a lovely yard, was to give the space for the general garden. This was
largely because Katharine's home was on the river road, a bit out of the
village and near none of the boys' places, for the girls wished to keep
the knowledge of their work from the boys as long as possible. Helena
lived next house to George and the land she might have used for this big
garden would have bordered George's corn patch. So that, of course,
would never do.

The garden while formal was ornamental. The girls were all to work on
the staking out and preparation. But each girl was then to take a
section of it and plant and care for that.

Katharine was to take the centre portion of grass and cannas. Now a
grass plot is very pleasing in a garden. It is restful to the eye and is
much more harmonious with the other colours in a garden than a mass of
brilliant blossoms. Cannas have some height, a delicate splash of colour
in the blossom and so work in well. It is always well to put some
tall-growing plant in the centre. The effect is that of working up to a
climax. One should not immediately jump from very low flowers in the
beds to a few tall ones in the centre. This is ludicrous. Make the
gradation gradual from low to high.

This garden of the girls may seem almost to violate this principle. Not
so, for the nasturtiums merely acted as a border. Then all around the
garden were the zinnias, poppies and marigolds a step up to the cannas.
One may buy tall or rather low growing cannas. These latter grow about
four feet high. They chose these low ones with yellow and orange in the
blossom to harmonize with the yellow and orange of the nasturtiums.

Note the proportional amount of grass space in the girls' garden.