THE GARDEN AT HOME 



the non-observance of a few elementary principles of 

 garden craft. The very first thing to do is to ensure as 

 much privacy as is possible in the circumstances, and 

 it is important in doing so to have regard to the effect 

 on the garden as a whole of the proposed alterations. It 

 would be a great mistake to shut in the garden, as with 

 a wall, by shutting out the surroundings even though 

 they consist of such prosaic material as the bricks and 

 mortar of the ubiquitous builder. In shutting in a 

 garden in this way its boundaries are defined, its circum- 

 ference is girdled, its extent made plain. And this, of 

 course, is exactly what we should endeavour to avoid. 

 Our aim must be to magnify its size, to create illusion and, 

 strange though it may seem, this may be accomplished 

 with the same stroke of the gardener's brush that sets 

 the boundary. For is he not an artist with his outlook 

 for a canvas, Nature's bounty for his palette, and her 

 colours for his paints ? 



The indefinite horizon shall be our aim. Whether 

 40 feet by 60 feet puts the limit to our going, or whether 

 the delights of a quarter of an acre are to be ours, the 

 methods are much the same. There shall be no thickly- 

 set Lombardy Poplars shutting out the sunshine, ever 

 reminding us how ridiculously small is our garden plot, 

 and impressing us with a sense of the futility of effort. 

 Nothing is so fatal to success as this. We will have a 

 boundary of bright spring blossom and coloured autumn 

 leaves, casting alluring shadows at noon, and through 



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