Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-08-31
HINTS ON FLOWER BEDS.
Things That May Be Done to Make
 n Small Plot an Ideal Spot.


 Practically everybody who owns a small plot of the average suburban size and shape lays out oblong bor- ders and flower beds Why? Be-. cause everybody else does it, pre- sumably. .@.t
 Please don't. If you have nice, straight edges on your border in the front of the house be daring enough to take a spade and give the place lick or two to make curves-and not symmetrical curves, either. n.
 But the straight outer edges is not the only point about the convention al flower bed that needs correcting. Why should the bed be primly lev l eled off like floor and made as fiat as a pancake? Did any one ever see a natural garden in the woods that was perfectly fiat?
 The present fad for Japanese min iature landscape gardening has much to be criticised, and there are many reasons for not liking it particulad- ly. But there is one thing about 1t l that deserves copying in ever Ameri- can garden. It is the charming ir. regularity of outline, both as regards surface and edges. ...
 After all, that is probably what gives the Japanese style its greatest charm. The very same effect can
 be obtained without going into the queer and weird "science" that the Japanese claims for his plans.
 For instance, there is the proper
 use of stones in a flower bed. Stones in the soil are nuisance. Every
 buried one robs some plant of foot
 hold and invites weed. But stones in right places on the surface are l quite a different thing. By stones
 are not meant dressed cobblestones.
 but real stones, rough, jagged and
 discolored.
 Take three small stones, not
 much bigger than large pebbles, set \ them so that they do not quite touch
 Pack rich mould between them and
 at once you have little throne for
 a rock-loving plant, such as the
 beautiful starry saxifrage, sedum,
 dwarf phlox or anemone. Set thus
 on it's tiny elevation, one plant of
 this character will be more beauti-
 full and striking than dozen eqally
 good ones would be on dead level
 among others on the same flat sur
 face. ...s
 Il Whenever. the bed or border has
 a corner formed by steps, house, or
 veranda the garden should ascend
 either by having stones arranged 1r
 miniature steps or terraces (bu' very irregular ones) or simply by
 making a higher level of plain earth which may be kept banked in place by stones around the bottom.
 Such a corner is ideal for ferns pansies, coreopsis, mignonette, lille! in fact, almost any desired variety of grouping. At the base of thi: can be planted border plants, likt ageratum, alyssum, etc. In othel words, the mound is treated as bet by itself.
 Then you can make the sectior next to the mound flat, if you wish and plant moisture loving flowers that will benefit from being at thu foot of little acclivity.
 Then can come another little rise stones being used to wall 1t up s' that the earth will not wash down Among and over these stones wil thrive any one, of dozen beautiful varieties of moss. There Is a starr, s woodland moss of a golden greer that bears transplanting excellently and that will grow on rocks al most except where 1t Is exposed tt constant sunlight.
 A border of this kind is before tn, writer's window. The corner | composed of a small rockery onl, one and one-half feet high and twt feet in upper diameter It contain three huge ferns, transplanted iron the woods, and a bit of woodbin that it kept constantly strained bacI so that it will confine itself entirel to the rocks. Two patches of star ry moss hang over the edges of tn edges of the stones and descend t the next section of the bed, which i an elevated oval of earth. six inche high and three feet in diameter. O. 4 this lower terrace are "A pansies SC < very close together. Behind ther 2 and along the veranda are stocks SC { on a level slightly lower than tn < pansy bed.
 The next section of the bed level and contains a variety of tn < very common garden flowers. The the earth rises again, as it approach ] es the other end of the bed, wher