A GARDEN DIARY 47 
by the logic of facts, and by the realities of the 
situation, forced slowly to retreat, as other and 
equally eminent strategists have been forced 
before us. A flowery wilderness is delightful, 
but unless its owner is content with the flowers 
that grow in it by nature, or a few, very cautious 
additions, his flowery wilderness is apt after a 
time to become a wilderness, minus the flowers. 
Then perhaps a reaction sets in. A sense of 
failure gradually overtakes the too ardent 
amateur. The reins of authority drop more and 
more listlessly from his hands; until at last he 
lets them fall altogether, and, with a smile of 
kindly pity, the momentarily dispossessed pro- 
fessional once more resumes full, and henceforth 
undivided sway. 
From so humiliating a finale may all the kindly 
divinities that watch over gardens deliver our- 
selves! Nevertheless there have been moments 
when such a fate has seemed to draw near, and 
even to look one in the eyes. Only three days 
ago I was engaged in that breathless struggle 
with the bracken. For the last two, aided by 
Cuttle and his assistant, I have been fighting 
ankle-deep against a perfect forest of couch- 
grass, which had practically overwhelmed the 
whole of our nursery-garden, helped rather than 
hindered by the fence, with which we had inno- 
cently hoped to keep back, not alone rabbits, but 
every other trespasser. 
