MARCH 7 



Englishman to abolish his belt of laurels and 

 berberis. But it might be possible to induce him, 

 at any rate, so to diminish their number that each 

 tree shall have room sufficient to assert itself and 

 to justify its existence. A laurel allowed to grow 

 into its own natural shape is not a hideous object 

 in the garden no tree that is natural is ever un- 

 beautiful. But a laurel crushed up against its 

 neighbours into a shapeless mass is ugly enough to 

 make the aesthetic soul eschew for ever the whole 

 laurel family. If this shrub is essential to the well- 

 being of the Englishman, there is, at any rate, no 

 sufficient reason why he should not have it in its 

 best form, which is its natural form. And if it is 

 given a prominent place in the garden landscape 

 a thing lamentable when its room could be taken 

 by flowering shrubs of real beauty there might be 

 encouraged under it herbaceous plants which would 

 transform the shrubbery into something approaching 

 distinction Michaelmas daisies would thrive there, 

 evening primroses, delphiniums, wallflowers, tril- 

 liums, and many more, with such bulbs as lilies, 

 irises, tulips, cyclamens, muscaris, and crocuses. 

 There is infinite scope even in the terrible shrub- 

 bery for good and tasteful gardening, provided the 

 interspaces are large enough to allow their occu- 

 pants to maintain their identity. 



My garden, as I have said, is an accomplished 

 fact, so that I cannot do the thing that I would. It 

 is only by gardening that one can learn what right 

 gardening is. I have had my opportunity, and have 

 misused it. But the part I love best of my small 

 domain is not the trim grass lawn with its carefully 



