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Common Sense Gardens, How To Plan And Plant Them | by Cornelius V. V. Sewell



The following chapters were designed to point out to the owners of small and unostentatious places a way to plant their grounds and make their gardens with small expense; to use the best known indigenous trees and the shrubs and plants that have been identified for so long with American gardens that they have become American by adoption; and, to obtain with these, good and lasting effects that will be the means of ever-increasing enjoyment.

TitleCommon Sense Gardens, How To Plan And Plant Them
AuthorCornelius V. V. Sewell
PublisherThe Grafton Press
Year1906
Copyright1906, The Grafton Press
AmazonCommon Sense Gardens: How To Plan And Plant Them
Common Sense GardensCommon Sense GardensThe Grafton Press

The Grafton Press

Common Sense Gardens How To Plan And Plant Them 5
-Preface
The history of the world was begun in a garden, and to judge by the temper and sentiment of the rising generation it is likely to end in one. Every year more and more people seek the country, not only...
-Chapter I. Gardens Of The North And South
IN early New England days the residences of the government officials, and later the more pretentious mansions of the rich merchants were provided with gardens copied on a small and less elaborate scal...
-Gardens Of The North And South. Continued
Before the Revolutionary War there were few elaborate formal gardens in America. Undoubtedly the best example of one existing to-day with its original shapes and edgings and many of its minor details ...
-Chapter II. A Common Sense Garden
THE most appropriate garden for a small house, or for a moderately large house on small grounds, no matter in what style of architecture it may be built, is one that can best be described as a cross b...
-Chapter III. The Garden Enclosure
THE early English gardens were enclosed by high walls of brick or stone and often surrounded by a moat. If such materials were not available Osier fences were used instead or pickets painted gr...
-Chapter IV. Laying Out The Garden
THE garden may be in the front or the back of the house or at the side of it; or if none of these situations is available it may be laid out some distance away, but should be connected with the house ...
-Lilacs
Lilacs were used to a great extent as screens, too, and planted behind walls along the roads and lanes where they were allowed to grow into high, untrimmed hedges. A few stately specimens were to be f...
-Chapter V. A Few Good Trees
IF you have not enough confidence to lay out the grounds and garden yourself, consult a garden architect of good reputation, one whose work You have seen and know to approach more or less to your idea...
-White Oak. Pin Oak
The most desirable trees of all are the Oaks, the White, Red and Pin Oaks. They grow in time into enormous specimens and live for an indefinite period. When one plants an Oak tree one not only benefit...
-The Elm
The Elm is the most graceful of all our native trees. Who is not familiar with the wineglass Elms of New England that so lightly o'erarch the village streets and greens? It is quite a rapid grower and...
-The Maples
Maples are popular trees; association, their cheerful habit of growth, their prim, spinster-like attitude and demeanour, their luxuriant foliage have all contributed to their popularity. The most pict...
-The Beech And Linden
Linden are good trees that may be used sparingly in rather prominent positions. It is a great deal better not to plant too many varieties on a small place or the grounds will look like an arboretum, b...
-The Buttonball
Buttonball (Sycamore or Oriental Plane) trees should not be planted on small grounds for the present, anyway, until some remedy has been found for the disease that has been ravaging them for the past ...
-Chapter VI. Evergreens And Old Box
EVERGREENS are really more effective in Winter than in Summer, but they should not be used with only that thought in mind as they are most valuable in combination with their deciduous neighbours. The ...
-White Pine
White Pine trees should always be planted if there is any place for them. The New Englanders used them in rows in front of their houses, or for screens and wind-breaks; or they placed them on some com...
-The Norway Spruce
Norway Spruce is a good tree that has been used too much because it is cheap and grows quickly. It is too thick and dark and lowering to plant very near the house, as it effectually shuts out light an...
-Nordmann's Silver Fir
Nordmann's Silver Fir (Picea Nordmanniana) is a glorified variety of Spruce that should be planted if possible in place of the Norway or native. It is a tree of more moderate size but of splendid prop...
-The Larch
Larch is a deciduous tree that has the appearance of an evergreen, and is generally considered as one. In Spring when it is budding it is a beautiful sight with its delicate green plumelets, but its e...
-The Irish Juniper
Irish Juniper is a tree of a beautiful silvery green colour that should be very carefully used in semi-formal work, for it is extremely formal in appearance. It is hardy if not planted in too exposed ...
