12 The Garden Beautiful 



This is a stupid and harmful idea, as the two arts are 

 in no way antagonistic but helpful rather. Take away 

 all true planting and good gardening from our Castle 

 Ashbys, Longleats, or Wiltons and what do we gain ? 

 For remember that the ground about a house, even 

 slopes which must be terraced, is often very small in 

 extent compared with the planting we may have to do 

 in the home landscape. 



But the ugly buildings that strew the land everywhere 

 — Georgian, carpenter's Gothic, Victorian — if we take 

 away the good planting, the one saving grace about 

 them, there will be nothing left but an ugly pile to laugh 

 at. Good building and good planting go so well to- 

 gether — one helping the other in every way— that it is 

 odd to see any one writing on the subject without seeing 

 that it is so. I cannot suppose that any good architect 

 could fail to see the gain of good planting and good 

 flower gardening in relation to his work. We have 

 only the greatest satisfaction with a country place when 

 both building and planting are good — a rare thing, un- 

 fortunately. 



Any way good that best suits the site. To the good 

 gardener all kinds of design are good if not against the 

 site, soil, climate, or labours of his garden— a very im- 

 portant point the last. We frequently see beds a foot 

 in diameter and many other frivolities of paper plans 

 which prevent the labours of a garden being done with 

 economy or simplicity. In many places where these 

 hard-patterned gardens are carried out, they are soon 

 seen to be so absurd that the owners quietly turf the spot 

 •over, and hence in many country places we see only 

 grass where there ought to be a real flower garden. The 

 -good gardener is happy adorning old walls or necessary 



