LITTLE GARDENS 



spot, and you are sure that mosquitoes are not 

 breeding there, It can be utilized for plants like 

 flags, marshmallow, marsh-marigold and forget- 

 me-not. 



It is wiser that these incidents should be in- 

 timate and domestic than to attempt grandiose 

 or park-like effects. Indeed, even our park- 

 makers, our landscape architects, as they are 

 called, are conceding much to the taste for sim- 

 plicity. Frederick Law Olmsted, who wrought 

 a needed reform in this respect, aimed to pre- 

 serve the natural landscape, merely softening it 

 to human uses; to teach, and to satisfy men with 

 the qualities of gentleness and loveliness; to re- 

 move from sight all harsh, discordant elements, 

 and to stimulate pleasures in the air, which yield 

 health and content, and calm the fever of social 

 life. In the park, private as well as public, he 

 strove to conceal his art and pleasantly to deceive 

 the wayfarer into the notion that it was all nature 

 in a holiday humor. We must regard our ground 

 as a part of the home, and govern its use and 

 ornament accordingly. In town nature has been 

 humanized out of likeness to Itself, hence, arti- 

 fice in gardening conforms, not merely In aspect, 

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