PREFACE 



Such a desire is often felt, but from lack of ex- 

 perience it cannot be brought into effect. What 

 is needed for the doing of the best gardening is 

 something of an artist's training, or at any rate 

 the possession of such a degree of aptitude — the 

 God-given artist's gift — as with due training may- 

 make an artist; for gardening, in its best expres- 

 sion, may well rank as one of the fine arts. But 

 without the many years of labor needed for 

 any hope of success in architecture, sculpture, or 

 painting, there are certain simple rules, whose 

 observance, carried out in horticulture, will make 

 all the difference between a garden that is utterly 

 commonplace and one that is full of beauty and 

 absorbing interest. 



Of these one of the chief is a careful considera- 

 tion of color arrangement. Early in her garden- 

 ing career this fact impressed itself upon the 

 author's mind. A study of the book reveals the 

 method and gives a large quantity of applied 

 example. A few such lessons put in practise will 

 assuredly lead on to independent effort; for the 

 learner, diligently reading and carefully following 

 the good guidance, will soon find the way open to 

 a whole new field of beauty and deUght. 



Gertrude Jekyll. 



