Gardening for Amateurs 



in the sunshine. Give them that which you 

 yourself are striving for " a place in the 

 sun." Both the gardener and the flowers 

 will then be happy, the flowers because they 

 like it and need it, the gardener because he 

 delights to see 

 them lusty and 

 abounding in 

 blossom. Hav- 

 ing decided the 

 position of the 

 chief feature, 

 whether rock 

 garden, rose 

 garden, mixed 

 flower border, 

 or perhaps all 

 of them if 

 there is room, 

 the next thing 

 is to consider 

 the outlook. 



Veiling the 

 Outlook. If 

 the garden 

 looks upon a 

 meadow, with 

 trees and undu- 

 lating country 

 in the distance, 

 it is obvious 

 that no sane 

 person would 

 wish to shut 

 out such a 

 perfect view. 

 Rather, by 

 skilful plant- 

 ing, should he 

 endeavour to 

 bring it into 

 the scheme ; so 

 blend the gar- 

 den with its 

 surroundings 



that the visitor cannot, without searching, 

 say where one ends and the other begins. 

 If r however, the garden is unlucky enough 

 to have bricks and mortar for its near 

 environment, matters assume a different 

 complexion. Yet, curiously enough, in such 

 directly opposed circumstances, similar 

 treatment is needed. Probably the first 



A small garden designed to comprise Rosery, Hardy 

 Flower Border, Rock Garden, Lawn and Shrubbery. 



thought of the unskilled amateur, in the 

 one case, would be to shut out the bricks 

 and mortar with a dense planting of shrubs, 

 and, in the other, to expose the whole of 

 his garden, including the boundary wall, 

 for the sake 

 of the country 

 view, His 

 methods would 

 be fundament- 

 ally wrong, for 

 the result 

 would be to 

 define in un- 

 mistak able 

 fashion the 

 limits of his 

 plot. His aim 

 should be just 

 the reverse: 

 to try to con- 

 ceal its extent, 

 and this is not 

 accomplished 

 by shutting in 

 the garden by 

 means of a 

 dense belt of 

 shrubs. It is 

 done by plant- 

 ing in such a 

 way that the 

 surroundings, 

 Avhether at- 

 tractive or 

 otherwise, are 

 veiled. 



It is sur- 

 prising how 

 well, to take 

 an extreme in- 

 stance, even a 

 prosaic chim- 

 ney looks when 

 you get merely 



a glimpse of it through the gracefully 

 stirring branches of some leafy or blossom- 

 laden tree, and if the tree is chosen 

 carefully, how the screen varies as the 

 seasons pass ! In winter the chimney 

 may show, perhaps too plainly, through 

 the naked shoots ; in early spring be 

 dimmed by the bloom - clustered growths 



