Evening star., 1932-05-16

Thirteen rules for good gardening
have been sent us by a Washington
gardener who keeps his eyes open and
who uses his head as well as his hands
when he works with plants. His letter
follows:
Dear Sir: Your writings in The
Evening Star on gardens and flowers
are exceedingly helpful. I have a gar
den in the country with natural sur
roundings where I apply rules that
may have partial application even In
the city. These, stated somewhat dog
matically. are as follows:
81. Don't make beds, make borders;
round flower bed Is a work of the
devil.
20. Don't cut up grass plots, except
by trees and specimen shrubs; gardens
may be spoiled by flowers, but never
by grass.
"3. Do not use complicated and arti-
flcial arrangements Of plants; conceal
your design.
a. Plant your flowers against q
background OF house, or hedge, ol
perennial shrubs.
IS. Don't collect q museum Of flow
ers. In one Of the most beautiful plant
ings In Washington, that of the Ma
t1onal Chamber of Commerce, only
three kinds of plants are used, none
Towering.
IS. Garden chiefly with green. Ma
lures favorite color; plants foliage
lasts six months. its flowers two weeks
II. Remember that gardener 1:
painting picture by means OF plants
study your picture for harmonious and
unified effects.
g. Plant each flower profusely
twenty plants each of two kinds are
far more beautiful than two plants each
Of twenty kinds.
kinds sparingly.
10 Keep your borders full Of plants;
dirt is ugly.
al. Study Natures methods, and
improve on them.
IL. Read garden literature and look
at fine gardens; gardeners are made
not born.
"l3. Do not follow these or any othe,
rules slavishly.
Very truly yours.
CHARLES o. PAULLIN."
*
These rules of Mr.. Paullin's IL they
could be followed by all home owners
would add materially to the appearance
OF gardens. and immeasurably to the
satisfaction which owners would take In
them.
Unfortunately. such rules are neces-
sarily written for the man who writes
them. as well as by him: they are the
result Of meditation, observance and
study; he who has not similarly medi-
tated. observed and studied will not be
able to grasp them in their entirety.
Not able to grasp them, that is. ex-
cept theoretically, and it must be ad-
mitted that a theoretical grasp often 4
the prelude to actual comprehension
and belief. So that there can be nc
doubt OF the real value of such dog
matte knowledge, especially II q reader
Is able to profit from such material.
Just how many persons, out of a given
hundred. are both willing and able to
derive help from abstract pronounce
ments will never be settled; too much
depends upon ancestry. education and
environment.
At the best, however. the home gar
dener who has not already come to
somewhat similar conclusions. as a re-
suit OF actual experience, will scarcely
be able to put such rules into effect
because he viii not realize thoroughly
enough their absolute necessity.
Consider No. /, for instance.
A great many home gardeners who
were brought up in small towns
throughout the country. and who never
heard OF landscape gardening, as such
VIII resent our correspondents plain
talk about round flower beds.
Lands sakes" they will declare
What Is prettier than a big round bed
OF red cannas in the front lawn"
Now II one feels that way about t.
what can any one else say in reply?
Absolutely nothing, of course.