rock (Fig. 26) or bank, or other undesirable feature of the place. Dig
up the ground and make it rich, and then set plants in it. You will not
get it to suit you the first year, and perhaps not the second or the
third; you can always pull out plants and put more in. I should not want
a lawn-garden so perfect that I could not change it in some character
each year; I should lose interest in it.

[Illustration: 26. Making the most of a rock.]

It must not be understood that I am speaking only for mixed borders. On
the contrary, it is much better in most cases that each border or bed be
dominated by the expression of one kind of flower or bush. In one place
a person may desire a wild aster effect, or a petunia effect, or a
larkspur effect, or a rhododendron effect; or it may be desirable to run
heavily to strong foliage effects in one direction and to light flower
effects in another. The mixed border is rather more a flower-garden idea
than a landscape idea; when it shall be desirable to emphasize the one
and when the other, cannot be set down in a book.

_The value of plants may lie in foliage and form rather than in bloom._

What kinds of shrubs and flowers to plant is a wholly secondary and
largely a personal consideration. The main plantings are made up of
hardy and vigorous species; then the things that you like are added.
There is endless choice in the species, but the arrangement or
disposition of the plants is far more important than the kinds; and the
foliage and form of the plant are usually of more importance than
its bloom.

The appreciation of foliage effects in the landscape is a higher type of