268 COME INTO THE GARDEN 



reject all others; but this would presuppose 

 material at hand and would imply that a wild 

 garden can only be created where conditions 

 generally are wild. 



Of course this is not absolutely true, for a 

 kind of wild garden may be set up almost any- 

 where; that is, wild flowers may be domesti- 

 cated and induced to grow in a bricked-in, shut- 

 in, city plot. But note that this is not after all, 

 a wild garden, but rather a wild-flower garden 

 — which is a distinction expressing a great dif- 

 ference. For a wild garden reproduces the spirit 

 of the wilderness in every part and is not, as a 

 matter of fact, dependent upon its flowers for 

 its effect — though these must, of course, bear 

 out the concept and harmonize with it. And 

 thus a wild garden can have no design, as such, 

 and must happen by chance to a large degree. 

 Close study of wild groupings and of possible 

 effects by means of combinations as these occur 

 in a natural state, together with an unusually 

 deft hand for imitation, are the essentials to 

 success in the creation of a true wild garden; 

 and further than to point this out and to offer 

 a few general suggestions I cannot pretend to go 

 in helping (on paper) to the realization of this 

 type of garden. 



Many cultivated plants will run wild, as the 



