HOW THE GARDEN OF DELIGHT GREW FROM THE PRACTICAL VEGETABLE PATCH GIVING FLOWERS
THROUGHOUT THE SEASON—THE WAY FOR THE BEGINNER

by Mrs. Greenleaf Clarke

FROM personal experience I can tell those who look with longing eyes on a neighbor's lovely garden 
with its dainty and welcome blossoms heralding the advent of spring and on through to the rich and 
gorgeous blossoms of May, June, and July, into the gay annuals of August and September until the 
Japanese Anemones and Chrysanthemums bid us farewell in October and November, that this is all 
possible for you without the aid of a gardener and even with no experience, provided you are willing 
to become acquainted with the plants through personal contact, the glory of success, the sorrow of 
failure, a little patience and some work.

  The garden of which I tell is located on an ordinary city lot, 60 x 120, which also includes the house. 
It started with a row of Sweet Peas, the trench being made with a trowel, little or nothing known about 
flowers, until as year by year has passed (seven in all), the lure of the garden has become more and 
more alluring, and I now am deep in the throes of "gardenitis."

  The sixty-foot border of Sweet Peas, which was first made to separate the main lawn from a very good 
sized vegetable garden, has gradually widened, first taking one row of beans, then another, then robbing 
the cucumber patch!—Who does not know the symptoms -until finally this year the vegetables had to go 
and a Rose and Chrysanthemum garden takes its place. We no longer eat!

  The house, with the lawn surrounding it, occupies about one half the lot; the garden has the rest. Across 
the back of the lawn runs a border 60 feet long, with a 4-foot path taken out, not in the middle, but divided
'according to the ratio of 2 and 1. The 4-foot path runs directly to the back of the lot across which is planted 
an Ibota Privet hedge 6 feet high. This hedge encloses the back and sides of the garden. The border 20 
feet and 35 feet long is 2 feet wide. It is bordered on the garden side with Box edging, and in it are planted 
Darwin Tulips. Those wonderful Tulips with their pastel colorings, accented here and there with a rich, 
dark neighbor, during their season are. the queens of the garden. After they have gone, I plant in 
between them (for I have left the bulbs in the ground with good success) pale pink and white Petunias, 
and mixed Drummond's Phlox, with a border of white Verbenas next the Box edging, and the other side 
a border of blue Ageratum with white Sweet Alyssum. This sounds like a woeful mixture and would never 
appeal to one of aesthetic taste! But actually it is charming, and I came upon it quite by accident. Previous 
years a hedge of mixed Zinnias had been planted there, which were most satisfactory, but having had the 
Zinnias for some years and desiring a change I thought I would try the Phlox. An ounce of seed planted in 
a cold frame was a failure. Obtaining a few plants only from the seed planted, I bought from the florist 
four dozen Petunias, two dozen white and two dozen Rosy Morn. These (true to color of course) were plant
ed in between Phlox already raised with some old seed sprinkled in. The border of white Verbenas had 
been planned, having seen it at the S. A. F. Convention Gardens in Boston a few years ago. Two packets 
of seeds furnished me enough plants. The Ageratum and the Sweet Alyssum sowed itself. I expected a 
conglomeration of disappointment, and I was disappointed, but happily so. Such a dainty, cool, lacy, 
delicate border!

  Next this narrow border outlining the lawn, running parallel with it, is a 60 foot path, 4 feet wide, set with
 stepping stones and grassed. These stones I set myself. A great feat done one March when the spring 
breezes were spring breezes and the lure of the garden called to me. Along this path is my real perennial 
border; the original one beginning with four. feet, and widened every year until now it is 7 feet wide, with 
one strip 35 feet long, a path four feet wide, and another strip 20 feet long. Then comes another path 
parallel with this border 60 feet long.

  An arch separates the perennial border from the Rose and Chrysanthemum garden, which was formerly 
a vegetable garden, and in this garden too I have an opportunity to enjoy a few special annuals and 
Gladiolus.

THE FIRST STAGES

  When the perennial border was first started seeds of Foxglove, Larkspur, Sweet William, and 
Canterbury Bells were planted with roots of Phlox and Coreopsis. Nothing had been thought about 
olor schemes, "well considered" planting, height, or anything of that sort. They were just plain "planted." 
But the ground had previously been enriched for vegetables, was good to begin with, and what was not 
was made good with fresh loam, and the plants grew and grew like Jack's beanstalk; they grew to heaven.
 
  The blue of the sky kissed the blue of the Larkspur. Is there any blue so heavenly as the Larkspur! I will 
never forget those twenty or thirty great plants as big as a bushel basket, with those glorious light and 
dark blue spikes. They were magnificent. I remember that summer I had a border of white Candytuft 
in blossom at the same time, which looked like great white drifts nestling against the base of the Larkspur.

