GARDENS NEAR THE SEA 



power to resist and to form a break against the wind, 

 might better have been used. 



Even in many very slightly exposed gardens near 

 the sea, the wind at times becomes so devastating that 

 those wise in its ways have omitted all palms, elephant's 

 ears, Caladium esculentum, and other plants bearing 

 large leaves which, at short notice, can be battered and 

 torn into innumerable strips. Thus, in a few hours 

 of rough wind play, the thick leaves of a beautiful 

 magnolia that had withstood many gales were made 

 almost unrecognizable. The wind can work as sad 

 havoc with a seaside garden as can the salt spray, 

 another element the strength of which must be gaged 

 before a successful garden can be sustained. 



To fight the wind there are evergreen shrubs that 

 form into dense walls; natural slopes and buildings 

 also play their part in staying its strongest attacks. 

 But the only way to save a garden from salt spray is 

 to place it absolutely out of the sea's reach. 



A few years ago, along the Connecticut side of the 

 Sound, there raged a storm of such fierceness as to have 

 few equals in the memories of the oldest inhabitants. 

 The water and the spray overleaped their natural 

 boundaries and entered gardens supposed to be well 

 out of their reach. For months afterward the withered, 

 blackened foliage of the shrubs and plants was a 

 melancholy sight, while many of the delicate flowers 

 had been killed. Fortunately, such a storm is not in 

 the regular order of summer weather, and need only 

 be remembered as illustrating the undesirability of 

 too great a familiarity between the sea and the garden. 



[12] 



