1 62 The Landscape Gardening Book 



excellent design, they are dismal things in winter, minus the 

 water. So unless they can be very well done, they are better 

 omitted altogether. 



Bees are not furniture exactly, but they belong in every 

 garden where flowers grow. Fruits will be scarce on many a bush 

 without bee visits, and vegetables too, within the kitchen garden. 

 They are a little trouble at swarming time perhaps, but well 

 worth it in the practical advantage of having them, to say 

 nothing of the dehght they are to watch and study and ponder 

 over. 



The possibilities of the lattice are inntunerable and cannot 

 more than be mentioned in a general way. For divisions in the 

 garden, for blotting out disfiguring objects where there is not 

 space to plant them out, and for insuring the privacy of tiny 

 gardens, there is nothing equal to a lattice. High board fences 

 that are an eyesore take on real beauty when stained a dark rich 

 green or brown, and topped by a white painted lattice, half their 

 height or thereabouts. And lattices fixed against a building are 

 in themselves most decorative, as I have already pointed out in 

 a previous chapter. 



Finally we come to statuary, and here is one thing to be very 

 careful about. A statue has no excuse for being unless it is 

 excellent in conception — unless it carries some big meaning. 

 Abominations in the shape of deer and hoionds and other 

 " realistic " animals, which found their way somehow into some 

 grounds awhile back, are not likely to break into any garden of 

 to-day, I trust. But meaningless groups are almost as bad 

 as these were. 



We do seem to be somewhat at a disadvantage in the matter 

 of subjects, to be sure, when we compare our resources with 

 the rich mythology of the ancients, inspiring as it did so many 



