THE GARDEN WEEK BY WEEK 



June too long before it is cut. A man with half an acre or 

 more of garden, and a couple of glass houses, will not 

 have much time for extraneous tasks in summer. 

 Gardeners are not naturally grumpy men, but they 

 grow tetchy when they are overworked and misunder- 

 stood. 



I come back to my point, that work in the summer is 

 not generally so laborious as that of winter. There is so 

 much more to beguile it in the way of pleasant sights and 

 sweet smells that such physical strain as there is is not 

 noticed. Is a man likely to groan at having to carry 

 water to Sweet Peas, when he can almost see the plants 

 grow under his eyes, and when every day finds more 

 and more colour in the buds ? Will he consider it 

 irksome to draw a roller over the lawn when the Grass 

 is verdant and buoyant ? Will he grumble at having to 

 train a Rose when the pillars are being rapidly covered 

 with a mantle of flowers ? 



People who have gardens should live the open-air 

 life to the full in June. If they have writing to do, let 

 them take it into the garden. Let them work, eat, read 

 — yes, even sleep there. The ingenious cycle campers 

 have devised tents of extraordinary lightness and grace. 

 They have invented bedsteads, mattresses, blankets, 

 sheets, and pyjamas all combined in one or two articles, 

 which they can as good as stow away in their waistcoat 

 pockets. Why should not we who make beautiful 

 gardens, filling them with lovely sights and delicious 

 odours, sleep in them ? Think of breathing fresh, 

 invigorating air at night just as we breathe it throughout 

 the day. Night air is every whit as good as day air — if 

 anything, better. And we are not obliged to allow damp 

 to penetrate our bones, and give us rheumatism for life, 

 just because we decline to sleep between brick walls. 

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