4 GENERAL ADVICE 



fication, in distinction to the unprotected area or 

 fields which lay beyond ; and this latter area was 

 the particular domain of agriculture. This book 

 understands the garden to be that part of the 

 premises which is devoted to ornament, and to 

 the growing of vegetables and fruits either for 

 the home consumption or for market. The gar- 

 den is, therefore, an ill- denned demesne ; but the 

 reader must not make the mistake of defining it 

 by dimensions, for one may have a garden in a 

 flower-pot or on a thousand acres. In other 

 words, this book believes that every bit of land 

 which is not used for buildings, walks, drives 

 and fences, should be planted. What we shall 

 plant, whether sward, lilacs, thistles, cabbages, 

 pears, chrysanthemums or tomatoes, we shall 

 talk about as we proceed. 



The only way to keep land perfectly unpro- 

 ductive is to keep it moving. The moment the 

 owner lets it alone, the planting has begun. In 

 my own garden, this first planting is of pigweeds. 

 These are usually followed, the next year, by 

 ragweeds, then by docks and thistles, with here 

 and there a start of clover and grass ; and it all 

 ends in June-grass and dandelions. Nature does 

 not allow the land to remain bare and idle. 

 Even the bank where plaster and lath were 

 dumped two years ago is now luxuriant with 

 burdocks and sweet clover; and yet people who 

 pass that dump every day say that they can 



