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3 3333 12071 1946
WE
THE GARDEN BOOK FOR
YOUNG PEOPLE
PLATE I. JOSEPH WAS THE REAL GARDENER
Photograph by Alice Boughton
The
Garden Book
for
Young People
By Alice Lounsberry
Author of ' 'A Guide to the Trees, " "A Guide to the
Wild Flowers" "Southern Wild Flowers
and Trees," "The Wild Flower
Book for Young People ,"
etc.
New York
Frederick A. Stokes Company
Publishers
COPYRIGHT 1908, BY
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
March, 1908
All rights reserved
PREFACE
THIS book tells the story of a young girl and her
brother Joseph, who utilise a triangular strip
of ground for planting a flower garden. The girl
loves her roses best, and the boy finds delight in
working the soil and in tending his hardy plants.
Together they sow seeds and watch for them to
sprout; they set out young plants and wait in
patience until their flowers unfold; they wage war
with weeds and insect pests, and, at length, prepare
to meet the winter.
These young people learn the habits of birds that
build nests among the flowers and in the bordering
coppice where shy wildlings grow. Their life is
far from dull.
Older inhabitants of the suburb, who have
beautiful gardens, become interested in the desire
of Joseph and his sister to make their home
attractive, and continually encourage and teach
them. The garden is their meeting place of
work and play and their opportunity for studying
the out-of-door world, the secrets of which they
would gladly share with the reader.
A. L,
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I The Decision } i
II Early Preparations , 9
III The First Planting , 17
IV Miss Wiseman's Suggestions - 24
V A Day's Hard Work 32
VI Joseph Does Some Transplanting. . 40
VII Making the Seed and Flower Beds 48
VIII Planting in the Seed-Bed 56
IX Joseph Continues Sowing Seeds. ... 64
X Finding Ferns to Transplant 72
XI My Rosarium 80
XII Planting Before the Wall 88
XIII Joseph Completes the Planting of
the Garden 96
XIV May Time 104
XV About Wild and Cultivated Flowers 113
XVI The Last May Days 122
XVII The Opening Day for Roses 130
XVIII The Comedy of the Garden 138
Vll
viii CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
XIX A Day of Play 147
XX The Garden Gives Its Reward. .-. 155
XXI The Drought 163
XXII Our Phloxes and Heliotrope. ... 171
XXIII The End of the Drought 179
XXIV The Fall of One of the Spruces. . 187
XXV Our Golden Glow and Hollyhocks 195
XXVI Water Gardens and Other Things 203
XXVII Early August Days 211
XXVIII Little Joseph Wins the Tourna-
ment 219
XXIX The Return Home 227
XXX September Days 236
XXXI Getting Ready for Bulb-Planting 244
XXXII Chrysanthemums 252
XXXIII The Autumn Work 261
XXXIV Days Near Thanksgiving 269
XXXV The Snow 277
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE FACING PAGE
I Joseph was the Real Gardener,
Frontispiece
II Map of the Triangle i
III The Bluebirds took Possession of the
House hung to the Tree 6
IV "Summer is not here" 26
V He slept without rocking 38
VI A Border of Narcissus poeticus 52
VII "I have a bird's egg" 60
VIII Fiddleheads 72
IX Windflowers 74
X -"Fronds uncoiled beside some lovely
wake-robins" 78
XI A Rose Fantasy 82
XII "I may become a Rosarian" 86
XIII Wild Ginger 94
XIV Two Spring Orchids 98
XV "Blue flowers that should bloom for
us soon" 100
XVI "Blowing out his cheeks and breath
to keep the moths away" 102
IX
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE
FACING PAGE
XVII "May in the country is as lovely
as June" 104
XVIII-
XIX-
XX
XXI-
-The Wild Blue Flag 108
-Pink Dogwood no
-Columbines 114
-"Apple blossoms have begun to
drop their petals" 122
-Pointed Blue-eyed Grass 124
-June Roses 132
XXII
XXIII-
XXIV "Joseph had to get down on his
knees and use the sickle" .... 144
XXV "The long drive outlined by
spruces where the bridal
wreath is in bloom" 154
'We like to observe these lark-
spurs" 156
Phlox Drummondi 160
Nasturtiums 170
XXVI-
XXVII
XXVIII
196
XXIX Cosmos 176
XXX "Their golden cups gleamed as
brightly as ever" 184
'The foxgloves are still lovely" .
"Golden glow against the sky".
