Old-Time Gardens, Newly Set ForthEarle, Alice Morse
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Old-Time Gardens, Newly Set Forth
Earle, Alice Morse
Gardens; Landscape gardening
I love climbing vines, whether of delicate leaf or beautiful flower. In
a room I place all the decoration that I can on the walls, out of the
way, leaving thus space to move around without fear of displacement or
injury of fragile things; so in a limited garden space, grass room under
our feet, with flowering vines on the surrounding walls are better than
many crowded flower borders. A tiny space can quickly be made delightful
with climbing plants. The common Morning-glory, called in England the
Bell-bind, is frequently advertised by florists of more encouragement
than judgment, as suitable to plant freely in order to cover fences and
poor sandy patches of ground with speedy and abundant leafage and bloom.
There is no doubt that the Morning-glory will do all this and far more
than is promised. It will also spread above and below ground from the
poor strip of earth to every other corner of garden and farm. This it
has done till, in our Eastern states, it is now classed as a wild
flower. It will never look wild, however, meet it where you will. It is
as domestic and tame as a barnyard fowl, which, wandering in the wildest
woodland, could never be mistaken as game. The garden at Claymont, the
Virginia home of Mr. Frank R. Stockton, afforded a striking example of
the spreading and strangling properties of the Morning-glory, not under
encouragement, but simply under toleration. Mr. Stockton tells me that
the entire expanse of his yards and garden, when he first saw them, was
a solid mass of Morning-glory blooms. Every stick, every stem, every
stalk, every shrub and blade of grass, every vegetable growth, whether
dead or alive, had its encircling and overwhelming Morning-glory
companion, set full of tiny undersized blossoms of varied tints. It was
a beautiful sight at break of day,--a vast expanse of acres jewelled
with Morning-glories--but it wasn't the new owner's notion of a flower
garden.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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