74 
GARDENS AND THEIR MEANING 
put boards on both sides and bottom, put clay in the cracks, and fill it 
with dirt three quarters full and soak it with water ; then plant the seeds 
and water it twice a day. 
The way it was carried out in the garden, we dug down two feet and 
then we made a wall of stones and sidewalk bricks. We then filled the 
cracks with clay. We mixed some clay with dirt and put it on the bottom. 
We put some soil on top and then planted some seeds, etc. 
And so for weeks, in perfect seriousness, the record of 
this experiment continues. Of course no crops of rice were 
ever harvested. Silly, then, to try. Perhaps ; but more foolish 
it would have been to discourage the growth of sturdy peren- 
nials like initiative and concentration, particularly when these 
spring up so spontaneously and are content to flourish in a 
mudhole. 
The plotting of our garden may now be considered finished ; 
and the planning, in the rough, is finished, too. Yet, in 
a sense, planning has only just begun. It is, in truth, never 
done. The fact is, the best kind of garden at home or school 
grows somewhat after the fashion of a living organism. Fed 
constantly by -fresh ideas, it keeps building new tissue, as it 
were, and adapting itself to new needs and conditions. It 
must, for it is in the hands of young human creatures who 
are growing fast themselves. 
Most upsetting, of course, such changes must be to the 
mature mind, which demands not dissolving views, each 
more entrancing than the last, but a finished picture in 
March of what is to be realized in June. If exacted by some 
person in authority, such perfection, however, can easily be 
reached. It is only necessary to take the appropriate course. 
This consists in proceeding very much as a real-estate owner 
would proceed in building a block of houses. In such a case 
it is expected that the plans, together with the specifications, 
will simply be passed over to the contractor. 