"He knows without being told
just how to handle a plant" .. 198
"Pink, blue and yellow lilies float
on the surface" 204
XXXV Countless Irises 208
XXXVI Rose-mallows 212
XXXI-
XXXII-
XXXIII-
XXXIV-
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi
PLATE FACING PAGE
XXXVII A Petted Hydrangea 216
XXXVIII "Miss Wiseman's narrow path
with the hedge on one side and
the flowering shrubs on the
other" 224
XXXIX Hydrangeas and Phloxes 230
XL The Tamed Butterfly 234
XLI "Joseph with a large package of
seeds, dropping them awk-
wardly over the ground". ... 238
XLII Wichuraianas over Arches 244
XLIII The Drive up to Nestly Heights. 248
XLIV Chrysanthemums in the Glass
House at Nestly Heights. . . 252
XLV "The chrysanthemums that Tim-
othy brought us" 254
XLVI The Men at Work 262
XLVII "Timothy has been in the clutches
of the farmer" 268
XLVIII "At the point of the triangle all
is dead" 272
XLIX "Queenie trudges through the
snow" 282
THE GARDEN BOOK FOR
YOUNG PEOPLE
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THE GARDEN BOOK FOR
YOUNG PEOPLE
CHAPTER I
THE DECISION
FOR some time Joseph and I had thought that
we should like to have a garden. Not until
we inherited the homestead of a great-aunt, how-
ever, did we regard our desire with seriousness.
Then the first decision we were obliged to make
was whether our garden should be of vegetables or
of flowers.
The square brick house into which we moved,
while March was trying to make us believe it was
still winter, stood in the suburb of Nestly, a pretty
place, and readily accessible to the city by railway,
trolleys and automobiles. It was a suburb where
many people lived, and had lost, therefore, the rural
charm it possessed in Revolutionary days, when
our great-aunt's home had been one of the three
2 THE DECISION
important places in that part of the country. Nev-
ertheless, in Nestly to-day gardens are still thought
quite as important as houses, which can never be
true in a large city.
For generations our great-aunt's place has been
called the Six Spruces, because at a short distance
in front of the house there stands in a circle that
number of spruce trees, their great, out-held
branches enclosing, according to the season, a sum-
mer house or supporting one of snow. Joseph,
who is barely thirteen, and much in sympathy with
the lore of fairy folk and the adventures of pirates,
thinks a great deal of these trees. I am four years
his senior, besides being his sister and natural guar-
dian. To me, as to Joseph, these six spruces seem
the most wonderful trees in the world.
When my brother and I are alone, I call him
"Little Joseph," although he is now so well grown
for his age that he dislikes me to do* so when neigh-
bours are present. At first we were both chagrined
that our inherited mansion was so severe in looks
and so dilapidated, because our means for making
alterations are small. This, however, has not in-
terfered with Joseph's lasting admiration for the
cupola, which reminds him of a sentry box, and
neither of us would exchange the Six Spruces for
the highly cultivated acres of our neighbour, Mr.
Hayden of Nestly Heights.
Within, the seriousness of our aunt's disposition
was indicated by the plain furniture and walls,
^
3
THE DECISION 3
while outside, the overgrown and unkempt grounds
were evidence of her dislike for out-of-door life and
the trouble of flower-growing.
Mrs. Keith stayed with us as a reminder of our
great-aunt's day and power. She had been the
housekeeper of the Six Spruces for many years, and
saw no reason for changing her abode because two
children were coming there to grow up. Indeed,
Little Joseph and I greatly preferred to have her
remain. We had discovered that her heart was
good and kind, although from what she said about
it we might have believed she had no such organ
at all.
Both our near neighbours have gardens for vege-
tables and for flowers, and their contentment is
very great. We hear that last autumn Miss Wise-
man, whose place adjoins ours on the north, had
a single dahlia, larger and finer than any which
unfolded at Nestly Heights. Earlier in the sea-
son, however, the beets grown by Mr. Hayden's
gardener were somewhat sweeter than her own, so
the dahlia was doubly prized as making up for
their deficiency. Hearing our neighbours argue
whether it was more pleasing to plant pansies by
themselves, or to use them as ground covers for
rose-beds, we became convinced that great enjoy-
ment was to be found in watching things grow, and
incidentally, of course, in outdoing one's neigh-
bours.
