CHAPTER IX 
FAULTS TO AVOID-PLAN BEFORE PLANTING. 
R igid self-denial, in dispensing with many things that 
seem desirable, will be found essential to the best effect 
and enjoyment of those home-adornments which we can 
afford. Limited as most men are in income ; circum- 
scribed as their building lots usually are, and fixed by circum- 
stances quite different from those which would influence a choice 
for landscape gardening alone, one of the most difficult lessons to 
learn is, to proportion planting and expenditures to the lot and 
the income. And not this alone, but to the demands of a refined 
taste, which is intolerant of excesses and vulgarity even in garden- 
ing. To build a larger house than the owner can use or furnish, 
or to lay out grounds on a more costly scale than his means will 
enable him to keep in good order, is a waste, and may result in 
making his place unsightly rather than a beautiful improvement. 
We doubt the good taste of a man, whose enthusiastic love of 
company induces him to invite to his house such incongruous 
numbers that they crowd and jostle each other at table, and must 
be lodged uncomfortably on floors and in out-buildings. But it is 
just this kind of over-doing which is the stumbling-block of many 
who are embellishing their homes. The cost of superfluous walks, 
if they are well made, is apt to suggest an early inquiry into their 
needfulness ; but trees and shrubs are so cheap, so small, at 
