THROUGH THE YEAR IN A GARDEN 179 



ever welcome catalogues of seedsmen and 

 nurserymen are annually fraught. It is all 

 very well to peep out one's window upon the 

 snowbound landscape of the wintry lawn and 

 to say to oneself, "Summer is a long way off! 

 It will be time enough to be bothering about 

 gardens when the Snow-drop peeps up and the 

 birds return." Now those who consider gar- 

 dening a "bother" at all may as well leave it 

 alone as to go at it with any thought of its be- 

 ing merely drudgery. To such, food necessi- 

 ties may appeal as the only impetus to planting 

 a row of corn, a hill of cucimabers or a tomato- 

 vine. But that is not gardening! At least it 

 is not the sort of gardening that puts joy in 

 the heart and health in the body. Your true 

 gardener, looking out upon the snowy area, 

 will say: "Just there those evergreens which 

 I planted last Autumn are lending graceful 

 color to the season — a Christmas-tree indeed! 

 — ^the brown stems of that little clump of 

 shrubbery weave in and out in dignified design 

 and every tree casts shadow-patterns on the 

 white like the blue embroideries on fair linen. 

 Even this wintry season the things I planted 

 are faithful to promise they held forth — ^that 



