CHAPTER II 

 Utilizing Natural Features 



EVERY plant in the world that springs up naturally in any 

 spot, has selected that partictilar spot because it finds 

 there the conditions of light and air and moisture best 

 adapted to its needs. In other words, you will find that every 

 square foot of soil all over this round earth is covered by the 

 vegetation that likes that particular kind of soil and location — 

 and other things will not grow there without a struggle. 



Of course this is the statement of a perfectly obvious fact — 

 yet it is not so very long ago that the owner of a charming coun- 

 try home complained to me of the fruitlessness of all his efforts to 

 establish a smooth and conventional lawn at one side of his house 

 "because water would settle there in spite of all that he could 

 do. ' ' Subsequent investigation revealed a group of little springs 

 under the fine old trees — Nature's marvelous provision for a 

 multitude of wild, elusive things of exquisite beauty which defy 

 domestication in the ordinary garden. 



He gave up trying to defeat Natiu-e's purpose by filling in 

 what he had always regarded as a miserable, low, wet, soggy 

 area and, taking Nature's hint, he now has a lovely and unusual 

 bit of garden where pitcher plants, orchids, trilliums, iris and 

 ferns mingle genially with other less familiar bog-loving things. 

 The whole is deftly inclosed and hidden from the outer world by 



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