Evening star., 1932-06-23

John Burroughs once said that thu
weeds must love man, they follow hin
10 perSiStently and try 30 hard 10 lvt
In his Enclosures. called gardens.
They lean lovingly through fences
attempting to get rs close to his house
as possible: often they are found grow.
ing at the very doorstep. despite the
vigilance Of the householder.
If one discovers q great burdoch
growing near the front steps he should
let 1t alone.
Viewed properly, = burdock Is .
handsome plant. fully as good as q
Gamma In the matter Of leaf.
Greenery, after all. is the true beauty
OF plants. The longer one gardens the
surer he is Of this and the less re.
lance he tends to put on flowers.
A single asparagus plant in the front
thing beautiful by most visitors until
they learned that 1t Is not q new and
rare thing brought from Korea.
Once they understand 1t is nothing
but an asparagus most of them viii
turn away in mild garden horror.
Such q tricky gardener to pose bur-
dock and asparagus as cultivated
plants!
Yet II satisfying green is one OF
the finest assets of any growing thing
even surpassing the colors Of flowers
In some ways, the weeds must be
given . front place in the long listl
Of plants.
What is the garden coreopsis but q
weed?
Lacking Its yellow flowers, or with
smaller ones, 1t would not even be re-
garded as . beautiful weed, ~ many Of
the real weeds are; it would be worth
little space in our yards.
As it Is. the coreopsis is q straggly.
loose-srowing plant. easily knocked
heavy rains.
The gardener will think twice before
permitting this cultivated weed to usurp
much space in his garden.
Many Of the plants growing outside
the fence, trying their best to push
through it. climbing up on the top rail,
are quite as good, with the exception of
flowers, or rather the lack thereof.
If they could hold opinions, and had
the ability to express them, no doubt
slightly OF the trail in its preference for
towering plants. rather than just plants.
Flowers, the weed might say. are all
right. but should not be permitted to
set the entire pace for growing things.
Color In flowers, our talkative weed
would assert, is scarce the entire justi-
fication for growing q thing in culti-
waited gardens.
Plants are grown nowadays for flow-
ers, for augmentation and for some
thing to eat. In past centuries they
were grown largely for medicine, too
Herbs of all sorts were placed in the
kitchen garden
The "simples" of grandmothers day
were from plants which manv garden
ers today would class as weeds, seen
growing by themselves along a road
where many of them have escaped
There are three possible objectives
in modern gardening-gardeni for
color. or for color and green, or for
green.
The mean, undoubtedly. will be gar
dening for color and green.
This is the happy objective aimed
at by most amateurs. They want
garden filled with flowers and good
foliage. Some even go to the extent
Of planting according to various sys-
TENS. SO that some flowers are in bloom
at all times Of the year, beginning with
March and running through November.
This is strictly orthodox gardening,
according to the best plans and plant
ings. No one who loves gardens can
have the slightest quarrel with it. at
once so universal and SO desirable a
custom is it.
The trouble is that many amateurs,
failing in one or more efforts to grow
certain plants properly. such as roses.
say. become disappointed in their gar
dens
There are hundreds of these unhappy
workers, who insist on putting garden
ing on a competitive basis as II beat
ing some other human being were the