82 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 



in England appear. Display should always be 

 subservient to simplicity and common sense. 

 Americans have learnt how to build livable houses; 

 the art of building livable gardens will be appre- 

 ciated in time, once the old, natural instincts are 

 awakened. 



Do not cut down any trees with which your 

 grounds may be blessed until you have to, and 

 guard zealously those near the house or they will 

 be ruined by the builder. In fact it is safer to 

 make some sort of contract with him concerning 

 the trees, for otherwise he will not be interested 

 in their welfare, and if a limb should so much as 

 graze the face of one of his carpenters the fellow 

 will be sure to chop it down, and you may go hang. 

 The best way to do is to box them strongly as high 

 up as the branches will allow Great care should 

 be taken with the Cedars, for their picturesque 

 beauty or the formality of their outlines can be 

 utterly ruined by the loss of one or two branches; 

 and Cedar trees cannot be replaced in a hundred 

 years. 



The most valuable trees are those that are 

 beautiful in Winter as well as in Summer; those 



