2 GENERAL ADVICE 



which we cannot have ; but we are happier when 

 we love the things which grow because they must. 

 A patch of lusty pigweeds, growing and crowding 

 in luxuriant abandon, may be a better and more 

 worthy object of affection than a bed of coleuses 

 in which every spark of life and spirit and indi- 

 viduality has been sheared out and suppressed. 

 The man who worries morning and night about 

 the dandelions in the lawn will find great relief 

 in loving the dandelions. Each blossom is worth 

 more than a gold coin, as it shimmers in the 

 exuberant sunlight of the growing spring, and 

 attracts the bees to its bosom. Little children 

 love the dandelions : why may not we ? Love 

 the things nearest at hand ; and love intensely. 

 If I were to write a motto over the gate of a gar- 

 den, I should choose the remark which Socrates 

 made as he saw the luxuries in the market, 

 "How much there is in the world that I do not 

 want ! " 



I verily believe that this paragraph which I 

 have just written is worth more than all the 

 advice with which I intend to cram the succeeding 

 pages, notwithstanding the fact that I have most 

 assiduously extracted this advice from various 

 worthy but, happily, long-forgotten authors. 

 Happiness is a quality of a person, not of a 

 plant or a garden ; and the anticipation of joy 

 in the writing of a book may be the_ reason why 

 so many books on garden-making have been writ- 



