CRAFTSMAN FARMS


T IS, at Craftsman Farms, as in all places where a naturalistic de-
    velopment of the earth is pursued, the intervening strips of smooth
    turf and the places set apart for the planting of flowers that give
contrast and meaning to the whole property. For in the development
of rough country contrasts are essential to success. The hand of man
cannot always be seen in harmony with Nature. She must in places
be controlled: in others given her own wild way. The long front of
the log house is therefore banked with evergreens, many varieties of
natives and Japanese intermingling, while before them blazes a line
of bloom pluri-colored as Jacob's coat.
   "We will simplify here another year," states "the Craftsman."
"We will use fewer colors. This year the planting has been experi-
mental,-that is all but the arbor vitfes. They are here to stay."
   These native evergreens form in fact the keynote of the planting
and one more beautiful, or more sympathetic could not have been
struck. Thousands of them have here been set out with scarcely any
loss. They form hedges before walls follow the curved line of road and
pathway, stand singly or in groups; the soft tone of their green re-
lieves the brown logs of the club house and other buildings, and makes
in various places a soft mosslike background for the bright colors of
flowers. It is during the winter, however, that they come into their
full splendor. Then when the plant world, intense in its sleep, appears
dead to the average mortal, they remain unchanged bespeaking the
evergreenness of hope. Of such trees, "the Craftsman" believes,
the
farm has need, and if for no other reason than the healthgiving senti-
ment which they exhale vital and fragrant. When those now planted
in hedges and in various other places become overcrowded they will
be transplanted to spots more distant, their range all the time extend-
ing.
   Below its foundation planting, the lawn of the club house is in-
terrupted by a sunken, walled garden; the wall in its turn hidden by
arbor vitees following its well planned curve. This enclosed garden can
be entered from the road by means of a gateway guarded by two stone
posts which give a vista of the scene beyond topped by the long log
house. The gateposts are covered with English ivy as vigilant in
holding its greenness over the winter as the chosen trees.
   This season the tops of these posts, which are earth filled, have
been planted with annuals to give color and luxuriant growth until
the vines are better established. Several of the trusses of petunias
hang downward over the stones as if they were plants of the Medi-
terranean, a land remarkable for its flower-strewn walls. It is without
question that the climate of Morris Plains suits these bright-bloom-
ing flowers exceedingly well.
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