DESIGNING A GARDEN 33 



the garden and the rest of the world, is enough 

 for a beginning. 



Right here let me say that I cannot express 

 too earnestly the belief that nothing worth while 

 will ever be done with suburban or any other 

 gardens until we restore the fences and walls so 

 ruthlessly torn down and abandoned around the 

 latter quarter of the last century. Neither will 

 it be possible to accomplish much while our 

 highest inspiration is the work undertaken by 

 real-estate development companies. They were 

 responsible for this destruction of boundary 

 markings in the first place, in their endeavors to 

 make streets "catchy" by reason of their nov- 

 elty to persons passing through them, every 

 such person being of course a potential sale. 

 And because it is still the streets that the com- 

 mercial designer wishes to dangle as bait before 

 the undiscriminating, he will fight every effort 

 to restore privacy to private grounds and the 

 thrusting out from them of the public highway. 



There is absolutely no incentive to really fine 

 garden work under the conditions which are to 

 him ideal, however, and as long as these are tol- 

 erated, the art will languish. Be sure of that. 

 Not until all places, without exception, are in- 

 closed completely — and have gates, too, at their 

 entrances, not merely unprotected openings — 



