The Lessons of the Competition 



approached the matter from quite different standpoints. 

 / One class concentrated their efforts on an arrangement 

 of paths, fences, and a division of the area into spaces, 

 each allotted for a specific purpose. Generally speak- 

 ing, they failed to realize fully the fact that a garden 

 is essentially a place wherein to grow things, and grow 

 them in such a way that they shall fulfil Miss Jekyll's 

 ideal, to "form beautiful pictures in our gardens." 

 The danger in thus approaching the creation of a gar- 

 den is that it attaches an infinite importance to the 

 frame and ignores the picture. The tendency is to 

 produce a garden which is a mere pattern, all design 

 and no life, a stonemason's tombstone rather than a 

 Pygmalion's Galatea. 

 j The other class looked on the problem from the 

 opposite standpoint namely, that, given certain pro- 

 vision for growth and adequate planting schemes, little 

 else mattered. These did not sufficiently realize that 

 they had produced but a poor setting for their effects. 

 In the result, whereas many plants may be well grown, 

 they will never be seen to the best advantage, and in a 

 small garden, in particular, a general sense of untidi- 

 ness will always be in evidence. 



The duty of the judges, therefore, resolved itself 

 largely into selecting those designs that most nearly 

 attained to the ideal when judged from the standpoints 

 the competitors had themselves taken. It will be seen 

 from the published results that the balance was rather 

 in favour of the first class. Due attention was, how- 

 ever, paid to the second, so that adequate provision 

 was made in the selected plans for successful cultiva- 

 tion. It was felt that the making of the garden is in 



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