Formal Gardening 



least the rudiments of the art of combining 

 lines, masses, and colors ; but most of ours 

 merely know how to make plants take root 

 and flourish. 



Especially should we gain in our large 

 cities if the architect who does public work 

 took an interest in gardening and were al- 

 lowed to express it. Now, when a fine 

 public building fronts on a little park, this 

 is usually left as it may have chanced to re- 

 main from the time when it was a private 

 garden or a bit of the fields ; or, if it is re- 

 arranged, the effort is to make it look like a 

 fragment of a landscape. And when the 

 open space is smaller it is left as plain turf, 

 or is dotted with purposeless single plants 

 and scarred with loud isolated beds of co- 

 leus. Greater beauty, greater dignity, a truer 

 expression of the purpose of the spot as a 

 forecourt to an important structure, might 

 usually be attained by the use of consistent- 

 ly formal or of semi -formal arrangements. 

 And often we see city spaces where a flower- 

 garden would indisputably be the best de- 

 vice. 



All people like flowers, and no one loves 

 i8i 



