WHEN the lawn is made we begin to puzzle over the planting of trees and shrubbery.

What shall we have?

Where shall we have it?

One of the commonest mistakes made by the man who is his own gardener is that of over-planting the home-grounds with trees and shrubs. This mistake is made because he does not look ahead and see, with the mind's eye, what the result will be, a few years from now, of the work he does to-day.

IVY, CLIMBING ROSES, AND COLORADO BLUE SPRUCE

The sapling of to-day will in a short time become a tree of good size, and the bush that seems hardly worth considering at present will develop into a shrub three, four, perhaps six feet across. If we plant closely, as we are all inclined to because of the small size of the material we use at planting time, we will soon have a thicket, and it will be necessary to sacrifice most of the shrubs in order to give the few we leave sufficient room to develop in. Therefore do not think, when you set out plants, of their present size, but of the size they will have attained to five or six years from now. Do not aim at immediate effect, as most of us do in our impatience for results. Be content to plant - and wait. I shall give no diagrams for lawn-planting for two reasons. The first one is - no two places are exactly alike, and a diagram prepared for one would have to be so modified in order to adapt it to the needs of the other that it would be of little value, save in the way of suggestion, and I think suggestions of a general character without the diagram will be found most satisfactory. The second reason is - few persons would care to duplicate the grounds of his neighbor, and this he would be obliged to do if diagrams were depended on. Therefore I advise each home-owner to plant his lawn after plans of his own preparation, after having given careful consideration to the matter. Look about you. Visit the lawns your neighbors have made, and discover wherein they have made mistakes. Note wherein they have been successful. And then profit by their experience, be it that of success or failure.

Do not make the mistake of planting trees and shrubs in front of the house, or between it and the street. Place them somewhere to the side, or the rear, and leave a clear, open sweep of lawn in front of the dwelling. Enough unbroken space should be left there to give the sense of breadth which will act as a division between the public and the private. Scatter shrubs and flower-beds over the lawn and you destroy that impression of distance which is given by even a small lawn when there is nothing on it to interfere with the vision, as we look across it.

Relegate shrubs to the sides of the lot, if you can conveniently do so, being careful to give the larger ones locations at the point farthest from the street, graduating them toward the front of the lot according to their habit of growth. Aim to secure a background by keeping the big fellows where they cannot interfere with the outlook of the little ones.

If paths are to be made, think well before deciding where they shall be. Some persons prefer a straight path from the street to the house. This saves steps, but it gives the place a prim and formal look that is never pleasing. It divides the yard into two sections of equal importance, where it is advisable to have but one if we would make the most of things. In other words, it halves things, thus weakening the general effect greatly. A straight path is never a graceful one. A curving path will make you a few more steps, but so much will be gained by it, in beauty, that I feel sure you will congratulate yourself on having chosen it, after you have compared it with the straight path of your neighbor. It will allow you to leave the greater share of the small lawn intact, thus securing the impression of breadth that is so necessary to the best effect.

A BIT OF INFORMAL BORDER

I have spoken of planting shrubs at the sides of the home-lot. If this is done, we secure a sort of frame for the home-picture that will be extremely pleasing. If the shrubs near the street are small and low, and those beyond them increase in breadth and height as they approach the rear of the lot, with evergreens or trees as a background for the dwelling, the effect will be delightful. Such a general plan of planting the home-grounds is easily carried out. The most important feature of it to keep in mind is that of locating your plants in positions that will give each one a chance to display its charms to the best effect, and this you can easily do if you read the catalogues and familiarize yourself with the heights and habits of them.

If your lot adjoins that of a neighbor who has not yet improved his home-grounds, I would advise consulting with him, and forming a partnership in improvement-work, if possible. If you proceed after a plan of your own on your side of the fence, and he does the same on his side, there may be a sad lack of harmony in the result. But if you talk the matter over together the chances are that you can formulate a plan that will be entirely satisfactory to both parties, and result in that harmony which is absolutely necessary to effective work. Because, you see, both will be working together toward a definite design, while without such a partnership of interests each would be working independently, and your ideas of the fitness of things might be sadly at variance with those of your neighbor.

Never set your plants in rows. Nature never does that, and she doesn't make any mistakes. If you want an object-lesson in arrangement, go into the fields and pastures, and along the road, and note how she has arranged the shrubs she has planted there. Here a group, there a group, in a manner that seems to have had no plan back of it, and yet I feel quite sure she planned out very carefully every one of these clumps and combinations. The closer you study Nature's methods and pattern after them the nearer you will come to success.