy _Hydrangea_ 8 ft. White to A showy shrub. Flowers Hydrangea _paniculata_ pink remain on all winter.

_October_ Witch Hazel _Hamamelis_ 6-20 ft. Yellow Grows anywhere. Likes _Virginiana_ moisture. Fruit "explodes."

"Certain shrubs are good to use for hedge purposes. A hedge is rather prettier usually than a fence. The Californian privet is excellent for this purpose. Osage orange, j.a.pan barberry, buckthorn, j.a.pan quince, and Van Houtte's spirea are other shrubs which make good hedges.

"You have to remember that not only should grounds look well to the pa.s.serby but they should look equally well from the inside of the building. As your mother is working in the kitchen during the hot summer or sewing during a long dull winter afternoon, would it not be a joy to her to look out at a syringa sweet with blossom or a barberry with nodding red berries? Landscape gardening is not only for the purpose of adding beauty to the earth's surface, but also for the putting joy into the heart of a person as well.

"I forgot to say that in tree and shrub selection it is usually better to choose those of the locality one lives in. Unusual and foreign plants do less well, and often harmonize but poorly with their new setting.