THE AMATEUR GARDEN 



of its initial and continuing costliness, is, and 

 must remain, the garden of the wealthy few, 

 and that the gardening for the great democracy 

 of our land, the kind that will make the country 

 at large a gardened land, is "informal,'* free- 

 hand, ungeometrical gardening. In this sort, 

 on whatever scale, whether of the capitalist or 

 of the cottager, the supreme feature is the lawn; 

 the lawn-mower puts this feature within the 

 reach of all, and pretty nearly every American 

 householder has, such as it is, his bit of Eden. 



But just in that happy moment the Tempter 

 gets in. The garden's mistress or master is 

 beguiled to believe that one may have a garden 

 without the expense of a gardener and at the 

 same time without any gardening knowledge. 

 The stable-boy, or the man-of-all-work, or the 

 cook, or the cottager himself, pushes the lawn- 

 mower, and except for green grass, or change- 

 able brown and green, their bit of Eden is naked 

 and is not ashamed. 



Or if ashamed, certain other beguilements, 

 other masked democratic tyrannies, entering, 

 reassure it: bliss of publicity, contempt of skill, 



168 



