At first the weeds will come up. Do not pull them. Mow the lawn as soon as there is any growth large enough to mow. Of course, the lawn-mower is best, but one can have a good place without it. Perhaps a hand lawn-mower (one with large wheels and not less than 16-inch cut) can be used to keep the sward close just about the house; then the field-mower may be used now and then for the remainder. Here is another advantage, as I have said, of the open-centered yard which I have recommended; it is easily mown. It would be a fussy matter to mow a yard planted after the fashion of [Fig. 88]; but one like [Fig. 89] is easily managed.
The borders should be planted thickly. Plow up the strip. Never plant these trees and bushes in holes cut in the sod. Scatter the bushes and trees promiscuously in the narrow border. In home grounds, it is easy to run through these borders occasionally with a cultivator, for the first year or two. Make the edges of the border irregular. Plant the lowest bushes on the inner edge toward the house.
For all such things as lilacs, mock oranges, Japan quinces, and bushes that are found along the roadsides, two or three feet apart is about right. Some will die anyway. Cut them back one-half when they are planted. They will look thin and stiff for two or three years; but after that they will crowd the spaces full, lop over on the sod, and make a billow of green. Prepare the land well, plant carefully, and let the bushes alone.
We now come to the details,—the particular kinds of plants to use. One great principle will simplify the matter: the main planting should be for foliage effects. That is, think first of giving the place a heavy border-mass. Flowers are mere decorations.
Select those trees and shrubs which are the commonest, because they are cheapest, hardiest and most likely to grow. There is no farm so poor that enough plants cannot be secured, without money, for the home yard. You will find the plants in the woods, in old yards, along the fences. It is little matter if no one knows their names. What is handsomer than a tangled fence-row?
Scatter in a few trees along the fence and about the buildings, particularly if the place is large and bare. Maples, basswood, elms, ashes, buttonwood, pepperidge, oaks, beeches, birches, hickories, poplars, a few trees of pine or spruce or hemlock,—any of these are excellent. If the country is bleak, a rather heavy planting of evergreens about the border, in the place of so much shrubbery, is excellent.
For shrubs, use the common things to be found in the woods and swales, together with roots, which can be had in every old yard. Willows, osiers, witch-hazel, dogwood, wild roses, thorn apples, haws, elders, sumac, wild honeysuckles,—these and others can be found in abundance. From old yards can be secured snowballs, spireas, lilacs, forsythias, mock oranges, roses, snowberries, barberries, flowering currants, honeysuckles, and the like.
Vines can be used to excellent purpose on the outbuildings or on the porches. The common wild Virginia creeper is the most serviceable. On brick or stone houses the Boston ivy or Japanese ampelopsis may be used, unless the location is very bleak. This is not hardy in the northern parts of the country. Honeysuckles, clematis and bitter-sweet are also attractive. Bowers are always interesting to children; and actinidia and akebia (to be had at nurseries) are best for this purpose.
If a regular flower garden is wanted, place at the side or rear of the place, where a liberal piece of land can be devoted to it.
Into these native shrub borders, throw some color from nursery-grown bushes if you choose. Mix in spireas, weigelas, roses—anything you like. A rare or strange plant may be introduced now and then, if there is any money with which to buy such things. Plant it at some conspicuous point just in front of the border, where it will show off well, be out of the way, and have some relation to the rest of the planting. Two or three purple-leaved or variegated-leaved bushes will add much spirit and verve to the place; but too many of them make the place look fussy and overdone. You can have a botanic garden of your own, even though you do not know the name of a single plant; and your home will be a picture at the same time.