66 TOWN AND WINDOW GARDENING 



may sit and enjoy the beauty of the sun-flecked turf and 

 leaf-entangled sunbeams, as well as if they were in the 

 grandest gardens that could be imagined. 



It is often objected that turf does not do well in subur- 

 ban gardens. Turf does not do well anywhere, unless 

 it is looked after, and put down carefully in the first place. 

 People seem to think grass has no roots. I have seen the 

 jobbing gardener, as well as the amateur, lay his squares of 

 new turf on anything that came first ! This is to court 

 disaster. Turf wants feeding as much as anything else. 

 It is, of course, useless to expect it to do well right under 

 the shadow of a house, or under most trees ; but I love 

 grass so much that I consider it indispensable even in the 

 smallest garden, and would not begrudge the trifling 

 expense of laying down fresh turves, where wanted, every 

 season. We should not hesitate to spend the same sum 

 on a book or a theatre- ticket ; why refuse it to the garden 

 which we shall very likely be looking at and living in the 

 summer through ? 



If one ever has a chance of viewing a roadful of hack 

 suburban gardens when their owners are not there to 

 distract attention, nothing could be more entertaining. 

 Through the medium of a friendly railway-track, I once 

 enjoyed this treat. Houses looked pretty much alike, 

 but the gardens were strikingly dissimilar. In some 

 cases the minds of the owners were pleasingly reflected 

 in their gardens ; in others one saw nothing but the tracks 

 of the jobbing gardener ; in none, except the empty and 

 ownerless, did one see neglect — so much must be said for 

 all of them. 



One or two things that were noticed were worthy of 

 remark. It was abundantly clear that the best results 

 came about where owners themselves had personally 

 shared in the gardening work ; it is quite easy to pick out 

 those cases where mere neatness ended, and mind came 

 in, and taste. 



