6 TOWN AND WINDOW GARDENING 



leaf and blade by heart as do the owners of the small 

 suburban garden, so carefully watched, so tenderly made 

 the most of. 



There is many a quaint touch about these gardens of 

 the suburbs. They are often, like blouses and children's 

 frocks after sale-time, made of remnants. Some large old 

 holding is cut into blocks. Block A gets bits of orchard ; 

 Block B, a piece of garden-ground with Roses and 

 blossoming trees, Block C may have nothing but Briars 

 and Blackberries. Or in another place a stately avenue 

 has been cut down for building, and some magnificent 

 Elm or Oak or Cedar has been spared, and is stranded, 

 a forlorn-looking prisoner, in the back garden of some 

 modern villa. Well, he is a blessing to somebody ; little 

 children may still play about beneath his sheltering arms, 

 where the rooks yet cling to their old haunts, croaking 

 cheerfully as ever. 



Nor is it altogether unpleasing to have a garden near 

 the busy haunts of men ; the roar and rattle of the streets, 

 that sound like the humming of innumerable bees, the 

 strange glow of lights in the distance, the pealing of bells 

 and the striking of many clocks, the thunder and whistle 

 of the trains that link us with friends far off, the stir and 

 throb of human life, that chimes in, not inharmoniously 

 with the calmer life of Nature — all these things combine in 

 making up the unexpressed enjoyments of the dwellers in 

 gardens that lie close to the heart of towns. 



*' Not wholly in the busy world, nor quite 

 Beyond it, blooms the garden that I love. 

 News from the humming city comes to it, 

 In sound of funeral or marriage bells." 



My own belief is, that ever such a small garden is 

 better than none, and that life without its flowers is not 

 worth living. Should this little book be found a help or 

 encouragement to any town-dwellers who love plants and 



