4 FLOWER GARDENING 



borrowing and adapting of ideas is judicious, the 

 garden will have a personal character in nine 

 cases out of ten better than a slavish reproduction 

 of one of the endless number of kinds. It is 

 better in point of appropriateness and better in 

 point of enjoyment. 



To borrow and adapt judiciously is relatively 

 easy if common sense be kept in the foreground. 

 Art matters less than good taste and need not 

 seriously disturb the amateur so far as strict ad- 

 herence to set rules, and all that, is concerned. 

 These rules are for the professional makers of 

 gardens bearing high-sounding names. 



The more a garden is so broken up that the 

 eye cannot grasp all at once, the more kinds may 

 be drawn upon. At the end of the main path 

 there is, perhaps, a stone bench backed by small 

 evergreens ; this from an Italian garden. A curved 

 bypath discloses a little Japanese scheme, a bank 

 of thyme is from a Shakspere garden, while an 

 herb garden suggested the walk lined with burnet. 



This sort of garden-making is always worth 

 doing and the beauty of it is that the working out 

 of the idea may be of gradual growth. On the 

 other hand, a named garden is not worth while 

 at all unless it is substantially what it purports 

 to be. That means careful study, to the end that 

 there may be consistency of design and materials. 

 On top of the study will come much labor and, 

 more likely than not, much expense. 



Of the four kinds of gardens that are classed by 



