THE GENERAL PLAN OR THEORY OF THE PLACE 29 



man who likes sunflowers. There are enough of them to be worth 

 looking at. They fill the eye. Now show this man ten feet 

 square of pinks or asters, or daisies, all growing free and easy and 

 he will tell you that he likes them. All this has a particular ap- 

 plication to the farmer, who is often said to dishke flowers. 

 He grows potatoes and buckwheat and weeds by the acre : two 

 or three unhappy pinks or geraniums are not enough to make 

 an impression. 



Lawn flower-beds. 



The easiest way to spoil a good lawn is to put a flower-bed in it ; 

 and the most effective way in which to show off flowers to the 



least advantage is to plant them in a bed in the greensward. 

 Flowers need a background. We do not hang our pictures on 

 fence-posts. If flowers are to be grown on a lawn, let them be of 

 the hardy kind, which can be naturalized in the sod and which 

 grow freely in the tall unmown grass; or else perennials of such 

 nature that they make attractive clumps by themselves. Lawns 

 should be free and generous, but the more they are cut up and 

 worried with trivial effects, the smaller and meaner they look. 



But even if we consider these lawn flower-beds wholly apart 

 from their surroundings, we must admit that they are at best 



19. Hole-in-the-ground gardening. 



