126 MY SHRUBS 
is glad of it, as a poet is glad of all the poetry in the world. But 
his own garden is not to be compared with them, any more than 
his own wife with other women. It is there to be enjoyed for itself, 
without any pride of possession, and as a place to rest from all 
labours, even from those that have made it beautiful.” 
That is a sound summary of what your garden should be to 
you, and what mine has always been to me. Keep the instinct 
for competition out of your garden, grudge no better man his 
triumphs, learn from all who will be good enough to teach, and 
if you find your plants becoming an anxiety rather than a rest or 
joy, then look to yourself and change your hobby. Beyond all things 
a garden is a place to forget your cares, not to breed them. I have 
known gardens where the owner did the worrying and the gardeners 
took their ease ; but this is to reverse the proper order. For their 
credit and honour let the professionals be as careful and troubled 
as possible: it is their duty ; but the amateur, if he be satisfied that 
the paid worker is justifying his existence, must preserve a peaceful 
mind. Above all, never call yourself “‘a great gardener,” because, 
since Adam, the great gardeners have been far fewer even than most 
other great people, and not one man in a generation is worthy of 
such praise. For my part, when kind women tell me that their 
husbands or brothers are “ great gardeners,” I find myself a thought 
prejudiced against those husbands and brothers, well knowing that 
were such praise even approximately deserved, the objects of it 
would possess a knowledge and have acquired a sense of perspective 
to set their circle of admirers right in this matter. For gardening 
is like all creative art: the more a workman knows of his subject and 
the better, after life-long struggle, he has come to master his medium 
and learn its capabilities, the less inclined will he be to take any 