Our neighbour, Mr. Hayden, has three sons:
4 THE DECISION
one a year older than Joseph and one a year
younger; the eldest, a boy of twenty, whom we
have not seen, is away at college. The only little
girl in the neighbourhood is Queenie Perth. She
lives with her aunt, Miss Wiseman, who takes a
wonderful amount of care of her, and talks a great
deal about her health. Whenever she plays with
Joseph or the boys at Nestly Heights, however, I
notice that she romps as hard as any of them.
The strip of ground that Joseph and I thought
possible for our garden lies in the shape of a long
triangle, one end of which snuggles up closely to
our south veranda. Bordering the longest side of
this triangle there is a strip of light woodland, com-
posed mostly of coppice, while both the point and
the straight side fit into Mr. Hayden's well-kept
land. This straight side, moreover, is outlined by
a high wall.
It was not on account of any preconceived plan
that our garden plot is so shaped. We perhaps
should have preferred a circular or a rectangular
garden; but the triangle happened to be the most
available bit of ground for planting that our great-
aunt had left us. Joseph, who has the gift of spy-
ing out the advantageous in all things, says that at
least we can put the same plants in a triangular plot
that we can in any other.
The great decision was about the kind of garden
to plant; for we soon became sufficiently modern
in the fashion of gardens to feel that it should be
THE DECISION 5
of some particular type. I remembered that one
or two authors recommended Japanese gardens,
that others preferred the old-fashioned kind, while
one of ambitious talents described gardening on
miniature mountains. The more I read, the more
I looked askance at our triangular patch, and twice
I dreamed of it covered with cabbages; when one
day Joseph wisely remarked that we would plant
the prettiest flowers, grasses and ferns, and trust
to luck to get vegetables to eat. Above all, we
should try to make the places where we set out the
flowers look like their native homes.
Then a little trouble arose. Whenever, at gath-
erings in the neighbourhood, our friends discussed
the prices of bulbs, seeds and young plants, Joseph's
eyes sought mine, and it seemed as if a mist had
passed over our imagined garden. We had, in
truth, but little money to spend for flowers. But
again Joseph wisely said that we could at least
go to the woods and fields and get pretty plants,
even if we could not afford to buy them of the
nurserymen.
One day, still early in March, an old man came
to the Six Spruces to sell some bird-houses which he
had made when storm-bound during the winter.
They were short pieces of the hollowed-out stems of
trees, covered with pointed roofs, and given firm
floors and open doorways. A bird might well be-
lieve that Nature herself had made them. Joseph's
delight in these houses so pleased the old man that
6 THE DECISION
he helped him to hang one from a tree; to swing
another from the veranda, and to set the third in a
niche of the wall separating the triangle from
Nestly Heights. We flattered ourselves then that
we were quite in advance of the bird season.
Yet the very next day a bluebird flew with much
directness and took possession of the house hung
to the tree. It must have been the female bird
that slipped in first to see if it pleased her practical
mind. She very quickly decided to occupy it for
the summer, and when she joined her mate, who sat
on the top of the house, she nodded her head and
appeared to be telling him all her intended arrange-
ments. Joseph thought that they were also con-
gratulating themselves that their long trip north-
ward was over and that they could now settle down
in so cosy a home.
Soon after this we were overtaken by the ap-
proach of spring. There was a scent of new earth
in the air and the sound of soft winds in the tree-
tops. Winter with its biting cold was being driven
away. The bluebirds talked loudly together, and
at the point of the triangle where it becomes soft
and spongy to the feet we saw a number of long,
slender, black birds, very merry and busy with woo-
ing and chatter. Yet the grass that covered the
triangle was still colourless; the trees were bare,
and the earth under them was strewn with dead
leaves. Noticing these things, Little Joseph asked
if spring really began in March.
PLATE III. THE BLUEBIRDS TOOK POSSESSION OF THE HOUSE HUNG TO
THE TREE
THE DECISION 7
On the morrow Joseph awoke early. He was
enthusiastic.
"Those long, black birds," he told me at break-
fast, "that stay at the lower end of the wood by the
triangle are called grackles; and a pair of blue-
birds have taken possession of the house in the
wall. There is now only one house to let for the
summer."
Thus far we had secured our tenants without the
slightest exertion.
This same day the man who had made the bird-
houses came and asked if he could help us get
ready for planting. The back of winter now
seemed to be broken, he said. Here indeed was
something definite. "The farmers hardly think
it is time for ploughing yet," he remarked, and
added that there was a good deal of clearing up
to be done about the Six Spruces. Further, he told
us that his name happened to be Timothy Pennell,
and that he took an interest in the place, having
sometimes worked on it for our great-aunt. It
was he who had told Joseph the long, black birds
were called grackles. Timothy seemed to know
all about planting turnips and potatoes and beans
and a good deal about flowers, although he said
he mostly noticed the wild ones that came up of
themselves in the woods and swamps.
