MANUAL OF GARDENING 
CHAPTER I 
THE POINT OF VIEW 
WHEREVER there is soil, plants grow and produce their kind, 
and all plants are interesting; when a person makes a choice 
as to what plants he shall grow in any given place, he becomes 
a gardener or a farmer; and if the conditions are such that 
he cannot make a choice, he may adopt the plants that grow 
there by nature, and by making the most of them may still be 
a gardener or a farmer in some degree. 
Every family, therefore, may have a garden. If there is - 
not a foot of land, there are porches or windows. Wherever 
there is sunlight, plants may be made to grow; and one plant 
in a tin-can may be a more helpful and inspiring garden to some 
mind than a whole acre of lawn and flowers may be to another. 
The satisfaction of a garden does not depend on the area, 
nor, happily, on the cost or rarity of the plants. It depends on 
the temper of the person. One must first seek to love plants 
and nature, and then to cultivate the happy peace of mind that 
is satisfied with little. 
In the vast majority of cases a person will be happier if he 
has no rigid and arbitrary notions, for gardens are moodish, 
particularly with the novice. If plants grow and thrive, he 
should be happy; and if the plants that thrive chance not to 
be the ones that he planted, they are plants nevertheless, and 
nature is satisfied with them. 
B 1 
