Mrs. Tompkins laughed at the description Norma gave and then said: “It’s too bad the houses were not up early in the spring. You’d have them full of song birds now. But they’ll be ready for next year, anyway.”
“Will the birds find enough to eat around the house and gardens, without flying too far away for food?” asked Norma anxiously.
“They will if you plant the right kind of growing things. Natalie, for instance, must plant some grain along the fence line on the meadow side. That will not interfere with any flowers you have there.”
“Mrs. James and I were planning about that ugly fence and the strip of garden, just yesterday. We have it all cleared out and manured, ready to use now.”
“What did you plan to use there?” asked Mrs. Tompkins.
“We are going to plant the vines as soon as they come up from the seeds you gave me, all along the fence line. Then I want the old-fashioned border plants all along the edge of the ground where the drive joins it, and in the center of the long bed we expected to plant geraniums. All geraniums—to make it look like something that was meant to be.”
“But you did not plan to plant them all the way from the road to the woodland, did you?” was Mrs. Tompkins’s amazed question.
“Oh, no! only from the street down to the line where the vegetable garden begins. From there on to the stream, we thought we could plant sunflowers, hollyhocks, dahlias and other tall-growing flowers.”
“Well, now listen to what I would do with that strip, if it was mine:
“I’d get Sam to work at the digging, while you girls can help with the packing of the earth about the roots, and the careful lifting and removal of the trees and shrubs growing in your woodland. Then watch while they are being wheeled up to the garden strip where a deep hole has been made ready to receive them—one by one.