THE USE OF GARDENS 



he desires by climatic conditions which suit him well enough. Or 

 course he must have the sense not to attempt impossibilities, not to 

 try and make tropical plants grow in the English open air ; that 

 way lies inevitable failure and certain disappointment. But there 

 is no need for him to go outside the range of plant life which is 

 naturally available, for the exotic, even if it can be coaxed into some 

 semblance of vitality, is almost always a jarring note in an otherwise 

 characteristic garden — it is strange and incongruous and seems out 

 of the picture. 



Unquestionably, the success of gardening in this country can be 

 taken as a proof of the skill and discretion with which so many of 

 the men who have occupied themselves with this form of art have 

 done what was required of them. They have made the most of 

 the particular advantages which they have enjoyed in our insular 

 climate, and they have considered well the adaptability of the 

 material with which nature has provided them, so that they have 

 evolved a style which is as agreeably effective as it is artistically 

 sound. That they have learned something from abroad cannot be 

 denied, both the Dutch and the French gardeners have appreciably 

 influenced our native designers ; but these foreign influences have 

 not seriously modified what is really a national tradition based 

 securely upon an honest love of nature. At most, they have taught 

 us certain executive devices and certain methods of treatment which 

 could be conveniently grafted on to our own system of design, and 

 have somewhat enlarged the scope of our practice in garden-making 

 without introducing into it any discordant mannerism. 

 No doubt the preservation of this distinct individuality of style is 

 to a very large extent due to that love of gardens for their own 

 sake which is eminently a British characteristic. Any tendency 

 that there might have been among the designers themselves to 

 adopt strange methods has been kept in check by the unwillingness 

 of their clients to accept too obvious departures from a tradition 

 sanctioned by long usage. Changes in fashion have come from time 

 to time, changes that have not always been well-advised — like that 

 one, for example, which led to the conflict between formal and land- 

 scape gardening and caused the destruction of much interesting 

 work that was quite worth saving — but even in these new fashions 

 the idea that nature's principles should be respected was very rarely 

 forgotten. 



It is not difficult to understand the British attitude towards the 

 gardener's art. In a country where nature is so willing to respond 

 to the advances of her admirers, and where the variety of her charms 



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