Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-05-16
BACK YARD GARDEN
What Can Be Done to Make
It Beautiful.
FIRST NEED Is GOOD SOIL
THEN ARRANGE PATHS OF
GRAVEL OR CEMENT.
Tools Are Necessary and the Best
Plants to Depend
Upon.
FIRST NEED Is GOOD SOIL

, What to do with the back yard in summer
is not an easy proposition. particularly if
the yard happens to be city plot Boosting
the magnificent dimensions of about twenty
by twenty feet of unattractive earth
OF course in the country where ground
more or less is the possession alike of the
rich and the poor, the question is apt to-
be a broader one of individual preference
as to whether the ground shall be turned
into truck farm on a small scale, chick
en- yard or bit of beauty from the floral
kingdom.
But with the country variety we have
nothing to do. Just now the ordinary
back yard is my problem. That this in
closure may blossom like the rose instead
of being a repository for tin cans, rubbish
and the like, not to mention its possibilities
in the eat concert garden direction, is pos
sible if one brings to bear on the subject
little patience, few dollars and some
common sense. A love of the beautiful as
expressed in flowers is an understood in
gredient of this formula.
| should like to suggest as a beginning
toward the yard beautiful the eXtermi-
nation of the cat and the drawing in OF
the clothes line, but 1 realize too well that
there are denizens of the town who recog-
niZe the divine rights of these animals and
to whom the sudden passing of Thomas
would be misery untold 1t would also
be an objectionable shock to the house
wife's sense of her laundry rights to sub
stitute plants and rose bushes for clothes
lines. While accepting these small annoy
ances suppose we try to see what can be
done with a twenty foot piece of ground.
AS good soil more than anything else
in garden operations tends to satisfactory
results it is all important to secure it. The
condition of the average back yard soil
is not so often due to natural poverty of
the earth as to the grading off of the soil
and filling up with material thrown out in
excavating for the cellar. A foot of good
soil over this surface will make the earth
quite rich enough. Sandy loan is the best
suited for garden purposes, but if it is pos
sible to get leaf mold from the woods it
makes an ideal fertilizer
Nature abhors a straight line almost as
much as she does vacuum: still in the
back yard virtue will have to be made
of necessity and line borders do duty in
ornamenting each side of the walk
A Good Path First
A path of good gravel or cement laid
around the center grass plot should first be
made. The bed of the border is then filed
in, and, enriched. it is ready for the plants
Unless the garden is to be a season series
of flower pictures it We're better to put in
plants which will last all summer and
well into the autumn, Nothing gives bet
ter effect than a background of cannas
planted in straight line down the beds.
These plants grow tall and thick and with
their beautiful yellow and red bloom har-
moniZe well with geraniums or scarlet ga ge
which should be planted in front OF them
In cannas, the most beautiful varieties are
the Charles Henderson and Comte de
Bouchard. Exquisite results can be OBJ
tanned in the geranium line if Jean Viaud
John Doyle and Nine Barney plants are
used.
Pretty little blossoms to fill up odd chinks
are candytuft, a good, big clump of mas
turtums or the Japanese pompon a but
tonlike variety of aster.
Sweet Peas Borders.
At the back of the yard against the fence
plant border of sweet peas. These dainty
blossoms will be things of beauty and a joy
to the beholder for the whole summer. The
reason why good effects are not generally
obtained from these flowers is that they are
not planted sufficiently deep. six inches be-
ing the necessary depth. If a poultry wire
of two-inch mesh is put up for them to
climb on, a solid wall of variegated flowers
will hide the ugly wooden fence. So hnash
have these peas been known to grow that
l sometimes wonder if the immortal Jack
did not climb sweet pea vine instead of
the reputed bean stalk.
Where a shed is to be covered or any I'M
slightly object put out of view nothing Is ;
better than rambling rose called the Bal
timore Belle or a Madeira vine. The queen
Of all creepers, however, is the moon flower
vine, the most rapid growing of all annual
vines Planted in rich ground in sunny
spot and given plenty of water. these vines
attain a great height. The leaves are dark
green and heart-shaped The flower is a
pure white, fragrant blossom, which opens
in the evening and remains open until the
following day.
Roses Are Best
IF Won happen fo he a housa holder tho |
best investment in floral stock with good
paying dividend is the rose. Of course the |
stock is watered: still, when properly look |
ed after it will yield splendid return. A !
bed of roses four feet wide and the length |
of the lot will supply adornment galore for |
any small garden. The bushes should be |
planted in two rows three feet apart, the |
alternate plants being little below the top |
line to avoid too great rigidity of arrange |
ment.
1t is fad just now to return to the old |
fashioned garden of other days, the days !
when sweet william, gillyflower, rosemary |
and the like were at their zenith. Queen |
Alexandra and the Countess of Warwick |
take great pride in their sweet smelling |
gardens, and the women of our country are |
successfully following in their footsteps
Whatever color you dispense with, do not |
leave out yellow In your flower scheme as |
a garden with no yellow flowers is to |
like a sunless, gray day, and the majority |
of our yards are in the shadow the greater |
part of the time and need lighting up.
The lay of the land will have to govern |
each gardener in her choice of plants but |
in the average back yard the flowers men,
toned will do well.
The Tools Required.
In all gardens there is a great deal of
hand work to be done. A spade, fork, rake |
and hoe are absolutely indispensable, and
the most important item is that they shall
be kept in perfect order and in a certain
place ready for use.
All can say for the vandals who delight
in white washing stones and placing them
in rows around flower beds is that they
ought to be obliged to do penance in purga-
tory for their artistic blindness
1 am sure if little attention were ac-
corded the often neglected and scorned
back yard it could be transformed into a
dream of beauty even In it's deepest
shadows, and its only fault would be that
it comprised far too little of a good thing
Household Hints.
ALI green vegetables keep their color BET
ter If boiled rapidly and left uncovered.
ratf olv Of fo,>c