TYPES OF GARDENS 



avenues and flower patterns, to level the valley she has dug out, or to 

 fill in the stream that she has induced to wind in fascinating curves, 

 for the sake of substituting a flat surface on which a rose garden or 

 croquet lawn can be elaborately laid out, would be an indefensible 

 act of vandalism, and would be as absurd as to attempt to mimic a 

 forest glade in a London backyard. There must be real discretion 

 exercised in every move that is made towards the final result by 

 which the skill, the judgment, and the intelligence of the garden- 

 maker will in the future be estimated and his capabilities measured. 

 Clearly, there is necessary in landscape gardening a special degree of 

 serious thought to prevent any wrong step being taken which it 

 would be difficult or impossible to correct. The designer must never 

 do things in a hurry, and never without considering fully what will 

 be the consequences of his action. He must be able to visualise 

 mentally all the alterations that he proposes to make in the natural 

 scene before him, and to see exactly how by cutting away here, by 

 planting there, by accentuating this irregularity in the ground, or 

 by smoothing away that inconvenient piece of unevenness, he is to 

 increase its picturesqueness without destroying its character. From 

 experiments he is practically barred, because it is almost impossible 

 for him to replace what he has removed he cannot, for instance, 

 put back a large tree he has felled with the idea of opening up a 

 vista or improving a view though, of course, he has the power to 

 revise and amend his own additions, he can always take them away 

 if they do not fit properly into the scheme. 



When, however, the work is done in the right spirit it will be not 

 only enjoyable to carry out, but very satisfying in its effect. It 

 offers so many opportunities for contemplative study of nature, for 

 the careful balancing of the merits of this or that expedient, for the 

 intelligent anticipation of nature's intentions, that from beginning to 

 end the gardener is able to keep his interest fully alive and to avoid 

 any tendency to do obvious things in a mechanical manner. He 

 need never be at a loss for ideas, because wherever he looks new 

 suggestions are being made to him, and fresh ways of overcoming 

 difficulties are being demonstrated by practical proof ; and he need 

 never hesitate to accept the hints that are offered him, because they 

 come from the one teacher whose authority he cannot question. 

 Still, it is very important that he should cultivate his sense of 

 selection as well as his power of observation. It would be no use 

 to store his memory with a great variety of impressions if he could 

 not produce at the right moment the one he wanted. It is upon 

 this stock of impressions that he must draw when he wishes to be 

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