COTTAGE GARDENS 



The term "cottage garden" is an elastic one, and may 

 be made to include all that big class of gardens where, 

 in the words of the flower-show schedule, " no regular 

 gardener is employed." But I think that most people, 

 when they think of cottage gardens, picture to them- 

 selves those little wayside plots attached to the homes 

 of working folks which cheer the passer-by nearly as 

 much as they cheer their owners. One thinks of Rose 

 and Clematis climbing over the doorway, of Sweet- 

 Williams, Pseonies, Hollyhocks, Sunflowers and Pansies 

 flowering in bed or border. Old-fashioned herbaceous 

 plants are those which one associates with these cottage 

 gardens, and nearly the year through one expects to 

 find something of interest and of beauty. 



Such is the ideal ; sometimes such is the reality. 



In some of our rural districts, where the local squire is 

 of the resident benevolent feudal school, the cottages are 

 surrounded by little paradises of flowery beauty. Those 

 who have travelled through the Porlock Estate of the 

 Acland family will know what I mean. In many places, 

 however, little pride or interest is taken in gardening, 

 and the yards fronting the cottages are dull and dismal 

 from January to Christmas. Indeed, there are few 

 districts where pretty cottage gardens are the rule. 



Yet it were as easy to create a lovely picture within an 

 area of twenty square yards as in the space of a palace 

 garden, though possibly not so imposing or valuable an 

 one. The size of the canvas is a detail ; the other 

 limitations are, however, more important. In a little 



