Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-07-01
The Ideal Garden.
From the Country Garden.

unlike those which we actually find sur
rounding our best country dwellings.
Our grandmothers' flowers did at least
suggest the ideal garden, but we can
hardly say as much for the very prosaic
gardening in vogue for the last few years.
The well-nigh universal use of bedding
plants in lines and geometrical forms
of solid color is intrinsically unbeautiful
and inartistic, and it is most refreshing to
a true lover of flowers to observe the re-
action which is beginning, and which will
undoubtedly hasten the return of a truer
type.
Some study and loving thoughts must
go to the planting and preparation of the
home garden, which shall yield its fullest
return in beauty and human happiness;
garden being in this respect no excep-
ton to the ordinary undertakings of life.
If we stop to consider what the flowers
are for which we really care, we shall rare
ly agree that they are those most common
or popular with the florists and profess
sional gardeners.
Suppose we set about making, at least
on paper an ideal garden. The ground
if large place, is presumably more or
less varied in character; the garden is to
be an essential part of the pleasure
grounds, occupied in common by trees,
fruit, shrubbery, grass and flowers. We
will assume that this ground is already
well laid out and planted with more i'm
portant, because slower growing trees,
and chiefly masses of shrubbery. Shall
we cut great angular patches from the
turf at the most conspicuous points, and
paint them scarlet, or gray, or green, or
chocolate, by the use of sgeraneums and
cOleuS? No; we choose a less obtrusiI e,
a more economical, q more permanent, an
infinitely more beautiful and interesting
plan. We study carefully every variation
of situation, exposure and soil, in order
to establish great variety of the love
Hest plants, which will accommodate them
selves to our climate, so as to take root
and live in our garden, at home with US
year after year.
Perhaps we have depended so long up
on the perishable exOtics, which must be
renewed each year, that we are hardly
aware of the great wealth of beauty in
hardy plants that we have to draw upon.
We will have all the flowers of the poets
now. The spring shall come with the
sweet breath of daffodills, with snowdrop
and crocus and banks of violet. May
will bring the iris and the hyacinth; the
lilacs will be in bloom and the sweet old
fashioned pinks. June shall heap the
world up with roses. With room enough
how can we resist making a rose garden,
where the finer and more splendid var
ieties shall possess their own spot of
earth in bewildering beauty? In any
case there shall be a generous mingling
Of those sorts which will grow without
special care or skill, and make feast of
color and perfume and royal grace, to fill
our rose jars and our memories for a
twelve-mOnth.
By this time the lilies have begun to
bloom. Now the campanulas, the great
perennial larkspurs, the magnificent sum-
mer frises, the spireas, the passion flow
ers, are in blossom; at every step there IS
something new; we have entered upon the
boundless richness of summer. The roses
and lilies alone might satisfy the heart of
man; the well-established beds of lilies of
good hardy garden are a sight that de-
fies description; but nature is lavish, she
gives in marvellous variety of beauty
and charm, and from this time on till
frost there is no pause, no stint in the
continual succession of new Projections.
It is in vain that we try to name them
the peoples, the hollyhocks, the lilies Of
the valley, the foxgroves, the columbines,
the evening primrOses, the wreaths and
garlands of the different varieties of
clematis, the honeysuckles, the pansies,
the stocks and gillifowers. Every one
will supply favorites which are omitted
here.
Once established, they appear unbid-
den-free, spontaneous, poetic. We look
for them in the accustomed spot and are
never disappointed.
One great charm of garden of this
sort is that, by careful disposition, the
flowers in season always seem to be the
principal thing grown. Whatever IS out
of bloom resumes at once its subordinate
place in the general effect, as part of
the necessary background of mingled
verdure. It is a matter of choice whether
very little ground shall be wholly given
up to floral adornment, or whether add1-
tional brightness shall be gained by large
beds of ANIMALS and tender summer
blooming plants. A most delightful kind
of garden may be made by growing flow
ers among well-spaced shrubbery, a gar
dening in which both the shrubs and the
finest flowers gain something by the as
ISOLATION, but it must be done with knOwl-
edge and taste. The shrub must have
room enough to develop in perfection,
showing fully their characteristic form
and habit of growth, and the flowers must
be set in iudicious groups and colonies,
with good eye to contrast and light and
shade. There must be no regular rows of
plants, nor any effort to keep them close
ly trimmed and staked up; on the con-
trary, something like the boldness and
freedom of nature must be aimed at. 1t
is safe to follow her arrangement of
broken colonies, in which a few scattered
individuals generally surround solid
clump.
The effect of each upon the rest must
be carefully considered we must look out
for breadth and harmony; variety will
come without seeking. Considerable and
telling masses are required for good re-
suits, but it may be borne in mind that
that the finest specimens and clumps are
not produced in a single season; once
planted, they will double in value for
succession of years. Nothing is better
than a mixed border Of this kind: rightly
managed.