I 



THE AMERICAN GARDEN 



far from him for whose aspect he is answerable, 

 having graded them himself (before he knew 

 how). He has repeatedly heard their depth 

 estimated at ninety feet, never at more. In 

 fact it is one hundred and thirty-nine. How- 

 ever, he has somewhat to do also with a garden 

 whose grading was quite as bad — identical, 

 indeed — whose fault has been covered up and 

 its depth made to seem actually greater than it 

 is, entirely by a corrective planting of its shrub- 

 bery. 



One of the happiest things about gardening is 

 that when it is bad you can always — you and 

 time — you and year after next — make it good. 

 It is very easy to think of the plants, beds and 

 paths of a garden as things which, being once 

 placed, must stay where they are; but it is short- 

 sighted and it is fatal to effective gardening. 

 We should look upon the arrangement of things 

 in our garden very much as a housekeeper looks 

 on the arrangement of the furniture in her house. 

 Except buildings, pavements and great trees — 

 and not always excepting the trees — we should 

 regard nothing in it as permanent architecture 



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