Chapter IV 
THE SOCIAL SIDE OF GARDENS 
T HE art of using a garden is hardly to be ac¬ 
quired in a moment; it is far more difficult 
than learning how to make one! But it is 
well worth the studying, for a properly used garden 
is capable of yielding an infinite amount of pleas¬ 
ure. Let the social charm of the garden once come 
to be felt and it grows to be indispensable; the pos¬ 
sessor of so much as an acre of ground will not rest 
until he has his own, with its individual excellencies and 
possible makeshifts, but at least entirely his. 
For though privacy is essential to a garden, it does 
not take great space to secure this primal necessity. It 
is by no means the few large places that count: it is the 
many little ones; the small places transformed into a 
sweet and intimate personal possession to be shared with 
one’s friends, where the flower of social intercourse may 
be cherished quite as carefully as its fragrant sisterhood 
of the beds and borders. Discrimination is an im¬ 
portant attribute of character that develops slowly, both 
in individuals and communities. In America it has not 
