THE BIG BOG AND ITS LILIES 157 
is turning into a success. And that is only by girding 
me heroically to the task, and undoing every inch and 
every yard of all that was ever done before, and rebuild- 
ing the whole thing from the very foundations, as it 
ought to have been done at the beginning, nearly a 
dozen years ago. And, had I done so, I should have 
saved incalculably, in money, time, labour, and pleasure, 
by insisting on the extra initial expense that thoroughness 
of workmanship entails. Gardeners ‘of England, take 
warning by me’; abhor cheapness, which means shoddiness 
and inadequacy ; utterly eschew the saved sixpence, which 
ineans sooner or later an outpouring of pounds. 
My critics have so alarmed me by describing my 
standards as impossibly high and discouraging, that I 
must deny their accusation incessantly. ‘There is nothing 
in what I say to discourage small gardeners, poor gardeners, 
enthusiasts whose scale is limited. I only insist that they 
must prepare their ground thoroughly, and not spare the 
extra half-hour in building their garden, which will 
ensure through later years the prosperity of even difficult, 
capricious beauties. It is not lavish expenditure that I 
preach—it is thoroughness, thoroughness, thoroughness. 
‘Thoroughness, that cheapest and best of investments ; 
thoroughness, the gardener’s richest capital; thorough- 
ness in preliminary preparation, his easy, perfect insurance 
against all the woes that afflict the little flock in his 
charge. Of course if you are making a bog-garden by 
the acre, preparations will come heavy and expensive ; 
but in a little space, such as most of our gardens allow, 
all my sermons, even if carried out to the letter, will only 
mean a trifle of extra care at starting, an hour or so of 
added labour, another six inches of soil removed—a few 
small details looked to in the building, which, at the 
time, are as trifling and cheap as they may seem unim- 
portant—but which, in the course of years, will be found 
