FLOWER BORDERS.
Reading edition
BY EMMA J. GRAY.
"I tell you, Cousin Bess, there is everything in the way garden-beds are arranged. There is that old couple who live next door, so old they have to just hobble out to their flowers, and what do you suppose they've done?"
"I have no idea, but if I may judge from your tone, something very queer," and Cousin Bess laughed lightly, while she laid the book she had been reading on the table, and then looked up at Charlie.
"Well, around each bed they've put white stones, just about the size of this," and the boy picked up an ostrich egg, "and so close that one stone touches the other."
"Have you never seen that before?"
"Never, Cousin Bess; but it makes their yard look fine; and as for ours—well, the contrast is simply awful. I've come to you for points. Our ramshackle fence and half-rotten flower-bed boards are too much. I am ashamed, and simply will not let those two old people outstrip me. I'm bound to go right ahead and even up with them if I can."
And Cousin Bess looked into the boy's eager face before she replied: "That's a good resolution. I am glad to hear you say so." And then followed the words:
"'Go make thy garden fair as thou canst; Thou workest never alone; Perchance he whose plot is next to thine Will see it, and mend his own.'
"But pardon my moralizing. I know, Charlie, you are impatient to get to work. Let's begin with the fence. Cover that with wild-cucumber vine."
"Plant it all around?"
"Oh no. Sow the seed, and almost before you will know it the fence will be a mass of green foliage. And a few days later buds and blossoms will appear, and the yard will be perfumed with sweet-scented flowers.
"Dig up your rotten bed-boards and burn them. Sow a narrow line of sweet-alyssum along the edge. It is of easy culture, and will produce a similar effect to your neighbor's white stones. Should you prefer a complete change, however, edge your beds with low-growing coleus plants. They come in many colors. I would advise bronze.
"You should also group your plants, putting the lilies all together, the pansies, the pinks, and so on. The old-time method of having a patch here, a patch there, divided by other flowers, is not nearly as effective as to mass them.
"The most unique, and also the most beautiful, small garden I ever saw was at Cape Vincent. The owners were French people, and it was altogether of blossoms. There was not a blade of grass nor a foot-path visible anywhere. Nevertheless, there were spaces through which a single individual might walk; but these were wellnigh hidden by the nodding flowers. It was a perfect wilderness of bloom, and the air was laden with sweetness.
"You may have just such a garden, and it will be a beautiful enchantment. But you must be careful about blending complementary colors, and also to place your tall and short plants effectively."