" to be satisfied with your possessions but not con- 

 tented with yourself until you have made the best of them." 



Van Dyke 



IN THE matter of enterprises wherein we find diversion 

 someone has said that up to forty we accumulate while 

 after forty we eliminate — with which the only criticism 

 would seem to be that the assertion applies to more than 

 our pleasures. For is it not true generally that things 

 take on their real values, even for the superficial, at this time? 

 Or better, perhaps, vision clears so that real values become 

 apparent. 



Who, having a garden at forty for example, willingly gives 

 it up — unless it is a drudgery garden? Drudgery is of course 

 one of the things that forty eliminates, or turns by some 

 alchemy into a game of one kind or another. At least it is one 

 of the things that wise forty eliminates — but unfortunately 

 all are not wise upon arriving at that age. With many in- 

 deed the times are out of joint altogether through the very 

 clarity of vision they have gained; and in place of that deep 

 sense of deepened understanding and finer appreciation 

 which is the logical sequence of experience, there comes only 

 an acid pessimism and antagonism to life and ennui there- 

 with. 



These are the artisans who have mistaken living for a 

 trade, dependent upon the puny tools of man's devising for 

 its very essence. Whereas living is an art — the very greatest 

 of all arts, since it embodies the great mystery of life — and 

 every man's an artist, potentially at any rate. And all the 

 world's a canvas on which to paint, shall we say? Or clay for 

 modelling? Or a studio, perhaps? Or stage? 



This matters not. But it does matter vitally that the 

 larger vision which recognizes fundamental truths be quick- 

 ened, and that the larger life which acknowledges the de- 

 mands for pure loveliness be lived. There is no valid excuse 

 in the world for flowers if such demands be disdained — which 

 alone refutes such disdaining, if it needs refuting. But how 

 many go far enough in responding to these demands? How 

 many throw drudgery overboard and permit themselves the 

 expansion which comes of close company with beauty and 

 with concentration upon its development — just in a garden 

 for example? 



ART for art's sake is a poor enough philosophy, but art 

 for beauty's sake, and beauty for beauty's sake are the 

 food of the spirit whereon it shall wax strong and fine and 

 come to full perfection. 



And nowhere does beauty wait so eager to reveal itself and 

 so eager to instruct and educate as in a garden. Here any 

 one who seeks may find, whether the scene of their efforts 

 covers a mountain and a valley in extent or is confined to the 

 little square of a town dooryard. Moreover, each one who has 

 found has something to offer all the rest, regardless of their 

 field of search ; for the beauty that lies in any garden always 

 has something to suggest to another gardener. 



IT IS high time that we change our point of view about 

 gardening and consider it from what it will do for us in- 

 stead of what we may or must do for it. For embraced as an 

 opportunity to create a beautiful thing, apart from the na- 

 tural beauties of flowers and shrubs which go to make up its 

 adornment, a garden becomes altogether different in its 

 effect upon its intimates from the rather grim, uncompromis- 

 ing utilitarian plot which the word signifies to too many of us. 

 There are indeed no limits to the possibilities of a garden of 

 this concept, even though its actual area is very limited. For 

 even as a miniature painted by a master captures as much of 

 beauty and true art as the broadest canvas, so is it possible to 

 embody in a scrap of dooryard supreme loveliness. Garden- 

 ing indeed is everyman's medium; let everyman employ him- 

 self therewith diligently — long before he is forty preferably, 

 but certainly by the time he is. Especially if the times are 

 out of joint for him then, let him acquire a garden and turn 

 himself loose in it! 



WITH the March number of The Garden Magazine, 

 which is the Planters' Guide, we come to practical 

 consideration of perennial shrubs and trees, and the actual 

 work of handling these. A planting chart showing for every 

 section of the United States the seasons when material may 

 be shifted and 'handled will be a feature that even the ex- 

 perienced gardener will value while to the novice it is sure 

 to prove the greatest help. Planting details will accompany 

 the text wherever these make for greater clarity. 



