The sun., 1902-03-09
GARDENING PADS OF WOMEN.
LOTS OF PLEASURE TO, BE HAD
IN MAKING A WILD GARDEN.
Its Plan and Cultivation Herb Gardens
F1eurishins Again a. OF Old En-
thtisiasm OF Some Women on the sub
Ject Quaint Lore About Herbs.

FIeurishins Again A. OF Old T. En-
thusiasm OF Some women on the Sub
Ject Quaint Lore About Herbs.
Americans are rapidly cultivating taste
for country life. Tho rich build luxurious
country homes and each year lengthen the
proportion Of their time spent in them.
Those who are not rich enough to indulge
preferences for mountain, ssashore OF real
country and who cannot aspire to estates,
become abandoned farmers for part Of the
year, or content themselves with being
suburbanites. to the Joy Of the comic papers,
and TO their own profit In health and whole
some living.
With the increasing vogue Of country
living has come a wave Of gardening en-
thusiasm that makes seed men smile cheer
fully and Is bringing many professional
gardeners to America to share profits with
the native-born gardener; but the American
woman does not yet apprec late the solid
enjoyment and amusement TO be found In
gardening.
Occasionally some woman will go In for
flower culture and make her domain a thing
OF beauty; and the oid-fashioned garden
has been a fad Of late. the garden hedged
with box and gay with hollyhocks, gilly
flowers, wall flowers and the other homely
flower favorites OF olden time. There are
beautiful old gardens to serve as models
around some of the old Colonial homes Of
New England and the South; and the mis-
tress Of brand new colonial mans ion in
stalls q brand new old-fashioned garden,
but must accept with philosophy the fact
tha, time alone can give the place Its right
full flavor, can make tho box what 1t should
be and can give the old-fashion ed flowers
an air Of being at home.
Still the old-fashioned garden is a good
thing The rose garden is a good thing,
too, though rather more difficult to handle.
Then there is the wild garden, particularly
popular with English women, and to be
found in rare beauty on many OF the great
English estates.
Any one can have a wild garden. and
there's q deal Of pleasure TO be found in
making one. The woman who does not
know the secrets Of her countryside is
missing half the JOY Of country life. Fresh
air and country views are not all the per-
quisites.
The owner Of a country home should
make acquaintance with trees and plants
and flowers and birds and shy four-footed
wood creatures. When that is done she
has all-year entertainment provided for
her and country life has lost its bugbear
Of dulness and loneliness.
Cnluckily the average woman will not
make the effort to enrich her days and
enjoy their possibilities. She drives about
the country roads unseeing, save for broad.
aggressive sights, or she sits on her veranda
and saws she enjoys the view.
If she really wants entertainment let her
set aside in the early spring plot OF ground
that has a mixture of shade and sun and
holds a few trees Of a wildwood kind. as
well as a stretch of sward A rockery
should have a nook, too-not a monstrosity
Of artificial grottoes. but careless. scat
tered pile OF rocks packed in between with
rich loan. II hydrants and water supply
make a pool of running water possible. so
much the better; but If not, the water and
marsh plants must be barred.
When the plot Is ready she should don a
short skirt, stout shoes loose blouse and
shade hat, take a covered basket in one
hand, q trowel in the other and sally forth
in search Of spoils. Perhaps she knows
something Of the haunts and ways and
appearance o. wild flowers.
II she doesn't any one Of dozen modern
books will help her in her search, and as
she grows familiar with woodland and
meadow paths, observation will teach her
a thousand things she never guessed about
the growing and Towering things. She
isn't going in for botany.
She doesn't care about Latin names
and flower dissection, but she learns where
TO search for leaf and blossom she learns
the homely names OF her new acquaint-
ances, and their tastes and habits.
Each week all the season through, from
the time Of the first arbutus and wind
flower, until the last aster has died she
may make new friends. All that will stand
transplanting she may take home to her
wild garden and there gi g them as nearly
as possible, the conditions in which she
found them.
Many will die OF homesickness, but a
second or third trial may meet with success.
and il il a queer woman who does not de-
yeop a keen interest in the work. II she
perseveres a few seasons will be enough
TO give her a garden where she may see
the season go by in a trail of color.
Each note will hint TO her Of the music
bursting forth in the country world Zach
blossom will call her out TO the woods and
fields, and II she can not follow the call,
at least she will know what IL going on
under the touch OF spring and summer
and autumn-how the anemones are bloom
ing and the trilium is opening and the
buttercups are gliding, and the wild azalea
is massing itself in banks Of color, and the
wild honeysuckle is running riot over stone
fences and the marsh iris ls making the
swamps royal. and the goldenrod and
wild aster are ablaze.
No woman within hearing distance OF
woods and fields should try to live without
making and keeping up wild garden.
Wild gardening leads naturally enough
10 another form of gardening which just
now is the latest fad. All through rural
England and France, and in many corners
Of New England and the South the herb
garden hourishes as II has fourished for
hundreds Of years, and boundless faith
is placed in the medicinal properties OF
herbs; but these gardens are usually ad-
juncts Of cottages and only recently has
the great lady turned her attention 10 the
herbs that were perhaps familiar to her
great great great grandmother.
One of the noblest ladies OF England says
that her herb garden is her greatest pride,
and many other women have taken up the
idea with enthusiasm. In one OF the most
magnificent homes OF England Wild gar
den overrun with tangled sweetness, leads
by terrace TO n lavender garden given
over wholly 20 sweet scented lavender that
perfumes all the air and makes the reading
bench under a spreading tree a nook in
Araby the Blest
Beyond the lavender garden is the herb
garden, and the adding of a new herb to
,hat Ua rdan gives it's mist rpGS more pleas