-The Red Cedar
The Red Cedar is a most beautiful tree. Its growth is naturally pyramidal, but when found near the coast it is often twisted into the most fantastic and weird forms. If your place is bare of Cedars it...
-Modern Box Trees
Modern Box trees, that is, those grown for the trade in Holland and Belgium, no matter how carefully they have been trimmed, cannot give the same feeling to a new yard as a few venerable specimens rut...
-Chapter VII. Choosing Shrubs And Small Trees
MANY people imagine that shrubs are wasted if they are not massed together in great plantations, where they present a solid phalanx of bloom for two or three days each year. The rest of the time the b...
-Magnolias
Magnolias are rather formal trees that should be planted in pairs to appear to the best advantage. Very good varieties are soulangeana and conspicui, of very much the same shape and bearing the same k...
-Laburnum
A very graceful tree of small size is the Laburnum (Laburnum vulgare). It is not used much in this country, but is popular in England. It is tall and slight with delicate green foliage, and the branch...
-Chapter VIII. Good Shrubs For The Yard
THE first shrub to blossom in Spring is the Forsythia, and its bright yellow bells are a cheerful addition to the brown lambrequins of April; it is a harbinger of the glorious blossoms that will follo...
-Philadelphus Coronarius, Or Mock-Orange
Philadelphus Coronarius, or Mock-orange, is a good shrub to use with Lilacs; it is generally seen with them hanging over an old picket fence, or leaning from the top of a bank. Its blossoms have the s...
-The Flowering Almond
The Flowering Almond was always to be found in New England dooryards. It is a small shrub bearing myriads of tiny Rose-shaped flowers strung along its branches before the leaves appear; there is a whi...
-The Bush Honeysuckle
Bush Honeysuckle (Lonicera tartarica) was introduced many years ago from Russia, but became naturalized in the neighbourhood of New York and was a feature of the old Westchester County gardens, in who...
-Rhododendron Maximum
Rhododendron Maximum, the native Rhododendron which is very common in Pennsylvania and southwards, and is found also in New England and New York, has been used much for naturalizing in the past few ye...
-Lilies
Lilies grown in the bed with Rhododendrons and Laurel not only do very well but present a most charming appearance. Lilies need the shelter that the Rhododendrons so well supply, as they are susceptib...
-Holly
Holly is a most decorative plant, especially when it is old enough to bear the bright red berries. The use of Holly and other evergreens in religious ceremonies dates from pagan times and it is consid...
-Chapter IX. Walls Of Stone And Brick
THE most ungainly fence that has ever been devised is made by running lengths of gas pipe through upright wooden posts, and coupling them together. From an aesthetic point of view such a fence has not...
-Walls Of Stone And Brick. Continued
By far the best material to use for walls on a small place is brick, the ordinary, everyday brick that is made on Long Island or in the Hudson valley, not the smooth, weirdly red pressed brick that is...
-Chapter X. Fences And Hedges
PICKET fences of the same character as those seen in combination with brick walls, make good enclosures for gardens. The use of pickets or palings dates at least from the sixteenth century, when Engli...
-Hemlock
Hemlock is fine hedge material. It has a graceful, feathery growth and, when clipped well, presents a smooth appearance, the fine foliage interlacing. If grown for a hedge the top should be bevelled, ...
-California Privet
Privet Privet is a shrub that has been roundly abused both in England and America; some people have given up planting it because they consider it too commonplace; others have torn it out for the sa...
-Arbor Vitae
Arbor Vitae is often used for making hedges, but as it grows old it is apt to lose some of its lower branches and to present a moth-eaten appearance. A beautiful variety is the golden although a littl...
-Native Holly
Native Holly (Ilex opaca) makes an attractive hedge, but I would hardly recommend its use for enclosing a garden in northern latitudes. If you have some position that is sheltered it would repay you t...
-Chapter XI. Old And New Roses
ROSES have been identified with England since belt, fore the time of gardens, and in that damp and rather sunless isle they flourish exceedingly, claiming more attention than any other flower, and blo...
-Old And New Roses. Continued
There were few yellow Roses in the very old gardens; for some time Banksia was about the only representative of that colour. In the year 1830 Persian Yellow and Harrison's Yellow were introduced, The ...
