Plan to have the lowest growers near the path, or under the sitting-room
windows where you can look down upon them.

Plan to have a back-yard garden in which to give the plants not needed
in the main garden a place. There will always be seedlings to thin out,
and these ought not to be thrown away. If planted in some out-of-the-way
place they will furnish you with plenty of material for cutting, and
this will leave the plants in the main garden undisturbed.

THE BACK-YARD GARDEN

A great deal is written about the flower-garden that fronts the street,
or is so located that it will attract the passer-by, but it is seldom
that we see any mention made of the garden in the back-yard. One would
naturally get the idea that the only garden worth having is the one that
will attract the attention of the stranger, or the casual visitor.

I believe in a flower-garden that will give more pleasure to the home
and its inmates than to anyone else, and where can such a garden be
located with better promise of pleasurable results than by the kitchen
door, where the busy housewife can blend the brightness of it with her
daily work, and breathe in the sweetness of it while about her indoor
tasks? It doesn't matter if its existence is unknown to the stranger
within the gates, or that the passer-by does not get a glimpse of it. It
works out its mission and ministry of cheer and brightness and beauty in
a way that makes it the one garden most worth having. Ask the busy
woman who catches fleeting glimpses of the beauty in it as she goes
about her work, and she will tell you that it is an inspiration to her,
and that the sight of it rests her when most weary, and that its
nearness makes it a companion that seems to enter into all her moods.

Last year I came across such a garden, and it pleased me so much that I
have often looked back to it with a delightful memory of its homeliness,
its utter lack of formality, and wished that it were possible for me to
let others see it as I saw it, for, were they to do so, I feel quite
sure every home would have one like it.

"I never take any pains with it," the woman of the home said to me, half
apologetically. "That is, I don't try to make it like other folks'
gardens. I don't believe I'd enjoy it so much if I were to. You see, it
hasn't anything of the company air about it. It's more like the neighbor
that 'just drops in' to sit a little while, and chat about neighborhood
happenings that we d