CHAPTER II 
THE GENERAL PLAN OR THEORY OF THE PLACE 
Havina now discussed the most essential elements of gar- 
dening, we may give attention to such minor features as the 
actual way in which a satisfying garden is to be planned and 
executed. 
Speaking broadly, a person will get from a garden what he 
puts into it; and it is of the first importance, therefore, that a 
clear conception of the work be formulated at the outset. I 
do not mean to say that the garden will always turn out what 
it was desired that it should be; but the failure to turn out 
properly is usually some fault in the first plan or some neglect 
in execution. 
‘Sometimes the disappointment in an ornamental garden is a 
result of confusion of ideas as to what a garden is for. One of 
my friends was greatly disappointed on returning to his garden 
early in September to find that it was not so full and floriferous 
as when he left it in July. He had not learned the simple lesson 
that even a flower-garden should exhibit the natural progress 
oftheseason. If the garden begins to show ragged places and 
to decline in late August or early September, it is what occurs 
in all surrounding vegetation. The year is maturing. The 
garden ought to express the feeling of the different months. 
The failing leaves and expended plants are therefore to be 
looked on, to some extent at least, as the natural order and des- 
tiny of a good garden. 
These attributes are well exhibited in the vegetable-garden. 
In the spring, the vegetable-garden is a model of neatness and 
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