The American Garden 



yoi. XII. 



SEPTEMBER, i8gi. 



No. g. 



THE HOME GARDEN 



OF THE FARM ; OF THE VILLAGE LOT J OF THE TOWN ; OF THE COUNTRY PLACE. 



i|^AN there be a home without a garden ? A home with all the pleasant, cheerful 

 I'. ^ comfortable, endearing associations connected, not merely with the word, but 

 with the idea ; a home that is a delight in childhood, a satisfaction in manhood, 

 a refuge and solace in declining years ; a home that is constantly brought to 

 mind, through association, by the sight elsewhere of a familiar flower, tree, shrub 

 or useful vegetable ; a home that clings to the memor3^ after years of separa- 

 tion, in distant places and amid different scenes and interests ; a home that is 

 the shrine of all that is dearest, the abode of all happiness, the treasure-house 

 for whose dear sake all our thoughts are busy, all our labors undertaken ? Isn't the garden 

 the appropriate setting of such a jewel ? Without the garden, wouldn't it be as uninteresting 

 and forgetable as one of a row of city dwellings distinguishable from each other b}' the num- 

 bers only ? It is the garden more than any other surroundings that gives comfort and happi- 

 ness to the home. Of all, it is the spot longest and most fondly remembered. How many 

 of the world's great warriors, statesmen, sages, poets, inventors, merchants and philanthropists 

 have found their highest happiness and contentment in the multifarious occupations, quiet 

 labors and absorbing studies of the garden ! 



The garden everywhere is a promoter of economy and health. In it nature pours forth 

 her choicest and most wholesome gifts for the mere cost of seed and care. A home garden 

 well attended is the most powerful foe of the sheriff and the doctor. In the farmer's garden 

 the family have the vegetable, fruit and flower markets at their very door. The supplies of- 

 fered are precisely those they want, exactly of the quality they desire and in the freshest and 

 most wholesome condition, all at the mere cost of production. 



What a source of endless interest and enjoyment to every member of the family is the 

 trim little garden in the village lot ! What healthfid pleasure in preparing the ground and 

 putting in the seed ! What delight in seeing each plant appear, grow, blossom or ripen its 

 fruit ! What satisfaction in cooperating with nature in her marvelous processes ! How much 

 more palatable, yes, and nutritive and wholesome, too, the fruits and vegetables grown under 

 one's own eye and care, than those picked up stale or wilted in the market or store ! How 

 far more beautiful and fragrant the flowers raised around the house than those seen elsewhere, 

 even over the fence ! What charming amusement and pastime for the wife during the hus- 

 band's absence are the varied labors of the garden in the frequent monotony of village life ! 

 What a satisfaction to the husband is the hour spent before or after business in pottering in 

 the garden ! Oh, the village garden, the neat, trim village garden ! And the town garden, 

 and the garden of the suburban or country place ; who does not know or cannot realize their 

 added charms in contrast to the hard, grim grind of cit}' life ! 



