178 A LITTLE GARDEN THE YEAR ROUND 



FEBRUARY 



St. Valentine's month is this, dedicated to 

 the Bleeding-heart, the Dicentra of our old- 

 fashioned garden. The snows still cling to the 

 ground. Even the courageous Crocus will not 

 be so foolhardy as to be peeping its little head 

 above the generous blanket of earth which good 

 Mother Nature has lent it for weeks to come. 

 I often wonder why it is that those who profess 

 to love gardening are so content to occupy 

 themselves with but one phase of its delights 

 — the planting, and why they give so little 

 thought to the matter of the planning. The 

 old-fashioned gardens of days gone by were 

 good gardens because they were well-planned 

 gardens. As we sit around the warm fireside 

 these February evenings, with Winter's ves- 

 ture stiU with us outside, we may conjure to 

 the mind's eye visions of our gardens-to-be, 

 even though our hands be occupied with other 

 tasks. If in the maelstrom of the year's oc- 

 cupations a little leisure is now and then ours 

 to give to the thought of those gardens on 

 which so much depends after all, we may dig 

 into the lore with which the ever delightful and 



