io8 Villa Gardens 



then seek to make it conform to the exact 

 Hmits of your geometrical beds ; or ignoring its 

 character and inherent beauty, treat it as so 

 much pigment with which to fill in the formal 

 outlines of your fanciful incisions in. the turf? 



It deserves better of you. 



Apart from the natural loveliness of its 

 blossoms, the flower has individual charac- 

 teristics of foliage and habit, which are as 

 admirable as the more conspicuous one of 

 colour. 



Therefore give your plants, shrubs and trees 

 elbow-room to develop unhindered, and the 

 result will amply repay you. 



I am sometimes taunted with having an 

 untidy garden, because I have had the courage 

 to put my precepts into practice. 



Untidy — because I suffer a clump of Mig- 

 nonette to intrude upon a path and soften its 

 rigid outline, or allow a spray of Nasturtium to 

 wander over its neighbour, a sturdy Starwort, 

 well able to support its weaker companion. 



I am content to bear the reproach, because 

 tidiness, in the sense implied, means to me a 



