178 



THE NATURE BOOK 



monious and perfectly balanced, with the 

 stilted form, the false atmosphere, the 

 apparent goodwill and friendliness of 

 the greetings of half-strangers in a 

 society drawing-room, where an air of 

 hypocrisy ruffles the surface calm, and 

 unreality reigns supreme. There is as 

 great a difference between the modern 



/ /'. Mason Gooii, jrinchjicid 



WISTARIA-CO VhKLD I'ORCH. 



garden, where plants, raised in an artificial 

 temperature, crowd each other in the beds 

 and borders, and the old English garden 

 where the plants have grown together 

 from babyh(X)d and thrive in perfect 

 harmony, each content to i)lay its own 

 part in the making of a garden-home 

 without encroaching on the rights of 

 others. 



-An old English garden is most easily 

 made with those commonly known as 

 hardy bcjrder flowers, with Phloxes, Irises, 

 Roses, Carnations, Pinks, and Picotees, 

 with Paeonies and Pyretlirums, Lui)ines 

 and Larkspurs, Lilies, Hollyhocks and Bell- 



flowers, for these thrive best when carefully 

 planted and allowed to go their own 

 way, imdisturbed and unrestricted. Each 

 soon flnds its own level : although during 

 the first few years some may need gently 

 reproving and others tenderly nurturing, 

 gradually they will come to blend into 

 one harmonious whole, each filling its 

 own allotted space and not 

 interfering with its neighbour. 

 Not everyone can hope to make 

 an old English garden, a garden 

 that shall be as part of one's 

 life, a fount of joy in times of 

 bright sun-shining, of soothing 

 sympathy when days are dark. 

 It is only those of us who are 

 content to leave well alone, to 

 let the plants go their way and 

 not compel them to go ours, 

 that are capable of guiding a 

 garden to its fullest destiny and 

 investing it with a charm that 

 shall finally pervade it from end 

 to end, and make of it a thing 

 most beautiful. More gardens 

 are s]5oilt through being con- 

 tinually disturbed than in any 

 other way : possibly this is the 

 reason one sees so few of those 

 gardens which have come to be 

 known as old English gardens, a 

 title that signifies not merely a 

 collection of plants, but a home 

 of flowers in which sacred 

 memories cluster about the 

 leaves and petals, and the very 

 air seems filled with a sense of 

 rare delight. 



The house itself has an im- 

 portant bearing on the garden, 

 and especially on the old English 

 garden : there are some houses around 

 which it would seem impossible to 

 make a garden of grace and charm — 

 houses whose austere fronts and formal 

 terrace walks are quite out of keeping 

 with free-growing, old-fashioned flowers. 

 Yet much may be done to bring the house 

 into closer touch with the garden. Climl)- 

 ing roses. Honeysuckle, Ivy, Clematis, 

 and other plants that love to cluster about • 

 barren, sun-kissed walls, must be trained 

 to cover the brick and stone with fair 

 leaves and fragrant blossoms, looking in 

 at the window, clinging round the door. 



