INTEODUCTORY 3 



all sorts of plants from all sources, others in collecting 

 tliem themselves in their foreign homes, others in making 

 rock-gardens, or ferneries, or peat-gardens, or bog-gardens, 

 or gardens for conifers or for flowering shrubs, or special 

 gardens of plants and trees with variegated or coloured 

 leaves, or in the cultivation of some particular race or 

 family of plants. Others may best like wide lawns with 

 large trees, or wild gardening, or a quite formal garden, 

 with trim hedge and walk, and terrace, and brilhant 

 parterre, or a combination of several ways of gardening. 

 And all are right and reasonable and enjoyable to 

 their owners, and in some way or degree helpful to 

 others. 



The way that seems to me most desirable is again 

 different, and I have made an attempt to describe it 

 iu some of its aspects. But I have learned much, and 

 am always learnuig, from other people's gardens, and 

 the lesson I have learned most thoroughly is, never 

 to say " I know " — there is so infinitely much to 

 learn, and the conditions of different gardens vary so 

 greatly, even when soil and situation appear to be 

 alike and they are in the same district. Nature is 

 such a subtle chemist that one never knows what 

 she is about, or what surprises she may have in store 

 for us. 



Often one sees in the gardening papers discussions 

 about the treatment of some particular plant. One 

 man writes to say it can only be done one way 

 another to say it can only be done quite some othei 



