8 LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



than foreign material. The grandest proof of this is the Arnold 

 Arboretum, which fits the New England landscape so perfectly 

 that thousands of people drive through it without suspecting it is 

 a collection of all the hardy trees and shrubs of the world. That 

 is because the native oaks, elm, hawthorn, etc., are the bulk of the 

 landscape material, instead of English oak, elm, and hawthorn, 

 which are not long-lived in America. While we can reproduce 

 nearly all the most important English effects we can never equal 

 England along those lines. She can always excel us on finish; 

 we can always excel her on variety and on autumn colours. We 

 have ten oaks to her one, ten dogwoods, ten viburnums, ten maples, 

 etc. We have been on the wrong track altogether, for we have 

 supposed that the secret of England's loveliness is that she has the 

 best materials for gardening, whereas the only fundamental thing 

 England has to teach us is the spirit of gardening. This spirit, 

 it seems to me, has three great lessons for us which the nation may 

 take centuries to learn but which we, as individuals, may under- 

 stand and apply at once. 



First, no country can be supremely happy, healthy, and 

 beautiful until every foot of it is a garden. We should limit the 

 height of buildings in our cities and bring the country into them. 

 Every home ought to have a garden. In England it is considered 

 a disgrace not to have one. It is impossible to bring up children 

 properly without a garden. We ought to live in our gardens a 

 good part of the time and entertain our friends there, especially 

 for the week-ends. 



Second, landscape gardening is better for the masses than formal 

 gardening. The object of formal gardening is to exhibit man's 

 mastery over nature; the object of landscape gardening is to make 

 us forget ourselves while contemplating a glorified portrait of 



