. I can place plants with
clashing colors side by side with the calm assurance that they will not
clash because their periods of blooming do not overlap. In this way I
can completely change the color of certain parts of my garden during the
summer if I so desire.

In studying combinations for the garden we must take into consideration
the harmony and contrast of color, texture, form, height and the
succession of bloom. We must also see that plants requiring the same
soil and the same care are put together. In my garden I use both annuals
and perennials but am limited in choice to those plants that are
perfectly hardy, that will stand infinite neglect, drought, much wind, a
stiff soil, that do not require especial protection in the winter, that
will be in bloom all summer long and be beautiful. This, as I have
found, is a rather difficult task.

[Illustration: Perennial border. Edging of pinks and Shasta daisies,
pink canterbury bells and Festiva Maxima peony. Behind, pyrethrum,
uliginosum and hollyhocks. Blue flowering flax adds depth to the pink
and white.]

There is a great diversity of opinion as to how to set out plants. Some
say, "Give each plant plenty of room; let it expand as much as it will."
Others say, "Each six inches of ground should have its plant; set them
so closely that no dirt will show between; in this way each individual
plant will be finer than when set out singly and the leaves will form a
shade for the ground." I have used the latter method, for, since we have
no means of watering, the conservation of moisture is an important item.
The chief objection is that there is a constant danger of overcrowding,
and it requires a frequent resetting of plants as they increase in size
from year to year.

[Illustration: Yellow iris against the blue of distant hills.]

I have a border on the north side of my garden that is six feet wide and
about seventy feet long. It is my aim to keep this in bloom all through
the summer long. There is a background of purple and white lilacs and
cut-leaf spirea. The first thing that comes in the spring is poet's
narcissus, then groups of Darwin tulips; both of these are naturalized
and remain in the ground from year to year. Next comes the perennial
blue flax, a half dozen plants set at intervals down the border, that
every morning from mid-April until August are a mass of blue. Clumps of
May-flowering iris and then June-flowering iris and four large peony
plants make th