t6 c0l6ur schemes 



Of course one has to remember that there are many 

 minds to which this need of an artist's treatment of 

 garden and woodland does not appeal, just as there 

 are some who do not care for music or for poetry, or 

 who see no difference between the sculpture of the 

 old Greeks and that of any modem artist who is not 

 of the first rank, or to whom architectural refinement 

 is as an unknown language. And in the case of the 

 more superficial enjoyment of flowers one has sympathy 

 too. For a love of flowers, of any kind, however 

 shallow, is a sentiment that makes for human S5mipathy, 

 and kindness, .and is in itself uplifting, as everything 

 must be that is a source of reverence and admiration^ 

 Still, the object of this book is to draw attentio n, 

 however slightly and imperfectly, to the bett er ways of 

 gardening, and to bring to bear upon the subject 

 some consideration of that combination of common; 

 sense with sincerity of p urpose, sense of beauty , and 

 artistic loiowledge that can make plain groimd and 

 growing things into a year-long succession of livin|| 

 pictures. Common sense I put first, because it 

 restrains from any sort of folly or sham or affectation;! 

 Sense of beauty is the gift of God, for which those who 

 have received it in good measure can never be thankful; 

 enough. The nurturing of this gift through long years 

 of study, observation, and close application in any one 

 of the ways in which fine art finds expression, is the 

 training of the artist's brain and heart and hand. The 

 better a human mind is trained to the perception of 

 beauty the more opportunities will it find of exercismg 

 this precious gift, and the more directly will it be 



