The Right and Wrong Way to Plan a Garden— By w. Miller 



YOU MUST NOT HAVE EVERYTHING YOU WANT, EVEN IF YOU CAN AFFORD IT — GET 

 THE BEST ADVICE YOU CAN AND YIELD GRACEFULLY TO THE PERSON WHO KNOWS 



New 

 York 



T HAVE lately spent another 



*■ month visiting in gardens. 

 I have been motoring, driv- 

 ing, and walking, talking with 

 owners, gardeners, and lands- 

 cape designers, studying, 

 browsing, and dreaming. I 

 have seen hundreds of gar- 

 dens with good features, 

 dozens that were good as a 

 whole, but oh! so few that 

 completely satisfied the soul! 

 I close my eyelids. Immedi- 

 ately there arise gorgeous 

 visions of these perfect gar- 

 dens. And a great flame of 

 desire leaps up within me, a 

 yearning to share with others 

 the secret of these lovely 

 gardens. I know I have it, 

 but alas! I can never tell it. 

 To me it is all summed up 

 in one word — -fitness. That means every- 

 thing to me; it probably conveys very little 

 to you. 



But if you will conjure up all the delight- 

 ful qualities that a garden may have, you 

 will find that fitness includes them all — 

 harmony, proportion, personality, privacy, 

 peace, mellowness, neatness, brilliancy, 

 charm. Of all the people who have lived, 



The first consideration in planning a garden is comfort — not show. A. garden seat at 

 Mr. Beat's, Newburg, N. Y. 



the Greeks, in my opinion, best understood 

 the art of living. Their rule of life was 

 fitness, and their motto was, "Nothing too 

 much." Keep tight hold of this talisman. 

 It will explain all the failures that we make 

 and show how the perfect gardens are made, 

 i. The perfect garden must fit the climate. 

 Most of our gardens are misfits. Many of 

 us make a feeble imitation of the tropics by 



depending too much on ten- 

 der bedding plants, which 

 leave the earth bare five- 

 twelfths of the year. Instead, 

 we should use hardy plants 

 wherever possible. The 

 wealthy squander fortunes on 

 Italian gardens, but Italian 

 marble crumbles in this 

 climate and the broad-leaved 

 evergreens of Italy — ilex, 

 bay, and olive — are not 

 hardy in our Northern States. 

 They would better lavish their 

 wealth on flowers because 

 our summer is better adapted 

 to them than the Italian. 

 Beginners plant chiefly Euro- 

 pean trees and shrubs, which, 

 as a rule, are showier but short- 

 lived. Experienced gardeners 

 plant chiefly native material. 

 2. The perfect garden must fit the soil. 

 It is fighting nature to have a rose garden 

 on sandy soil. It is fighting nature to try to 

 grow rhododendrons in limestone. Nature 

 has adapted boxwood to lime and dozens of 

 fine flowers to sandy soil. If you have 

 rocky soil, do not blast out the rocks and 

 make a lawn; have a rock garden. Real- 

 estate dealers sweep off every native tree 



The next consideration is how to use water to the best advantage. The 

 Kneeland garden at Lenox, Mass. 



A water feature in the garden 



Mrs. F. 

 Island 



K". Doubleday, Mill Neck, Long 



346 



