October
Witch Hazel Hamamelis 6-20 ft.  Yellow Grows anywhere.  Likes
              Virginiana moisture.  Fruit
          
                                            “explodes.”

“Certain shrubs are good to use for hedge purposes.  A hedge is rather prettier usually than a fence.  The Californian privet is excellent for this purpose.  Osage orange, Japan barberry, buckthorn, Japan quince, and Van Houtte’s spirea are other shrubs which make good hedges.

“You have to remember that not only should grounds look well to the passerby but they should look equally well from the inside of the building.  As your mother is working in the kitchen during the hot summer or sewing during a long dull winter afternoon, would it not be a joy to her to look out at a syringa sweet with blossom or a barberry with nodding red berries?  Landscape gardening is not only for the purpose of adding beauty to the earth’s surface, but also for the putting joy into the heart of a person as well.

“I forgot to say that in tree and shrub selection it is usually better to choose those of the locality one lives in.  Unusual and foreign plants do less well, and often harmonize but poorly with their new setting.

“I spoke of the path to the schoolhouse with its slight curve.  Landscape gardening may follow along very formal lines or along informal lines.  The first would have straight paths, straight rows in stiff beds, everything, as the name tells, perfectly formal.  The other method is, of course, the exact opposite.  There are danger points in each.

“The formal arrangement is likely to look too stiff; the informal, too fussy, too wiggly.  As far as paths go, keep this in mind, that a path should always lead somewhere.  That is its business—­to direct one to a definite place.  Now, straight, even paths are not unpleasing if the effect is to be that of a formal garden.  The danger in the curved path is an abrupt curve, a whirligig effect.  It is far better for you to stick to straight paths unless you can make a really beautiful curve.  No one can tell you how to do this.

“Garden paths may be of gravel, of dirt, or of grass.  One sees grass paths in some very lovely gardens.  I doubt, however, if they would serve as well in your small gardens.  Your garden areas are so limited that they should be re-spaded each season, and the grass paths are a great bother in this work.  Of course, a gravel path makes a fine appearance, but again you may not have gravel at your command.  It is possible for any of you to dig out the path for two feet.  Then put in six inches of stone or clinker.  Over this, pack in the dirt, rounding it slightly toward the centre of the path.  There should never be depressions through the central part of paths, since these form convenient places for water to stand.  The under layer of stone makes a natural drainage system.