 Verily the clouds dropped down to earth and visited my garden! I would stand enraptured before those 
wonderful plants.
  
	

But alas! one night a thunder storm came and with it a heavy wind, and it was then I commenced to learn.
I wonder if we always have to learn life's lessons by thunder storms. Alas! in the morning on running to 
the window to feast my eyes on that sea of blue, blue and clear as the bluest sky, they lay stricken on the
ground like so many fallen soldiers, not dead, but brought low. Oh the wreck of it all! With long stakes in 
my hands, I went into the garden and tied up the broken, brittle plants, so glorious the day before, so 
ingloriously brought low. My heart ached, but I learned my lesson. I then commenced to read, study and 
observe. And from that time, I have striven to give my plants their best and most propitious setting. I 
then began to realize after the Larkspurs were cut down the awful gap it made, and year by year I have 
been learning what to have and what to omit in order to have color as well as the things one loves best. 
That is one reason an old garden has such charm. It has been years in the making by loving hands and 
eyes.

REMAKING THE BORDER

  The fall following disaster to the Larkspur the plants were distributed through the perennial borders 
which I commenced to remake. At the sides of the garden and in the corners by the Rose garden 
Heleniums and white Boltonia were planted. These blossom in the early fall and continue until cut down 
by frost. The garden is one mass of gold and white in September, so graceful and airy—a picture to 
ehold. In front Larkspur and white Foxgloves are planted at intervals, which are glorious in late June a
nd July and beneath and below is a hedge of pink and white Asters and bordering the paths Box edging. 
Here and there are German Iris with now and then a group of auratum and speciosum Lilies. Pyramidal 
Arbovitae trees are used to some extent in this garden as accents. At the base of one of these trees, 
where is the stump of an old apple tree, a few rocks have been piled on which rests a bird bath. At the 
foot of the old tree is planted a Boston Ivy which weaves itself in and out among the rocks and up on 
to the bird bath, making a lovely picture as well as a welcome spot for the birds.

  In the springtime yellow Narcissus borders the walks, rising between the little box plants. Blossoming at 
the same time are groups of the dwarf border Iris of purple. The garden is then one glory of purple and 
sunshine. Harmonious combinations of Darwin Tulips are planted through the garden, so when the 
Narcissus are gone the Tulips are there to greet us, and these in turn lapse over until the German Iris 
is there in all its richness and beauty. I sometimes cannot tell which I love most; the German Iris or the 
Larkspur. The German Iris is scattered through the borders in great quantity, overflowing into the rose 
garden and a neighboring lot. Then come the Larkspur among which are planted groups of Madonna Lilies,
 the blue and white being most effective.

THE SEASON OF LILLIES

  By the time the candidum Lilies have gone, the regal Lily begins to blossom. What a wonerful Lily that is,
 with its long, full graceful throat of yellow, its wax white petals slightly turned back, its glorious orange 
stamens and the outside delicately flushed pink. There is so much substance to the whole blossom; and 
above all its delicate, delicious odor. That gorgeous Lily I find hardy thirty-three miles north of Boston, 
and it multiplies. It fills a place when the glory of the July garden is passing, and the Japanese Iris are 
waning. A very satisfactory combination was found this summer with German Iris, Dr. Bernice, yellow 
Columbine, and back of this the yellow Day Lily. And who can be without that magnificent Iris, Black 
Knight, with its rich Pansy-like blossom and glowing orange beard—the very last to blossom with me, 
blossoming with some of the Larkspur? Both these things are high-priced, but worth it. '

  After the Larkspur leaves the garden then come the Phlox followed by the Lilium speciosum in profusion, 
all lovely and interesting. A large plot of Japanese Iris occupies the centre of the longer perennial border. 
In drifts between are planted annuals in solid colors, such as Snapdragons, Scabiosa, Calliposis, 
Calendula, etc. Back and at the sides of the bird bath is an effective combination of Liatris and Physostegia. 
They are lovely together.

  Now step through the arch down the Rose walk, I call it. The path is Box bordered as all the paths are, 
and either side are Roses, for the most part Hybrid Teas. One section is devoted to briar Roses, the lovely
 yellow, single and double ones. On the trellises are Tauschendschon, and that beautifully decorative 
Silver Moon. The foliage is clean and of such lovely color that if there were never a blossom that Rose 
would still be in the garden. These Roses are being trained to run from one trellis to the other on small 
cable or wire. In between the Roses are planted quantities of Gladiolus.