PLOTTING AND PLANNING 



mapped out with walks, beds, and borders. He could 

 scarcely make a greater mistake, for a garden design on 

 paper is apt to be disappointing when actually carried 

 out on the ground. 



Let it not be thought that I am out to praise the fine- 

 weather gardener ; he will surely fail, as he deserves. 

 But all who have tended their flowers in fair weather and 

 in foul must realise that only the memories of past success, 

 and the sure knowledge that they are laying up a store 

 of future delight, give zest to prosaic gardening tasks, 

 carrying the workers undeterred through the digging and 

 trenching, planting and staking, when the fireside makes 

 strong appeal to the inclinations and plays sad havoc 

 with one's store of determination. But the beginner 

 has still to experience the satisfaction of reaping the fruits 

 of his labour, and for him the bad weather has no com- 

 pensation in happy memories or in visions of future joy. 



How shall one give exact advice on planning the 

 home garden ? Shall not each work out its own destiny 

 in the hands of its owner ? Surely this is best. The home 

 garden planned by another never quite expresses the in- 

 tentions of the gardener, never quite fulfils his ideals. 

 So if by chance I can give a hint or two, that is all I 

 shall attempt. The reader will, in time to come, be pleased 

 both with himself and with the writer that he was left to 

 fill in the details, for it is chiefly in its details that one 

 garden is distinguished from another. I have elsewhere 

 tried to vivify the charm of the little formal garden and 



XI 



