Formal Gardening- 



gardening and naturalistic gardening are 

 deadly rivals, each of Avhich must put the 

 knife to the other's throat if it wishes itself 

 to survive. There is no real opposition be- 

 tween the two systems, widely apart though 

 their extreme results may lie. 



Natural gardening" is a term we often 

 hear ; but I have tried to avoid it because 

 it is so inexact that it may well move to 

 contumely any lover of the formal styles. 

 No gardening result is natural. At the 

 most it is only naturahstic. True, be- 

 hind all the contents of the place sits prim.al 

 Nature, but Nature - to advantage dressed,' 

 Nature in a rich disguise. Nature delicately 

 humored, stamped with new qualities, fur- 

 nished with a new momentum, led to new 

 conclusions, by man's skill in selection and 

 artistic concentration. . . . ]\Ian has 

 taken the several things and transformed 

 them ; and in the process they passed, as it 

 were, through the crucible of his mind to 

 reappear in daintier guise ; in the process, 

 the face of Nature became, so to speak, hu- 

 manized ; man's artistry conveyed an added 

 charm. ... A garden is man's tran- 



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