-Anne De Diesbach
Anne de Diesbach is a hardy Rose and a good bloomer, bearing many large and deliciously fragrant flowers of a rich carmine-rose colour. The flowers are of fine form and are very good for cutting; stem...
-Remontant Roses
Transplant Remontant Roses in the Fall if possible; if not, then very early in the Spring, in March, while they are still dormant and when the frost is just out of the ground. If the season is rainles...
-The Perpetual Roses
The Perpetual Roses that have been described are quite able to withstand the hardest Winter in the latitude of New York, and there is no necessity for providing straw wrappers for them, or for laying ...
-Chapter XII. Ever-Blooming And Climbing Roses And Vines
MONTHLY, or Ever - blooming Roses, need much more care than the Hybrid Perpet-uals and, unless given it will be apt to prove a disappointment. Although they are called Ever-blooming few of them blosso...
-Mildred Grant
Mildred Grant; a white hybrid Tea Rose of large size, with curving, shell-like petals. A good Rose for cutting as the flowers are of much substance and last a long time when gathered. Introduced by Di...
-Kaiserin Augusta Victoria
Kaiserin Augusta Victoria is a white Rose of very rampant growth, apt to bloom in clusters at the end of long branches; the buds are generally of a creamy tint, but the flowers expand into the most pe...
-Bessie Brown
Bessie Brown; a white Rose, large and with a well-formed effective flower. A vigorous grower and blooms abundantly. This, like Killarney, is one of Dickson & Sons' Roses, and they are both desirable f...
-Polyanthas
Mosella; white. Paquerette; white. Cecille Brunner; salmon. If you have a Rose garden, or a few Rose beds, there are many Remontant Roses that should be grown as well as the Ever-blooming varieties...
-The Clematis Paniculata
The Clematis Paniculata should be used on a post or pillar. It dies down to the ground each year although sometimes a shoot will remain green through the Winter. Once started it grows rapidly and prov...
-English Ivy
English Ivy is rather delicate for this climate and will do well only against the south side of a wall, or on the ground where it may be readily protected in Winter. It is particularly effective again...
-Virginia Creeper
Virginia Creeper (Ampelopsis Virginica) is one of the best vines with which to cover an old stone wall, or to use on stone work of any kind; to grow over rocks and to cover the stumps of trees. It wil...
-Chapter XIII. Filling In With Colours
THE gardens of England, from which the Colonial gardens of America drew their inspiration and character, were evolved gradually and not copied from any particular pattern or dominated by any well defi...
-Filling In With Colours. Continued
The English gardens are so well enclosed by hedges and screens and arches of Yew and Holly that the character of each flower and its colour is vividly brought out against their sombre yet sparkling ba...
-Chapter XIV. The Best Perennials For The Garden
JUST inside the edging of the principal beds of the flower garden, shown in the plan on pages 364 and 365, Narcissi of the following varieties should be established: Emperor Bicolour Empress...
-German Iris
German Iris blooms in May, a full month earlier than the Japanese, and although the range of colour is not very varied, the plant is valuable on account of its hardiness, the peculiar light grey-green...
-Foxglove And Sweet William
Foxglove and Sweet William are frequently used together. Foxglove is not really a perennial but it generally sows itself and so is considered as one. You should not depend upon this, but sow seed in J...
-Larkspur
Larkspur is a favourite in English gardens; it is used in combination with many plants, such as Lilies, White Daisies and Yellow Pyrethrum, Monkshood, Snapdragon and Phlox. It is also grown in clumps ...
-Phlox
Phlox is one of the most useful as well as the most beautiful of hardy plants. It has many qual-ities to recommend it besides its hardiness; it is easy to grow from seed; it multiplies rapidly; its gr...
-Lilium Candidum
Lilium candidum, is most effective grown in clumps, with Funkias or Japanese Iris around the outside of the clump. Group it in the main beds near a path; or if you have a good location with a tall hed...
-Funkia Grandiflora, And G. Alba
Funkia grandiflora, and G. alba, are splendid in clumps at intervals of ten feet or so, or as a border along a hedgeless path leading to the garden or the kitchen garden. The foliage is a refreshing g...
-Hemerocallis Flava
Hemerocallis flava is the lemon Day Lily which blooms profusely in June and should be planted in clumps at the corners of the beds or the foot of a flight of steps. Hemerocallis fulva is the orange Da...
