Volume XXI 
Number 1 
■v TyV\ 
T HE Garden Magazine is the 
logical working out of the 
growing interest in the garden 
. . . as a delight and pursuit 
for the busy people in the work who find a new fascination in the 
things of the soil.” In these words, the publishers announced the 
birth of The Garden Magazine just ten years ago. Steadily 
and regularly since that time, it has endeavored to carry on its 
self-imposed mission of teaching the amateur gardener of America 
not alone the routine work of growing plants but also to stimulate 
in the gardening public a keener appreciation of better plants and 
of their special adaptations to particular purposes, and above all, 
to preach the spirit of American gardening for Americans, emphasiz- 
ing the permanency and value of native materials and such 
exotics as are more particularly adapted to the American climate — 
all these things rather than 
the mere copying of Euro- 
pean materials to reproduce 
in American gardens the 
effects and ideals of the gar- 
dens of the Old World. 
As we ourselves see it to- 
day, the mission has been 
largely successful. Our 
many friendsin the horticul- 
tural trade, nurserymen and 
seedsmen, unite in an ex- 
pression of appreciation of 
the spread of keen horticul- 
tural knowledge that has 
been contemporaneous with 
the life of The Garden 
Magazine. We have been 
in a peculiarly favorable 
situation from which to see 
and measure the change of 
attitude in the American 
public toward gardens and 
gardening. Ten years ago, 
the people in general had 
hardly begun to realize 
that there were differences of 
quality among the mater- 
ials used in the garden. 
Then there were “trees,” 
and “bushes,” and “flow- 
ers.” To-day, the suburban 
and country home maker is 
a keen buyer of plants by 
name — the demand for real 
quality is even larger than 
the supply. The seed trade 
and nursery trade, in the 
improved appearance of 
their catalogues, in making 
their appeal, bear witness to the great in- 
crease of critical knowledge among the 
lay public. Perhaps the most illuminat- 
ing illustration is the development of the 
Garden Clubs. As knowledge and appreciation of the available 
materials for garden use became more general, there grew up, as a 
natural result, a demand for better advice on the right ways to 
use that material in the making of garden pictures. Hence the 
desire and interest to-day in garden design and planting for defi- 
nite purposes which has made us signalize this Tenth Anniversary 
issue as a Special Garden Planning Manual. 
A word or two in explanation of the contents: We asked a land- 
scape architect to present an account of how he worked, which is 
told in “The Landscaping of Peridot,” a purely fictitious creation. 
But at the same time some one or more of the problems discussed 
therein will assuredly be 
encountered in the laying 
out of anyplace. In every 
case the details may be 
varied greatly along the 
same general layout. The 
special features given else- 
where, with complete plant- 
ing plans and specifications, 
will serve as illustrations 
and suggestive models 
which may be adapted, per- 
haps not entirely, but surely 
in part, to suit the individ- 
ual in each particular case. 
Planting the surroundings 
of the home with material 
that is well selected to suit 
the purpose in view is not 
a fad — it is not even a lux- 
ury; but it is a real and 
practical necessity which is 
being more and more appre- 
ciated day by day by those 
who live away from the con- 
fines of crowds and crowd- 
ings of cosmopolitan city 
life. 
We hope that The Gar- 
den Magazine has had its 
good share in molding the 
present day appreciation of 
the beauties and pleasures 
of proper enjoyment of the 
home garden; and we are 
confident that the advances 
of the next decade will be 
as marked and as signifi- 
cant as those of the period 
just closed. 
TEN YEARS 
A Message to Old Garden Friends 
From WILHELM MILLER 
First editor of The Garden Magazine, now head of the Division of Landscape 
Extension, at the University of Illinois. 
So our friendship is ten years old! I am glad the editor touched my 
arm, for I have been fascinated by my new work. Ah, what delightful 
pictures his message quickens into life — the gardens that I have visited 
and loved — especially in the original thirteen states! . . 
“What influence has The Garden Magazine had in spreading an ap- 
preciation of home gardening?” I meet this influence now more than ever 
because I am meeting you, my old-but-unsuspected friends, in new and 
more personal ways. The results of it are truly wonderful, and they can 
be summarized and interpreted only in the light of original motives. 
The aim of the periodical that interests you and me so much has ever 
been to increase the quantity of high-grade planning and planting in home 
grounds, especially in the flower and kitchen gardens. The magazine 
might have secured greater popularity for a time by playing into the hands 
of commercial agencies that think more of quantity than of quality, but it 
has always stood for something better than the “gardenesque style” of 
planting a lawn. The gardenesque style is wholesome in so far as it appeals 
to an innocent love of color and a personal interest in garden work, espe- 
cially on the part of beginners. It is bad only when it emanates from a love 
of artificiality, show, or speed. Even these age-old foes of good design 
are merely excessive forms of fundamental virtues, namely the love of 
order, color, and maturity. 
In persistently recommending planning before planting the journal that 
you and I like has builded on a surer foundation than the quicksands of 
shifting taste. It has tried to give the highest possible service that such 
a periodical can render to the American home by showing the benefits of 
an outdoor life amid surroundings of order, privacy, and beauty. 
You and I may live to see the day when the greatest national service 
of our favorite magazine may be considered its advocacy of an American 
style of landscape gardening. Certainly every visitor to the Old World 
must perceive that one of the greatest assets any nation can have is a 
national style in architecture, landscape gardening, and interior decoration 
for these three forces unite to build the perfect home. As to my own part 
in making of the magazine it is evident that the deepest impression left 
by my writing goes back to the series of articles that became part of a book 
called “What England Can Teach Us About Gardens” — the message of 
which is that we should not copy any country or garden literally, but must 
work out gardens that are adapted to our own country and our own per- 
sonalities. 
(For an account of Professor Miller's new work see page 42). 
11 
