34S 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



July, 1910 



thin, poor, stingy, tasteless, or sporty. The 

 wealthy are tempted to spend too much and 

 their gardens are in danger of being osten- 

 tatious, unlivable, and soulless. A show 

 garden for the present owner is not half so 

 valuable as a garden that posterity will love. 

 Aim to make a garden that your children 

 will be able to preserve and will reverently 

 cherish because it is full of your personality. 

 In other words, the right spirit in garden- 

 ing is the spirit of obedience to the laws of 

 nature and art. The wrong spirit is the 



your own way and these things will clash; 

 do what is fittest and these things will blend. 



As Kipling says, every man should pray 

 to be delivered from his heart's desire. 



So far, I have been trying to illustrate 

 the right and wrong spirit; now I shall try r 

 to illustrate the right and wrong methods. 

 I wish I could tell you how to make a per- 

 fect garden, but I cannot. No magazine 

 can tell you how to paint an exquisite pic- 

 ture. No book can teach you how to com- 

 pose a musical masterpiece. The best I can 



shade is to plant trees inside a garden; the 

 right way is to have a pergola or summer- 

 house. 



2. Use all the water you can — and with 

 imagination. If possible, put in tile drains 

 and sub-irrigate, because then you will be 

 insured against drought and floods. When 

 other gardens have more bare ground than 

 foliage, yours will be luxuriant; when others 

 are poor in flowers, yours will be rich. Have 

 a well to furnish drinking-water, to water 

 the plants, attract birds and butterflies and 



Rhododendrons are the most gorgeous of all garden plants — costly to buy and plant and slow to grow, but cheap to maintain and attractive the year 



round. Estate of Prof. Charles Sprague Sargent, Director of the Arnold Arboretum 



domineering spirit. Has it ever occurred 

 to you, my wealthy friend, that money can- 

 not buy a perfect garden? You can have 

 your own way about everything, but do you 

 realize that the surest way to fail is to follow 

 your heart's desire? Everything that you 

 wish is opposed to something else that you 

 wish. For instance, you "want lots of 

 flowers," but you also want "grand old' 

 trees." If you have too many flowers, your 

 garden will look new, " checker-boardy," 

 trivial. If you have large trees in the garden 

 they will rob the flowers. Have everything 



do is to give a set of rules and these pictures. 

 But neither can be taken literally. They 

 merely illustrate the right and wrong spirit, 

 i. Make your garden an outdoor living- 

 room — not a place for show. Do not All 

 it with cold, hard, marble benches. Have 

 a comfortable seat with a back to it where 

 you can rest in comfort, enjoy the shade, 

 watch the flowers, read a book, listen to 

 the rain, or think. If possible have a tea- 

 house or place to eat outdoors or a screened 

 veranda free from mosquitoes and the 

 typhoid fly. The wrong way to secure 



reflect the flowers. If possible, have 

 running water for the charm of its motion 

 and the soothing quality of its sound. If 

 you can afford a fountain, think more of 

 water than of marble. Let the fountain 

 suggest the magic of water, its coolness, its 

 rainbows, its mists, its purity, its inherent 

 color rather than imposing statuary and a 

 paltry dribble. Do not have fake-antique 

 well-curbs without water, dry-throated 

 dragons, concrete mermaids, dying gladi- 

 ators, iron boys and girls under umbrellas, 

 or any ready-made designs. 



