The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-06-01
THE FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
Laying ont a Small Garden,

Laying ont a small Garden,
Vick's Floral Guide contains the following:
SLOW shall l arrange my little front yard, of
less than thirty feet square, to make it look
best?" writes new correspondent. Having
given our friend from Connecticut the Eng
lsh plan desired, we will now give a simple
plan of our own, and we would like to see
them made, side by side. 1t is not well to
have every little garden an exact copy of its
Neighbor, for there is beauty in diversity. In
gardening, it is best not o attempt more
than we can accomplish, but TODD everything
in the best possible manner. In so small a
place the plan should be simple. Much has
been written against straight walks and, in
consequence, there has for some years, been
mania for curved paths, and many little
front yards have been sadly disfgured by
desperate attempt to make graceful curve
in a,little walk leading from the street to the
front door, and perhaps not more than twen-
ty feet in length. All such walks should be
straight, and.the attempt to make them 9TH
erwise is ridiculous. With good, neat, and
broad walk to the front door, from this a
narrower one leading to the rear of the
house, you have all the walks necessary, and
all that will look well. In a lot only thirty
feet in width, the walk leading to the front
door will be, of course, only few feet from
one side of the lot, leaving space for little
unbroken lawn, about twenty by thirty feet,
if the house should stand thirty feet from the
street. The space on the other side of the
walk will be only narrow border. Have all
the space not used for the walk graded nicely
and covered with grass, either by sodding or
sowing seed. Seed must be sown in early
fall or spring, and sodding should be done at
the same seasons. Keep the grass in perfect
order by frequent cutting, and it will look
well at all times, except during severe
droughts in the middle of summer. II it can
have soaking of water once or twice week
1t will be as green as emerald in the northern
States from April till November, and in some
places nearly or quite the whole year. Ken
lucky blue grass, or lawn grass seed, which is
about the same, is the best seed to SOW.
Now we have the foundation of all orna-
mental gardening, a good walk and a well
kept lawn, and there is little more to doom
ly just little ornamenting or gliding. This
tation outrages all good taste, so we will
make a bed in the middle of the lawn, of
some simple form, a circle or an oval. This
would look well filled with caladiums and
cannas. If these should be too expensive,
ten cents worth of striped and blotched pc
tuna seed would give plants enough for two
such beds, and would be exceedingly snowy,
and endure all summer. Thanks to kind
Providence, beauty is cheap, almost, and of.
ten entirely, without money or price. A few
shrubs around edges of the little lawn, per.
haps to screen the fence or any other object,
some climbers over the front door, like the
astrolochia, and climbing rose at or near
the corner of the house farthest from the
front door, and you have done about all that
can be done to beautify so small space. In
deed of the flower bed in the centre of the
lawn it would not be bad plan to substitute
fine, well-filled vase, with small bed OF