THE AMATEUR GARDEN 



ownership we have a vast multitude of exactly 

 rectilinear lawns, extremely bare or else very 

 badly planted; and we have hundreds of thou- 

 sands of beautiful dames and girls who "love 

 flowers." But our home gardens, our home gar- 

 deners, either professional or amateur, where are 

 they? Our smaller cities by scores and our 

 towns by hundreds are full of home-dwellers each 

 privately puzzled to know why every one of his 

 neighbors' houses, however respectable in archi- 

 tecture, stares at him and after him with a va- 

 cant, deaf-mute air of having just landed in this 

 country, without friends. 



What ails these dwellings is largely lack of 

 true gardening. They will never look like 

 homes, never look really human and benign, that 

 is, until they are set in a gardening worthy of 

 them. For a garden which alike in its dignity 

 and in its modesty is worthy of the house around 

 which it is set, is the smile of the place. 



In the small city of Northampton, Massachu- 

 setts, there has been for many years an annual 

 prize competition of amateur flower-gardens. 

 In 1913 there were over a thousand homes, 



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