CHAPTER II 



THE GENERAL PLAN OR THEORY OF THE PLACE 



Having now discussed the most essential elements of gar- 

 dening, we may give attention to such minor features as the 

 actual way in which a satisfying garden is to be planned and 

 executed. 



Speaking broadly, a person will get from a garden what he 

 puts into it; and it is of the first importance, therefore, that a 

 clear conception of the work be formulated at the outset. I 

 do not mean to say that the garden will always turn out what 

 it was desired that it should be; but the failure to turn out 

 properly is usually some fault in the first plan or some neglect 

 in execution. 



Sometimes the disappointment in an ornamental garden is a 

 result of confusion of ideas as to what a garden is for. One of 

 my friends was greatly disappointed on returning to his garden 

 early in September to find that it was not so full and floriferous 

 as when he left it in July. He had not learned the simple lesson 

 that even a flower-garden should exhibit the natural progress 

 of the season. If the garden begins to show ragged places and 

 to decline in late August or early September, it is what occurs 

 in all surrounding vegetation. The year is maturing. The 

 garden ought to express the feeling of the different months. 

 The failing leaves and expended plants are therefore to be 

 looked on, to some extent at least, as the natural order and des- 

 tiny of a good garden. 



These attributes are well exhibited in the vegetable-garden. 

 In the spring, the vegetable-garden is a model of neatness and 



6 



