142 Hardy Plants for Cottage Gardens 



tions. We grow sensitive to the artistic effect of unusual 

 combinations; we study with a view to rearrangement; mere 

 color grows less emphatic and beauty of form, symmetry, va- 

 riety and distribution more. We note the quality of shadow 

 as well as light; we observe the ensemble as well as particulars; 

 we see more in perspective. We visit an object to observe how 

 it looks at different hours of the day, and at night. We note 

 the modifications made by the different atmospheric condi- 

 tions. Some of my most delightful suggestions have come 

 through studying the garden under the moonlight, when a 

 wholly unfamiliar aspect is presented, and the deep shadows 

 supplement reality. 



My latest extension along the slope was a problem for a 

 whole year, during which, I worked out many diagrams, but 

 none of them pleased me. Last August I chanced to look into 

 the garden when the moon was full, and across a certain walk 

 tall perennials and shrubs cast shadows, that looked like steps 

 rising in a series of threes, curving toward and lost beneath 

 a distant arbor. Here was a clear solution of my question, 

 which was to construct a walk at the base of the slope and 

 running parallel with it for thirty feet, and then let it rise in a 

 curve to the top. To accomplish it, I had only to cut the bank 

 on either side of the rising curve down to the level of three long 

 terraced beds that already existed, and merely needed to be ex- 

 tended to meet the walk; and then by facing the cuttings with 

 stone walls, I could secure the moist and shaded conditions 

 that were so much needed for certain shrubs and tall peren- 

 nials that had to be moved from their present exposed posi- 

 tion because they suffered from drought. These were planted 

 on the right, the taller ones next to the walls and shading the 

 smaller ones, while on the left of the rising walk, where the 

 slope was cut down perhaps five feet and leveled towards the 

 front, was an unlimited space for masses of the low Lancaster 



