THE SITE 
5 
seem to shake the raindrops off and sparkle 
with renewed vigour. 
But in the shady garden the rank luxuri- 
ousness of their growth degenerates into a 
dank vegetable mass, with little colour and 
no scent. Indeed, fine heads of giant mignon- 
ette in a wet summer are reminiscent only of 
cabbages. 
So important does the sun seem to American 
gardeners, that a fine range of houses was pulled 
down recently at Hyde Park, Mr Fred 
Vanderbilt’s beautiful home on the Hudson, 
because a belt of trees seemed too near, and 
they feared mildew. This in a land where the 
sun blazes down summer and winter. The 
glass houses there are even constructed of the 
lightest steel framing, no wood being used — 
to get all the light and sun possible. Here, 
in a comparatively sunless land, we do not take 
half the pains the Americans do to get light, 
not being sufficiently alive to the benefits of 
sun, and more and more sun. 
Should the gardener — and gardener is used 
herein to mean the man who gardens, not 
necessarily the professional (amateur in its 
original meaning is a good description, i.e. 
cc the lover ” of gardening) — should the 
gardener become possessed of a ready-made 
