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A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN
* * * * * *
[Illustration: Printer's Mark.]
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS
ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO
MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED
LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
OF CANADA, LIMITED
TORONTO
* * * * * *
[Illustration: Rose Arch and Garden Walk.
From a water-color sketch by George B. Bartholomew.]
A WOMAN'S HARDY GARDEN
by
HELENA RUTHERFURD ELY
With Illustrations from Photographs Taken in the Author's Garden
by Professor C. F. Chandler
New York
The Macmillan Company
London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.
1930
Copyright, 1903,
By the Macmillan Company.
All rights reserved--no part of this book may be reproduced in any form
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Set up and electrotyped. Published January, 1903.
Printed in the United States of America
by Berwick & Smith Co.
Dedication
TO THE BEST FRIEND OF MY GARDEN,
WHO, WITH HEART AND HANDS,
HAS HELPED TO MAKE IT
WHAT IT IS
PREFACE
This little book is only meant to tell briefly of a few shrubs, hardy
perennials, biennials and annuals of simple culture. I send it forth,
hoping that my readers may find within its pages some help to plant and
make their gardens grow.
MEADOWBURN FARM
October, 1902
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. Introduction 2
II. Hardy Gardening and Preparation of
the Soil 9
III. Laying Out a Garden and Borders Around
a House 19
IV. How to Plant a Small Plot 35
V. The Seed-bed 57
VI. Planting 65
VII. Annuals 75
VIII. Perennials 93
IX. Biennials and a Few Bedding-out
Plants 117
X. Roses 125
XI. Lilies 139
XII. Spring-flowering Bulbs 149
XIII. Shrubs 159
XIV. Water, Walks, Lawns, Box-Edgings, Sun-dial
and Pergola 171
XV. Insecticides. Tool-room 189
XVI. Conclusion 203
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
PAGE
Rose arch and garden walk _Frontispiece_
From a water-color sketch made by George D.
Bartholomew
Garden gate, with Japanese gourds 1
September twenty-ninth
Broad grass walk 5
August twenty-fifth
A shady garden walk 12
May thirty-first
Asters blooming in a border 16
September fifteenth
A clump of Valerian 19
June sixth
_Rhododendron maximum_ and Ferns along north
side of house, with _Ampelopsis Veitchii_ 23
July fourth
Arch over Rose-walk covered with Golden
Honeysuckle and _Clematis paniculata_ 26
September fifteenth
_Rhododendron maximum_ under a cherry tree 30
July fourth
Vase of Delphinium (Perennial Larkspur) 33
June twenty-first
Vase of Peonies 39
June sixth
_Lilium speciosum rubrum_ 42
September fifteenth
Vase of Altheas 48
September sixteenth
Planting on the edge of lawn 51
August second
Asters in rows for picking 55
August twenty-fifth
Foxgloves--seedlings ready for final transplanting 58
September twenty-ninth
Long grass walk, with _Narcissus Poeticus_ blooming
in the border 62
April twenty-sixth
Long grass walk, with Peonies in the border 65
June sixth
Long grass walk, with Foxgloves blossoming in
the border 67
June thirteenth
Long grass walk, with Hydrangeas; Rudbeckias
in background 78
August twenty-fifth
A single plant of Asters 80
September tenth
Poppies growing in rows 83
July fourteenth
A bowl of Cosmos 87
September twenty-ninth
A mass of Phlox; Rudbeckias in the background 90
August second
Hollyhocks in blossom 94
July twelfth
A single plant of Delphinium (Perennial Larkspur) 97
June twenty-first
Yuccas in blossom 103
July twelfth
Bed of Peonies, on edge of lawn 106
June sixth
A single plant of Phlox 112
August twenty-fifth
Vase of Canterbury Bells 115
June twenty-first
A single plant of Foxgloves, White Sweet
William in front 119
June thirteenth
Vase of Foxgloves 122
June fourteenth
Summer-house covered with Clematis and Crimson
Rambler Roses 126
June twenty-first
Rose bed carpeted with Pansies 129
June twenty-first
Canterbury Bells blooming in a border 133
June twenty-first
_Lilium auratum_ growing behind Peonies and
Columbines that bloomed earlier 140
August tenth
Vase of _Lilium auratum_ 144
August second
Vase of _Lilium speciosum album_ and _rubrum_ 147
September sixth
Garden arch, covered with Japanese Gourds 151
August twenty-seventh
Vase of Phlox; single blossoms actual size 154
August second
_Spiræa Van Houttei_ 158
May thirty-first
_Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora_ 161
August twenty-sixth
Vase of _Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora_ 165
September tenth
Vase of double Hardy Sunflowers (_Helianthus
multiflorus plenus_) 172
September fifteenth
Vase of Monkshood 176
September thirtieth
Sun-dial in center of formal garden 179
August second
The Pergola (first summer) 190
August twenty-fifth
Tritoma (Red-Hot Poker Plant) 197
September twenty-eighth
Bringing in the flowers 204
September sixth
[Illustration: Garden gate, with Japanese gourds
September twenty-ninth]
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Love of flowers and all things green and growing is with many men and
women a passion so strong that it often seems to be a sort of primal
instinct, coming down through generation after generation, from the
first man who was put into a garden "to dress it and to keep it."
