INTRODUCTION TO FIRST EDITION 



E all have our dream gardens in which stretches of smooth 

 lawns appear, with hedges of sweet smelling shrubs like 

 Brier Roses, Lavender, Rosemary, or of neat leaved 

 Box, such as one sees at the old home of George Wash- 

 ington at Mt. Yernon. We have our scenes of Rose beds 

 encircled by grass or sand covered paths, with a little 

 fountain and bird bath nearby, a cozy arbor or rest house off to one 

 side, borders filled opulently with a variety of old time hardy flowers, 

 fragrant with memories of other days. Here and there a fruit tree 

 stands laden with the promise of luscious fruits, and all around is the 

 busy hum of insect life, with the flutter of birds and butterflies, and 

 the throbbing of a hundred creations from the great storehouse of Na- 

 ture, that make a garden more than a dreamland, but certainly a place 

 of great refreshing rest, recuperation, peace, happy thoughts. It is 

 the place to commune with friends, either in bodily presence or in 

 books. It is a place in which to plan, to read, to rest, to work, to 

 play. Back of all there is the utilitarian kitchen garden, the drying 

 yard, the chicken run, the place for the household pets, the children's 

 swing and sand heap, and the other happy features and adjuncts that 

 make the house and garden our home. 



We beheve that one chief reason for the paucity of good and bright 

 gardens is the lack of .knowing how to set about making them. Gar- 

 dening is a very large subject. It has formed the study and recreation 

 of the leisure moments of many eminent men from the time of Solomcm, 

 Homer, Aristotle, Plato and others of the ancients, to Erasmus and 

 Bacon of the Renaissance, Evelyn of the seventeenth century, to the 

 more modern notabilities, as Pope, Walpole, Cowper, Goethe, Cobbett, 

 our own Nathaniel Hawthorne and Thoreau, with many, many others. 

 The amateur gardener is therefore in excellent company of the present 

 as well as of all past times. Gardening is pleasurable, healthful, 

 intellectual. 



We should not forget the purely economical side of the matter 

 that has been dwelt upon in the publishers' foreword. But this 

 Garden Guide is not intended exactly to be a mentor on making 

 money or saving money. You are willing to pay for your household 

 goods and embellishments, your automobile, your camera and sporting 

 outfits, your concerts and theatres. Expect to pay, therefore, for your 

 gardening; yet we can assure the amateur that well-considered expen- 

 diture on the garden more than pays for itself. You can have delicious 

 edible Asparagus on your table day in, day out for weeks in the early 

 part of the year. You can have salads and young vegetables from 

 April until November. Then there are the flowers and fruits over and 

 above, and other assets of and from the garden that are too apparent 

 to need to be mentioned. 



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