Many popular fruits, such as apples, pears, plums, and cherries, are grown on trees in orchards. But a number of small fruits, like berries and melons, are grown in the garden. Frits have one disadvantage for the gardener who is starting on a small scale. They require a large amount of space in which to grow.

But if you would like to have at least one fruit in your garden, you might try strawberries. Even one row of strawberry plants will yield a lrge number of juicy red berries. Buy the plants and set them out in the early spring. The plants should be placed a foot apart. Strawberry plants develop runners, which spread over the ground, so leave about 3 feet between rows.

It is important to keep the strawberry patch well weeded. The first year the plants will not bear fruit, but the second year they will bear generously.

Red and black raspberries, blackberries, red and black currants, and blueberries all grow on bushes. Currants need a moist, cool climate, and blueberries need acid soil. All of these berry bushes must be set 3 or 4 feet apart in rows 6 to 8 feet apart.

Grapes grow on vines that are trained over wire or wooden arbors. A vine does not produce grapes until it is 2 years old, but then it will bear for 50 years or more.

Melons must be planted from seed each year. Cantaloupes, honeydew melons, and watermelons need a long, warm growing season and plenty of room for their sprawling vines. In cool parts of the country, the seeds may have to be started in a protected place, then transplanted to the garden where they will grow.

Some garden enthusiasts focus more on flowers and flowers in late summer and fall are particularly interesting. Among the flowers you will find in late summer and fall gardens are dahlias, asters, marigolds, and chrysanthemums. If you plant dahlias where they will have lots of sunshine, you will be rewarded with quantities of blossoms. There are both single and double dahlias in a wide range of colors and sizes. Some dahlias are tiny pompons of petals. Other blooms are the size of saucers.

Asters look like daises, but they have several rows of petals. Year after year, perennial asters will fill the fall garden with white, pink, and lavender flowers. Chrysanthemums, like dahlias, come in a variety of colors and sizes, and may be either single or double. Shasta daisies and marguerites are both chrysanthemums. The chrysanthemums are among the last flowers to fade from the garden in a fall.

So no matter what you choose—be it fruits or flowers—for your garden, just make sure you care for it well. If you learn beforehand the particular climate, soil conditioners, and kind of care your plants require and if you tend them faithfully, you should have a picture-book garden on your very first try.