The trees are usually high-branched forest trees permitting a certain amount of light and air, and occasional patches of sunlight to reach the ground. Yet they may interfere seriously with the laying out of a conventional garden pattern. Nevertheless existing conditions should always be capitalized and a garden produced that is different from others and suited to the par ticular situation.

The soil where you plan the garden will have to be thor oughly worked and considerable humus-making material and fertilizer added. Drainage must be good, or made so, and plants selected in keeping with the environment. There are many, most of them native, that will create a garden that is different. For background and enclosure, plant native vibur nums, shadbush, aronia, native azaleas, with a few evergreen Japanese yew, laurel, and Rhododendron maximum. Where there is sufficient light, use hemlock for height and accent.

Secondaries like dogwood, cercis, and hornbeam will serve to tie the shrub borders in with the tall forest foliage above. Usually such a situation calls for naturalistic treatment. A formal pattern will not produce as good results as long flow ing curves, interestingly-shaped areas, and compositions of pleasing foliage texture and color. Often some of the native undergrowth can be left to make a backbone for the planting.

Its character indicates what will grow easily under your par ticular conditions. Often the first thing a new home-owner does, when he acquires a delightful wooded site, is to clean out the whole property. He then has to start from scratch and bring in new material from the nursery-material that is often of the usual "gardenesque" sort. The effect is never as good as it would be if he had left well enough alone.

If you acquire a wooded property, observe the plants that grow wild in the neighborhood; notice what is most adapt able. Plants tend to associate themselves in small ecological societies of herbs, shrubs, and trees, all of which thrive under particular climatic and soil conditions. There is the old-field group of gray birch, bayberry, and a number of lesser plants.

In upland areas, where many species of oak are the dominant trees, we also find cornels and viburnums. In moist areas or along streams, the red maple and pepperidge are accom panied by clethra, lindera, highbush blueberry, deciduous azaleas, and alders. In the hemlock ravine, we find ferns, Canada yew, bunchberry, wintergreen, and princespine. Along the lake, on the edges of the prairie, at the seashore, and in many other places there are characteristic groups which should provide a starting point for our selection. To these native groups you can add congenial plants from other places to form harmonious plantings.