Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-08-28
AS ONE WOMAN SEES II
Have YouLa Little Garden at Your
Homer - Take lts Picture and
Enter u In the Beauty Contest
by SARAH d. LOWRIE

RECEIVED in today's mail the notice
L OF another contest inaugurated by the
Society Of Little Gardens this time II IL
to be n Photographic contest. with chance
to exhibit plans Of gardens in connection
with houses to n modified degree.
Particulars may be had from the presi.
dent Of the society Mrs. Charles Davis
Clark. 2215 Spruce street, Philadelphia.
I Asst years competition was for plans for
- city back yard, including everything
from a garage to a garbage pail with
garden cmbowered In the midst The ex-
hibition after drawing a very interested pub.
House went the rounds Of the country,
apparently proving very notable success
For in this country wherever there nre
English or German or Dutch or Italian
citizens. with space enough TO make door
yard or window ledge or backyard garden,
there flowers and frCits and vegetables
abound. The Scotch are less sure to make
gardens, and the Irish. that is from the
South, are almost sure not to; the Scandi-
navians have neat touch with their yards,
and the Slavs and Russians q bighting
touch. If anything.
1t depends upon what part Of the South
the colored family comes from whether its
yard Is menace or an addition TO the
landscape. but II a Negro gives extra at
'ti'lVii W hHNtuluR dUOut ulS mouse, IL is
apt to be chickens. v4ich are, in themselves.
rather demolishing. Those of us about
Philadelphia and Chester and Lancaster
Countes-not 10 speak of Bucks and Mont
gomery-have enough English and Penn.
sylvania Dutch in our make up to take to
fled from our city door steps and back
buildings, In the impossible fight with the
dirt that descends daily upon us, is not a
lost art with us; rather have we trans
ferred 1t to our suburbs and country places.
Even now. when the grass is beginning
to turn brown and seedy and the garden Is
growing beyond our careful pruning. ana
the trees have lost their perfection. a"d
plants straggle rather than grow in the
flower beds and borders even now, we keep
things picked up about our little or big
places in the suburbs with greater zeal than
in any other region Of tho co"ntrv So
even II the photographs for the Little
Gardens competition are taken now. rather
than earlier when things were In their prime.
we ought to make good showing as a
community.
T HAVE found that pictures OF gardens
taken ncninst the sun with the camera
lens shaded so as not TO mako white spot
on the film do more justice to flowers and
plants and groupings than when tn" pl"
mr." Is mAdc in the usual WY with nnr,
back 10 the sun.
morning | look at it against the sun from
my summer house. and in the late afternoon
from the window in the garden house, where
/ typewrte. At mid day | excuse it to
nll visitors and say that it Is taking nap.
Because when the sun is directly overhead
all shadows nre wiped out. and when there
are no shadows, arden has lost half it's
charm
think shall exhibit in that competition
the plan of my garden that was made for
me some years ago in cardboard with COL
orcd detachable sections. by clever artist,
Dorothy Stewart. 1t fits on a kitchen table
and has the houses, rocks, terraces. trees.
walls and flower borders. each separately
constructed. ~hey might be arranged in
quite different grouping from the way they
are in my garden but I doubt II any one
could easily convince me that their present
position could be improved upon.
Because my garden. like Topsy, Just
growed"'
] realize that ] cannot enter the photo.
graphic competition with this little ground
plan. but with the committees permission
I will take il out of its box and set It up.
II will he n solace for me TO 60 round and
see II late next autumn when this real paru-r
that | am looking at as | write Ia tucked
away under the first snow If the coming
winter. And, perhaps to others it will be
an amusement to discuss ''w-given the
site and the chance AID the materials--it
could be arranged into Il different compo-
sitiOn.