When a tradesman can indulge in a suburban home or a summer cottage
it will often happen that he will desire to keep a family horse. If
he doesn’t want a horse he will often want a cow or chickens. In the
accompanying sketch A is a site provided for one or other of these
animals, and it is designedly given a prominent position that its
architecture may receive treatment in consonance with that of the
residence, that it may be in unison with the surroundings, and that it
may supplant the useless and ugly pavilions frequently seen.
The approach to the house is direct and convenient for all points, unless
the architect is perverse enough to put the coal cellar on the opposite
side.
The boundary hedge is of Norway spruce with room enough to grow and room
enough to get between it and the fence to clip it. I saw a hedge on paper
recently—between two groups of shrubbery—which was not allowed room to
stand on end.
There is a small vegetable garden, 13, with a border around it for
blackberries, currants, raspberries, strawberries and such like, and at
the end, 14, either a few fruit trees or flowering shrubs. The porches,
both back and front, are but a single step above the roadway. The rooms
may or may not be another step above them, depending somewhat upon the
character of the subsoil, etc. I have not arranged any special drying
ground, for cedar poles may be set up in the center of any of the round
beds, 1 to 8, and clothed with Japanese ivy, Euonymus radicans, climbing
hydrangeas and so on, and have wires between them.
Now these beds may be further filled with either bedding plants or select
herbaceous plants. I will assume that it is a summer cottage, and I would
then plant the ground as follows, which would result in a very different
how d’ye do from that usually seen in such places: 1, Begonia Evansiana;
2, Funkia grandiflora; 3, Echinacea purpurea; 4, Aconitum Napellus
variegata; 5, Lobelia cardinalis; 6, Sedum Sieboldii; 7, Veronica
longifolia subsessilis; 8, six distinct varieties of Phlox paniculata.
These beds may be varied greatly, but nothing of unreliable character
should ever be planted in them. Number 1, for instance, might have a tub
of nelumbium in place of the begonia, not that it is greatly better, but
for variety and fancy.
Numbers 9, 9, 9, are shrubbery groups composed of the following
summer-flowering material, disposed in such manner that all sides may
be seen, and mowed around, and giving the longest possible margins
for the space occupied. There are but few trees to bloom after July,
they are chiefly Rhus semialata Osbeckii and R. glabra; Dimorphanthus
Mandschuricus; Koelreuteria paniculata and Clerodendron trichotomum. None
of them are large. Of shrubs there are a number, and it is strange that
they are so seldom used effectively. Garden shrubbery looks more devoid
of color in August here than English shrubbery in midwinter. This should
not be with a list such as the following to draw from and utilize. Just
fancy what we have—and the great artists we have—and tell me if it should
be.
There are the altheas, lots of them; Buddleia Lindleyana; Calluna
vulgaris; Clethras in variety; Callicarpa purpurea; _x_ Clematis in
variety; Clerodendron viscosum; Desmodiums; Dabœcia polifolia; Daphne
cneorum; Erica vagans; Euonymus Sieboldianus; Hydrangea Hortensia
varieties; Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora; Hypericum in varieties;
Hibiscus roseus, etc.; Indigofera Dosua; Kerria Japonica; Lespedeza
bicolor; Leycesteria formosa; Lagerstrœmia Indica; _x_ Lonicera Halleana;
_x_ Periploca græca; Polygonum cuspidatum; Potentilla fruticosa; Rubus
odoratus; Rhodotypus Kerrioides; Rhus copallina; Rosa rugosa; R.
Wichuriana, and several hybrids; Spiræa salicifolia, S. tomentosa, S.
Douglassii, and S. Bumalda if it is pruned after flowering in spring;
Tamarix Chinensis; _x_ Tecoma radicans; _x_ Tecoma grandiflora; Vitex
agnus-castus; Vitex Negundo incisa, and a large number of sub-frutescent
plants of large size, which may be substituted for such of the shrubs as
are tender north of Philadelphia. Numbers 10 and 11 are prepared borders
which may well be planted with Hydrangeas Hortensia, Thomas Hogg, etc.,
and interspersed with the pink and white varieties of Lilium speciosum.
Numbers 12, 12 are plants of Sciadopitys verticillata.
[Illustration: PLAN OF GROUNDS.]
Climbers are marked x. South of Philadelphia Bignonia capreolata,
Magnolia grandiflora and evergreen roses may be grown on walls.
_Trenton, N. J._