-Rudbeckia, Or Golden Glow
Rudbeckia, or Golden Glow, is not included in the above list for it is not necessary to use it, and it is of such weed-like growth that it is apt to spread over everything. Small clusters of it may be...
-Chapter XV. Naturalizing
ON page 139 is the picture of an old Georgian mansion in Virginia. The field in the foreground, which is many acres in extent, has been thickly naturalized with Jonquils and Narcissi. Standing by the ...
-Narcissi
Narcissi are much more enjoyable and more beautiful when growing through the grass of a field than planted primly along the borders of the garden, where, to be sure, they are useful and mildly effecti...
-The Gesneriana Tulip
The Gesneriana Tulip can be naturalized successfully, and should be placed in clumps along the edge of a bank or near shrubbery, where it is not too dry. The flower is a beautiful red in colour and is...
-Crocuses
Crocuses are not of much value in the garden. They are very early, but that is their chief claim to favour. When they first appear our eyes have been flower-starved for so long that we welcome them wi...
-Columbine
Columbine is found in a natural state in poor soil, growing on rocks in the partly cleared woods, where it is shady. The native variety, red and yellow in colour, Aquilegea Canadensis, should be natur...
-Lilium Longiflorum
Lilium Longiflorum naturalized in a glade near water, or where the sound of water may be heard, with ferns for companions, looks better than anywhere else. The lilies, except candidum, like shade and ...
-The Cypripediums
The Cypripediums are Orchids and are the most beautiful of our wild flowers. C. spectabile, or Showy Lady Slipper, grows to the height of two feet and bears a rose-white flower. It can be grown in moi...
-Foxglove
Foxglove is easy to naturalize and is very effective grown in the woods or along woodland paths. I have had plants grow in the shadiest part of an Oak grove, from seed sifting through the garden sweep...
-Aquilegia, Or Columbine
One of the most satisfactory varieties to grow is coerulea, the Rocky Mountain Blue Columbine. It is one of the easiest to raise and is perfectly hardy and persistent. Height, three feet. Glandulosa v...
-Coreopsis, Grandiflora
Plant in the Spring and combine a number of seedlings into a clump which may be set out in the garden in early Fall. It will make quite a bush, but the yellow flowers should be kept well picked off if...
-Campanula
Besides the varieties pyramidalis and rotundifolia the Medium Rose and White are good. These are biennials, blooming the second year and then dying down. Seed should be planted every Spring if you wis...
-Dianthus Heddewigii, Japan Pink
Dianthus Heddewigii, Japan Pink, is a most attractive little flower of many colours, that blooms profusely and continues to bloom for some time if the flowers are well plucked. There is not much place...
-Snapdragon, Antirrhinum
Snapdragon, antirrhinum is a very attractive perennial but a tender one; the colours are soft and of a good variety; the foliage a dark green and of extremely graceful habit. It will blossom the first...
-Pyrethrums
Pyrethrums are much used in English gardens in combination with Campanulas, Delphiniums and so forth, and make a good foreground for such plants. They grow much more luxuriantly in England however tha...
-Lavender
Lavender, a grey-green shrub-like plant, probably has more tradition and sentiment connected with it than any other flower. It thrives in England in light, warm soils. It is apparently difficult to ra...
-Zinnias
Zinnias are good, as they bloom until frost and the plants grow into bushes of attractive form. Crimson and white and flesh pink are the best colours. ...
-Balsam, Or Lady Slipper
Balsam, or Lady Slipper, is one of the easiest grown annuals. If transplanted several times the plants will grow bushy and develop into miniature trees covered with Camellia-like bloom. The double whi...
-Calendulas And Marigolds
Calendulas and Marigolds should be grown for the purpose of filling up. The tall-growing Marigolds if kept cut back will develop into bushy plants and may be moved any time if a little care is taken. ...
-Pansies
Pansies should be started in July, and if early-flowering plants are wanted they should be win-tered in a frame. Otherwise they may be wintered in the open ground if a good covering of litter and stra...
-Gladioli
Gladioli, the familiar Summer-flowering bulbs may be easily grown, either in the kitchen garden for cutting or for stately specimens of bloom in the flower garden. No place has been assigned to them i...
-Chapter XVI. A Small Water Garden
IF there is room on the place for a Water Garden the cultivation of Water Lilies and water plants of various sorts will be found to be not only interesting, but also a most delightful diversion. If th...







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