28 GARDENS AND THEIR MEANING 



than their elders, so that they will make at first ridiculously 

 elaborate planting lists. But common sense, combined with 

 the restrictions of pocket money, very soon reduces the items 

 to a list of reasonable length. In short, there is so much to 

 do that the children will be busy every day painting in vivid 

 colors a garden in Spain which is destined, in part at least, 

 to come true. 



To go from fancy to fact will be a great relief ; and so all 

 are radiant when in the late winter indoor planting can really 

 begin and go steadily ahead. The seeds will be started in the 

 house ; the young plants will be transplanted, first to a frame, 

 then later to open beds. Much interest will center around the 

 plan of growing the same sort of plants under widely varying 

 conditions. These will be valuable experiences and will reveal 

 interesting truths. 



As the weeks fly by, happy surprises await everybody. New 

 possibilities occur to the children thick and fast. Many boys 

 and girls will have drawn their families and all their relations 

 their whole social circle, in fact into this whirlpool of 

 interest. The father of one girl turns out to be an importer 

 of bulbs ; the uncle of another lends his camera. From the 

 north end of the town arrives, some fine day, a package of 

 seeds, which all share with glee ; from the south side comes 

 a carpenter's offering of boards for a cold frame. Current num- 

 bers of outdoor magazines will be brought, and certain mem- 

 bers, on request, will read aloud to the others bits of garden 

 lore which no farmer can afford to miss. Each young stu- 

 dent catches the spirit of contributing something, no matter 

 how little, for all to enjoy. 



The ways of working out plans are bound to differ. Some 

 people prefer to devise and perfect by themselves a scheme 

 which will burst upon the others in all its final magnificence ; 

 others discover that a bit of work gains in scope and effect 



