CHAPTER X 



THE ORCHARD GARDEN 



That an orchard may be a garden and still be an orchard 

 has not occurred to some people. A few years ago the 

 same misconception existed as to the kitchen garden ; to 

 introduce any element of beauty or the picturesque into 

 its severe and business-like surroundings, would have 

 been held as highly improper. We have learnt better 

 ways since then, and with its path borders of gay 

 herbaceous plants, its dwarf hedges of fragrant lavender, 

 its bright patches of annuals for cutting, its beehives, 

 espalier fences and air of trim profusion, the kitchen 

 garden has been redeemed from utilitarian monotony and 

 has become a source of beauty, without however losing 

 any of its usefulness. But the orchard, with its endless 

 possibilities, has been forgotten, and in the majority of 

 cases is the saddest and most neglected spot in the whole 

 garden. Of the hundreds of country cottage orchards I 

 have seen, only two linger in my memory as visions of 

 pure delight, as gardens in the truest sense'of the word. 

 The suggestions I shall offer in this chapter are mainly 

 based on the example set by these two good orchard 

 gardeners, who have combined beauty and usefulness in 

 a way worthy of imitation. 



Why should we press the claims of the orchard 

 beautiful ? And what are the sacrifices — for sacrifices 

 there are — that must be made in order to secure it ? 

 To the first question I would reply very simply — that 

 our hardy fruit trees are at all seasons of the year so 



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