"We shall plant some wild flowers," Little Jo-
seph told him, "and have others that grow only in
gardens."
8 THE DECISION
"You'll tame the wild ones?" Timothy asked,
for he had caught the idea.
Indeed, I began to think that Joseph's simple
garden in which wild plants would grow freely
and birds build nests might be made as attractive
as one where only rare and costly flowers bloomed.
We both listened eagerly as the old man related
how, when his boy w r as ill, he had taken hepaticas
from the woods and forced them to open before
their natural season. He abetted Joseph's scheme
of getting flowers and ferns from our own woods
and transplanting them in the garden. The num-
ber of ideas that soon began to tumble over each
other in our minds was astonishing.
It was perhaps unfortunate that Timothy spoke
so strongly about weeds. This word shocked
us both, since it made us foresee strife and innumer-
able difficulties. He had said that weeds in a garden
were not only probable but necessary to its beauty,
and that some of the rankest of them there were
handsomer than many hot-house flowers. "A gar-
den without weeds," he declared, "would be like a
loaf of bread without salt."
'They will come anyway," Joseph replied,
"there is no use in planning for them. What we
must think about," he added, and, from the way
Little Joseph spoke, the old man must have known
that the decision was made, "is how to plant the
triangle with real flowers, both tamed and wild."
CHAPTER II
EARLY PREPARATIONS
THE lively way in which the bluebirds continued
to build their nests caused Little Joseph and
me to think that spring was coming with hasty
strides, and that there was not a minute to lose in
making preparations to plant the triangle. Joseph
had bought some flower seeds with the first money
we had set aside for our garden, and his fingers
tingled to put them in the ground. We could not,
however, induce Timothy to agree that the time for
doing so really had come. The old man had a
provoking way of looking at the clouds and then
dubiously shaking his head. "The farmers are
still asleep," he said, "and it is best to follow their
movements." From his doubtful expression Little
Joseph and I began to fear there might always be
frost behind the clouds.
In the meantime the Six Spruces was having such
a clearing up as it had not had in years. Timothy
assured us that it was better to make the things
that were already on the old place look "ship-
shape" before giving attention to new ones. He
9
10 EARLY PREPARATIONS
first borrowed Miss Wiseman's heavy roller and
used it on the lawn in front of the house, and the
triangle. Then he trimmed the edges of the gravel
path that circles the lawn, and raked up all dead
leaves and tufts of grass lying about the Six
Spruces. He worked very hard over the front
lawn, and seemed sorry we had no new ones to
make, as he said it was the right time of year for
making lawns.
Timothy had a pair of pruning shears that
seemed to give him great delight. They were so
large and heavy that I could barely open and close
them, although Little Joseph soon learned to use
them with ease. When Timothy had finished
trimming the lawn borders, he pruned the grape-
vine with such eagerness that he appeared to be
chopping it up for fire-wood.
"I am sure Aunt Amanda never would have
allowed him to do that," I said to Joseph, and the
old man overheard.
"No, miss," he replied, "but it is just what the
vine has needed these many years."
We w r ere really thankful when he left the cur-
rant-bushes alone, only remarking that in a day or
two he would give them a good spraying with lime-
sulphur. He went next to the blush-rose bush that
stands near the south veranda and began clipping.
Now I had heard that this rose-bush and the lemon
verbena that was planted each year on the other
side of the veranda steps were the only flowers in
EARLY PREPARATIONS 11
the world that Aunt Amanda had really loved. It
was pitiful to hear Timothy's sharp scissors going
clip, clip every minute. He had always told our
great-aunt, he said, how much finer the roses would
be if he could have pruned the bush properly. Of
course we let him go on.
He did not clip the yellow bell shrub, nor the
two spireas that stand near one of the front corners
of the house. Neither did he touch the three lilac
bushes near the stable. These are the only orna-
mental shrubs on the place. With a wave of his
hand, Timothy said that he would give them all a
good spraying before their buds opened.
We had then no outfit for spraying. We de-
cided, however, to buy one, since it would be needed
throughout the blossoming season, and we could
not be always borrowing Miss Wiseman's tools.
Already Little Joseph and Timothy had cleaned
up and sharpened the tools we had found at the
Six Spruces; but many of them were now anti-
quated, although we were glad enough to have
them.
