THE AMATEUR GARDEN 



nature so refined as to inspire and satisfy their 

 happiest moods. Therefore no garden should 

 cost, nor look as if it cost, an outlay of money, 

 time or toil that cramps the house's own ability 

 to minister to the genuine bodily needs and 

 spiritual enlargements of its indwellers; and 

 therefore, also, it should never seem to cost, in 

 its first making or in its daily keeping, so much 

 pains as to lack, itself, a garden's supreme essen- 

 tial — tranquillity. 



So, then, to those who would incite whole 

 streets of American towns to become florally 

 beautiful, "formal" gardening seems hardly the 

 sort to recommend. About the palatial dwellings 

 of men of princely revenue it may be enchanting. 

 There it appears quite in place. For with all its 

 exquisite artificiality it still is nearer to nature 

 than the stately edifice it surrounds and adorns. 

 But for any less costly homes it costs too much. 

 It is expensive in its first outlay and it demands 

 constantly the greatest care and the highest 

 skill. Our ordinary American life is too busy 

 for it unless the ground is quite handed over to 

 the hired professional and openly betrays itself 



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