Little gardens; how to beautify city yards and small country spaces . ses. A more serious objection isthat children, strangers, and Mary Ann, who isa law unto herself, will by no means travel on thepath, for it is human nature, and especially Amer-ican nature, and often a most excellent quality,to go straight to a designated object, consideringgrace and the neighbors not a whit; hence yourpath will be much neglected, and your grassmuch walked on. Even in parks, with police onduty as exemplars and enforcers of taste, peoplewill take short cuts to save a bend. It is, therefore, with hesitancy th
Little gardens; how to beautify city yards and small country spaces . ses. A more serious objection isthat children, strangers, and Mary Ann, who isa law unto herself, will by no means travel on thepath, for it is human nature, and especially Amer-ican nature, and often a most excellent quality,to go straight to a designated object, consideringgrace and the neighbors not a whit; hence yourpath will be much neglected, and your grassmuch walked on. Even in parks, with police onduty as exemplars and enforcers of taste, peoplewill take short cuts to save a bend. It is, therefore, with hesitancy that I suggesta still more radical but more conventional use ofthe curve. It is so completely artificial andagainst likelihood that I would hardly admit ithere, were it not that I know people whosehouses are only thirty feet back from the street,yet they must have a curved drive, in both direc-tions, to the front door, and a porte-cochere for31 LITTLE GARDENS the shelter of visitors. Well, here is a doublecurve: the oval. Quite like a frame for a minia-ture, isnt it?. Fig. 2. — I, Plower-beds; 2, trees and bushes. Mind, I dont say that this is pictorially bad,if I did make it myself, but only that it is un-American and impractical; that the young In-dians in the family, seeing their bat or ball wherethey dropped it, at the farther end of the yard,would make a rush for it, and would whollyneglect the appointed means of arriving. No-body would toddle around the oval but old per-sons, or guests whom you had invited to admire32 THE CITY YARD the effect, and who were looking for more Im-portant favors In the future. But If there areno Indians, and no Mary Ann, the oval lawn Israther pretty, dont you think? Unless you wereto plant flowers In a smaller oval In the center,there Is no place for flowers inside the walk, andyou must have grass. It Is the symbol and theproof of plenty. Our soft-breasted earth yieldstreasure to her children for the asking, yet neverin such wise as when we c
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectgardeni, bookyear1904
