164 GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS 



in the opposite direction. People are beginning to realise 

 that gardening comprises something more than a servile 

 imitation of Nature ; that the artistic criterion of a garden is 

 something higher than its naturalness. The mistake, which 

 is still too often made, is the failure to realise the architectural 

 character of such garden appendages as pergolas, trellises, 

 arbours, and summer-houses. With a growing appreciation 

 of the fact that such things demand as careful planning as 

 the dwelling-house itself there is arising a class of specialists 

 whom one may designate " garden architects." The particular 

 branch of gardening to which we desire now to draw attention 

 falls within the peculiar province of such garden architects, 

 and a paved garden designed by one of that fraternity will 

 be far less likely than would otherwise be the case to display 

 such glaring and rudimentary errors as, for example, the 

 use of so-called " rustic" work in conjunction with paved 

 walks or courts. For one of the cardinal principles to be 

 observed in the design and construction of the paved 

 garden be it merely a paved walk with or without a pergola, 

 a paved Rose or water garden, or a paved forecourt is that 

 the only traces of rusticity allowable in such a garden are 

 those due to art and not to accident. It is, for example, 

 not merely permissible but desirable to encourage the mossing 

 over of stone edgings and the interstices of paving, for 

 thereby is obtained that venerable appearance betokening 

 the undisturbed restfulness of long years, which should be 

 an attribute of the paved garden. 



If any plants at all be admitted upon the actual paving, 

 the very greatest care should be exercised in their selection 

 and insertion. It cannot too often be insisted upon that 

 paving is primarily intended for the feet of man, and any 

 plants allowed to grow upon the space devoted to that 

 purpose must not only wear the semblance of having made 

 a bold bid for freedom and escaped thither from the neigh- 

 bouring borders, but they must in themselves be strictly 

 in harmony with their surroundings. The indiscriminate 

 planting of a variety of rock plants is most strongly to 

 be condemned. To an artistic mind the result of such 

 planting is as repellent as would be the appearance of casual 

 footpaths across one's choicest Rose-beds. As Rose-beds are 

 intended for Roses, so are walks intended for walking upon, 

 a proposition so elementary that its habitual neglect is little 

 short of astounding. 



A cardinal rule to be observed in planting crevices is 

 that all traces of the gardener's hand must be studiously 



