INTRODUCTION xvii 



garden of ordered beauty will do much to mitigate 

 the ugliness of any house. 



But, if we make up our minds for a formal garden, 

 we must understand clearly what are the proper limits 

 of its formality; and, in the first place, we must know 

 that a formal garden does not mean formal flowers. 

 The landscape gardeners tried to imitate nature in 

 their design, and to depart from nature as far as they 

 could in their horticulture. The good formal gar- 

 dener will forget nature altogether when he plans, 

 but when he comes to choose his flowers he will re- 

 member that natiu-e is a better designer of plants 

 than any gardener, though gardeners may sometimes 

 improve upon nature's designs in detail, and to suit 

 their own purposes. The English idea of a pleasure 

 garden has always been a garden of flowers. We love 

 flowers by instinct, and the return to nature in gar- 

 dening got all its force, not from our desire for a new 

 kind of design, but from our desire to see once more 

 a natural abundance and variety of flowers in our 

 gardens. It is therefore the task of the designer to 

 provide this abundance and variety within the limits 

 of his design. In this respect he will try to outdo 

 nature rather than to ignore her, and he will be eager 

 to learn any lessons that she can teach him. He will 

 place his beds and borders according to a pattern in 

 his own mind, about which nature can teach him 

 little or nothing; but, when he comes to plant them, 

 he will know that nature can teach him a great deal; 

 for wild flowers, in the course of the struggle for life. 



