CHAPTER III 



PLOTTING AND PLANNING 



Viewed from the warm fireside, the future of the garden is 

 rosy, the seeds sprout without exception, grow green and come 

 to blossom. 



Is there any recreation comparable to that of plotting 

 and planning a garden that is to say, one's own garden ? 

 I doubt if any at once so well occupies the present and fills 

 the future with pleasant dreams, and he who dreams is 

 happy, proof against the mischances of the moment, for 

 his thoughts are fixed on a bright future. If to-day's 

 expectations are disappointed well, there are to-morrows, 

 and the glamour of romance still enshrines them. 



When should the gardening year begin ? There are 

 many opinions, but my own is that the dull season is the 

 time, and the warm fireside the place, to make a start. 

 There, with his books and catalogues and papers, the 

 beginner is less likely to be disheartened ; for, thus viewed, 

 the future of his garden is rosy, the seeds sprout without 

 exception, grow green, and come to blossom ; the lawns 

 are close, velvety, and soft ; the roses smother the leaves 

 in bloom, and all is well. Disillusion at the outset is gall 

 to the tyro's soul, for his ideals are pitched high, and the 

 fall is sure to be far. When with experience has come 



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