THE PLEASURES OF GARDENING 17 



a promptitude which alone can ensure success ; of constancy, for 

 he speedily learns that if he neglect or be indifferent to the claims 

 of his garden it will soon become an object of reproach, a mere 

 wilderness in which the weeds will choke and exterminate his 

 choicest flowers and plants. 



Gardening, as every man who has practised it diligently and 

 intelligently soon realises, is an unexampled developer of the 

 faculties. Observation, ingenuity, foresight and alertness all 

 are brought into constant activity daily and hourly. One has 

 known or has heard of so-called gardeners whose sole idea is to 

 thrust a plant haphazard into the soil and be content to leave it 

 to its own devices, indifferent to its welfare, not caring over- 

 much whether it produce 'its blossom or not. Not so the true 

 devotee of the art and craft of horticulture. A little experience 

 speedily convinces him of the need to study the requirements of 

 his plants, to observe their habits, to seek to discover the situation 

 in which they thrive best. He is attracted rather than repelled 

 by the difficulties that confront him, and by the certain knowledge 

 that if he master them, and do not permit them to vanquish him, 

 Nature will work hand in hand with him as he works hand in 

 hand with Nature, and that a rich and abundant reward will 

 surely be his. 



How indispensable, too, is the exercise of the faculty of foresight, 

 of prevision, of looking ahead ! It is an indisputable axiom that 

 next year's garden is made out of this year's. In the height of 

 summer, when beds and borders are aflame with colour, and are 

 displaying their beauty with lavish prodigality, they are providing 

 the cultivator with the wherewithal to increase his stock by the 

 various methods of propagation that he has learned to practise, 

 and by the provision of seed which when ripened will enable 

 him to multiply his plants a hundred and a thousand fold 

 if it be his royal pleasure. But neglect to propagate at the 

 psychological moment, the omission to gather and store his seed 

 when it is ripe and bounteous Nature offers it without stint and 

 with no demand for payment, will be fatal to his hopes of future 

 success. 



