LAYING OUT THE GARDEN 61 



built where one may read and sew and entertain 

 one's friends at tea, for tea is always more at- 

 tractive in company with the flowers. For some 

 plants shade is necessary, as Lily-of-the-valley 

 which thrives under the trees and soon carpets 

 the ground with its silvery green leaves. It is a 

 great temptation to the lover of flowers to repro- 

 duce the bloom of every plant that attracts at- 

 tention in neighbouring gardens, a temptation that 

 often leads to dire confusion of colours and forms 

 and produces bizarre effects that it would be bet- 

 ter to exclude from a small garden. The atmos- 

 phere of the common sense garden should be soft, 

 subdued, suggestive of peace to both the mind 

 and the eye. 



The beginner would do well to start with com- 

 paratively few plants, and when he has thor- 

 oughly mastered the cultivation of these, when 

 he knows their whims and idiosyncrasies and can 

 anticipate their wants and supply their needs, he 

 may take up others, add to his repertoire as it 

 were. He will surely find out that there are some 

 flowers which grow in the gardens of his neigh- 

 bours like weeds but with which he can not sue- 



