CHAPTER XXV 



PILLAR AND PORCH 



Let us see what the gardener may plant to save his home 

 from the reproach of the commonplace. 



ONE may generally recognise the discerning gardener by 

 the way his house walls are planted. Does the ubiquitous 

 Ivy smother the bricks and mortar and Virginian Creeper, 

 whose glorious autumn colouring scarce compensates for 

 its untidiness, drape window-box and balcony, and fling 

 its far-reaching tresses over house porch, and verandah 

 pillar ? Then one may hazard the guess that no gardener 

 of fine discrimination controls the pleasaunce beyond. 

 It would be an unprofitable task to search there for 

 Daffodils and Poet's Narcissi massed in natural groups 

 in rough grass, in open spaces between the larger trees ; 

 to look for roses in May and again in October ; for flower 

 borders filled with luxuriant loveliness in the form of 

 masses of hardy flowers. Likely enough the visitor 

 would find an expanse of lawn dotted here and there 

 with groups of bedding plants ; narrow borders full of 

 leaves rather than of blossom, the boundary fences bare 

 or wrapped in Ivy green. But if creepers and climbers 

 of higher degree cling to the walls without wholly cover- 