People whose lives, and those of their parents before them, have been
spent in dingy tenements, and whose only garden is a rickety soap-box
high up on a fire-escape, share this love, which must have a plant to
tend, with those whose gardens cover acres and whose plants have been
gathered from all the countries of the world. How often in summer, when
called to town, and when driving through the squalid streets to the
ferries or riding on the elevated road, one sees these gardens of the
poor. Sometimes they are only a Geranium or two, or the gay Petunia.
Often a tall Sunflower, or a Tomato plant red with fruit. These efforts
tell of the love for the growing things, and of the care that makes
them live and blossom against all odds. One feels a thrill of sympathy
with the owners of the plants, and wishes that some day their lot may
be cast in happier places, where they too may have gardens to tend.
[Illustration: Broad grass walk
August twenty-fifth]
It has always seemed to me that the punishment of the first gardener
and his wife was the bitterest of all. To have lived always in a garden
"where grew every tree pleasant to the sight and good for food," to
have known no other place, and then to have been driven forth into the
great world without hope of returning! Oh! Eve, had you not desired
wisdom, your happy children might still be tilling the soil of that
blessed Eden. The first woman longed for knowledge, as do her daughters
of to-day. When the serpent said that eating of the forbidden fruit
would make them "as gods," what wonder that Eve forgot the threatening
command to leave untouched the Tree of Life, and, burning to be "wise,"
ate of the fateful apple and gave it to her Adam? And then, to leave
the lovely place at the loveliest of all times in a garden, the cool
of the day! Faint sunset hues tinting the sky, the night breeze gently
stirring the trees, Lilies and Roses giving their sweetest perfume,
brilliant Venus mounting her accustomed path, while the sleepy twitter
of the birds alone breaks the silence. Then the voice of wrath, the
Cherubim, the turning flaming sword!
Through trials and tribulations and hardly learned patience, I have
gained some of the secrets of many of our best hardy flowering plants
and shrubs. Many friends have asked me to tell them when to plant or
transplant, when to sow this or that seed, and how to prepare the beds
and borders; in fact, this has occurred so often that it has long been
in my mind to write down what I know of hardy gardening, that other
women might be helped to avoid the experiments and mistakes I have
made, which only served to cause delay.
But just this "please write it down," while sounding so easy and
presenting to the mind such a fascinating picture of a well-printed,
well-illustrated and prettily bound book on the garden, is quite a
different matter to one who has never written. When you diffidently try
to explain the chaos in your brain, family and friends say, "Oh! never
mind; just begin." That often-quoted "_premier pas_!"
To-day is the first snow-storm of the winter, and, while sitting by
the fireside, my thoughts are so upon my garden, wondering if this or
that will survive, and whether the plants remember me, that it seems as
though to-day I could try that first dreaded step.
Living all my life, six months and sometimes more of each year, in the
country,--real country on a large farm,--I have from childhood been
more than ordinarily interested in gardening. Surrounded from babyhood
with horses and dogs, my time as a little girl was spent out of doors,
and whenever I could escape from a patient governess, whose eyes early
became sad because of the difficulties of her task, I was either riding
a black pony of wicked temper, or was to be found in a lovely garden
with tall Arborvitæ hedges and Box-edged walks, in the company of an
old gardener, one of my very best friends, who for twenty years ruled
master and mistress, as well as garden and graperies. Under this old
gardener, I learned, even as a child, to bud Roses and fruit trees, and
watched the transplanting of seedlings and making of slips; watched,
too, the trimming of grape-vines, fruit trees and shrubs; so that while
still very young I knew more than many an older person of practical
garden work. Then, as I grew older, the interests of a gay girl, and,
later, the claims of early married life and the care of two fat and
fascinating babies, absorbed my time and thoughts to the exclusion of
the garden. But as the babies grew into a big boy and girl, the garden
came to the front again, and, for more than a dozen years now, it has
been my joy,--joy in summer when watching the growth and bloom, and
joy in winter when planning for the spring and summer's work. There is
pleasure even in making lists, reading catalogues of plants and seeds,
and wondering whether this year my flowers will be like the pictured
ones, and always, in imagination, seeing how the sleeping plants will
look when robed in fullest beauty.
HARDY GARDENING AND THE PREPARATION OF THE SOIL