After rolling and raking the lawns, clipping the
grape-vine and the blush-rose bush, and spraying
the cherry-trees, currant-bushes and shrubs, it was
astonishing how tidy the old place looked.
When Miss Wiseman came to see us she ex-
claimed : "Goodness, children, how surprised your
Aunt Amanda would have been ! You really have
given this place a quite different look, and with only
EARLY PREPARATIONS
Timothy Pennell to work a day for you now and
then. You have started to make your garden in
the best way by clearing up first."
Of course I told her that Little Joseph was the
real gardener, and that he was impatient because
not a single grass or flower seed had as yet been
planted.
"Make ready first," Miss Wiseman said again,
and went away, leaving on the table a beautiful
book for Joseph, called "An Ambitious Boy's Gar-
den."
We have both noticed since living at the Six
Spruces the beautiful colours of the out-of-door
world. Here spring is like a fairy tale. First of
all, the grey look of winter fades out of the atmos-
phere. Then the birds began to chirp, toads croak,
and bullfrogs are heard in swampy places. Every-
thing appears to grow slightly pink. The great,
bare trees are touched with it, and the grey, dead
look vanishes from their twigs. Wherever there
are willows, they turn yellow, and can be distinctly
recognised among other trees. The red maples
that grow in moist places are covered suddenly with
tiny red blossoms. Neither Joseph nor I had ever
noticed this before.
Near our wood-border there are three red maples
which we are now watching grow redder and red-
der every day. But this red is not, as one might
suppose from a distance, just a thick cloud that
lights on the trees. It is caused by little blossoms
EARLY PREPARATIONS 13
that burst out from the twigs, each one being as
perfect as if it were a grand lotus lily. When
Joseph saw these blossoms for the first time he
could scarcely believe his eyes. A day or two ago
he asked Mr. Hayden of Nestly Heights if he
had noticed how finely our red maples were blos-
soming.
Mr. Hayden said: "Gracious, they are a splen-
did sight!"
There is no weeping willow at the Six Spruces.
I should very much like one, but those the nursery-
men have for sale look very small in comparison
with the great ones in this part of the country.
Nevertheless, I shall buy one when autumn comes,
since Timothy says that is the best time for trans-
planting them.
It has always been declared by the people of
Nestly that the soil at the Six Spruces was rich
and well drained, and that flowers would have
grown there luxuriously if our great-aunt had de-
sired them. The blush-rose bush was noted for
sending out many and perfect flowers each season
when, from one year to another, it was neither
pruned nor sprayed. It was left instead to grow
by the south veranda as unmolested as a wild
flower in the woods.
Timothy talks now a great deal about the prepa-
ration of the soil since the triangle is to be planted
,with flowers. Mrs. Keith tells us that it was once
our Aunt Amanda's favourite bit of lawn, and was
14i EARLY PREPARATIONS
the one place where she minded weeds as much as
Betsy Trotwood disliked donkevs. Still, Timothy
j J -
thought necessary to roll it down a number of
J
times, to sprinkle fertilising powder oyer it, and
then to sow it with grass seed. This he did one
day after a night of rain, when the earth was moist
and therefore ready to take the seed. He lamented
that he could not haye sown the seeds in late Sep-
tember, since they might then haye taken root and
had a long sleep during the winter. He said his
old head had then no idea that, when spring came,
he would be working at the Six Spruces for two
children instead of for our great-aunt.
It seems all right for Timothy to call my brother
a child and to haye his own way in spite of what Jo-
seph says; but I do think he sometimes forgets that
I am nearly seyenteen.
r
Naturally, one of the difficulties we shall haye
with the garden is that no work was done here in
f3
the autumn. Xo preparations were then made for
spring. Moreoyer, at the Six Spruces there are
hardly any flowers to reseed themselyes. There
are none of the kind that come up year after year.
Here we found only the blush-rose bush, the yellow
f
bell, the spireas, and the lilacs. Little Joseph
realises that this spring the garden is merely to be
started. It is likely that we shall haye but few
flowers, but we hope that with each succeeding year
the garden will become more beautiful.
Eyen if shabby and neglected, the Six Spruces is
EARLY PREPARATIONS 15
one of the most important places in Xestly, and we
have no need to economise space. But just because
there is so much room and opportunity for growing
flowers, we have decided this first year to make our
garden exclusively on and about the triangle. In
front of the house we shall only try to improve the
lawn. Sometimes we dread lest what we do will
not be quite right; but then Joseph says that pretty
flowers can never make a place look ugly.