The word "pergola" usually includes various semi-architectural features that add variety and charm to a garden by making an attractive support for flowering vines and climbers, and by thus covering walks and pathways and making shady and airy tunnels. The pergola is made up of a series of columns or piers in a row, and is flat on top, with beams or poles interlaced overhead.

A pergola should lead to some object like a summer-house, a bench, or a fountain ; or it may connect one part of a garden with another, or act as a screen, much as would a hedge between a flower garden and the vegetable garden.

No matter what form it may take, whether it is flat on top like a pergola or domed like a series of arches, the position of the arbor in a garden must be carefully selected. You don't want it to look like a tangled mass of greenery piled up in the most prominent place in the garden that provides a damp, cozy home for bugs and other insects.

Flowering vines and climbers appear to the best advantage when trained on the posts and cross beams of an arbor, and the glimmering light and shade that plays along this covered way makes it a charming feature of garden magic.

To the garden lover who realizes that there is more to ornamental gardening than the mere raising of flowers and plants, the arbor or pergola may be a welcome accessory, whose semi-architectural appearance will go far toward making his garden a more interesting place to look at, in winter as well as summer. It is imperative, however, that such a fixture should fit its surroundings in plan and appearance, just as a house should fit its site.

There is more to gardening than the mere raising of flowers. And we can make more use of our gardens, besides just the pleasure of gathering and caring for flowers, by introducing features that will give charm even when there are no flowers in bloom.

Stone, brick, concrete, terra-cotta and wood are all suitable for the embellishment of gardens.

A garden doesn't have to be "formal" in order for accessories of a semi- architectural nature to be successfully introduced. But everything depends upon the nature and design of these pieces and whether or not they are placed so they fit harmoniously in the garden picture.

There can be no hard and fast rules concerning the use of garden accessories. Some gardens may be improved by the judicious use of a pergola, or even a piece of statuary in the form of a terminal figure, but in others they would look hideous. It is all a question of environment. That's why our gardens need to be individual and not some cookie-cutter variety.

A little thought or planning for the look, feel and comfort you hope to achieve can give a more pleasant gardening experience. Let your "garden" be the talk of the neighborhood.