COTTAGE GARDENS 



A garden should be owned not to be monopo- 

 lized, but to be shared, as a song is owned not 

 to be hushed, but to be sung; and the wide giving 

 of its flowers is but one of several ways in which 

 a garden may sing or be sung — for the garden 

 is both song and singer. At any rate it cannot 

 help but be a public benefaction and a public 

 asset, if only its art be true. 



Hence one of the values of our gardening in 

 Northampton : making the gardens so many and 

 so artistically true and good, it makes the town, 

 as a whole, more interesting and pleasing to 

 itself, and in corresponding degree the better 

 to live in. Possibly there may be some further 

 value in telling here how we do it. 



As soon as signs of spring are plain to the gen- 

 eral eye the visiting for enrolment begins. A 

 secretary of the institute sets out to canvass such 

 quarters of the field as have not been appor- 

 tioned among themselves individually by the 

 ladies composing the committee of "volunteer 

 garden visitors." At the same time these ladies 

 begin their calls, some undertaking more, some 

 less, according to each one's willingness or ability. 



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