180 
The Garden Magazine, May, 1923 
moaned that she never could now afford to bring back those 
most desirable castaways. 
Stones also make the steps that lead into the temples—and 
temples are of trees. When 1 am in such a sanctuary 1 feel kin¬ 
ship with God and seem to understand his message in the music 
of the woods. In the riotous cutting down of trees for the 
world’s comfort and enterprise, will never a voice be heard in the 
noise of destruction? Rather make the garden around a tree 
than that one should be destroyed, unless, of course, it should be 
a menace in some way. Also, we shall certainly plant under or 
near a tree only such growth as is congenial to it. A Rose will 
give up the spirit in an element where the Fern will cover the 
earth. 
In nature-garden making the sin of commission is worse, by 
far, than any of omission. I remember seeing a photograph of a 
beautiful spot—a rock ledge overhanging water; wild flowers 
and Ferns everywhere—the whole of enchanting beauty and 
yet man-made. However, the water had been converted into a 
costly marble pool for aquatic sports and along on the ledge 
were dotted, at “correct” intervals, terra-cotta jardinieres filled 
with golden Juniper. As well might a shawl drape the nakedness 
of a boulder in wild ravine, or a ribbon be tied around a vase! 
I F WE grasp the true spirit of the Wild Flower Preservation 
Society, we shall have no compunction in taking sanely from 
nature’s store for our gardens—if we cannot buy. Taking 
“sanely” means how, when, wherefrom. What the W. F. P. S. 
opposes is the wholesale, useless destruction of flower and 
branch for the momentary satisfaction of the disordered mind 
that “just loves to pick flowers.” 
In the march of “civilization” many Elysian fields are de¬ 
stroyed by building operations. A fellow gardener told me of a 
glorious bed of Arbutus he used to visit; every spring he took 
therefrom a few blooms, carefully, not to uproot the plants. At 
his last visit an arsenal stood on the hallowed spot. I have dug 
Maidenhair Ferns from out of the depths of an ash dump made 
on the spot where masses had grown. A tiny piece of metal 
adhered to one rootlet. Both “ relic” and affinity were planted 
in a far happier home of black mould in my garden. I n another 
year probably, the Ferns on the ash heap had ceased their 
struggle for existence or were covered up. 
In taking moderately from the wilds, there will always be 
enough for everybody. If wildlings are happy, they increase 
generously. Hundreds of Ajuga reptans are in my garden from 
three plants bought several years ago. 
After having studied the needs of our expected guests, we shall 
see that we must provide cool root-runs, at least for the woodsy 
things. Here, the stones we have not eliminated, will act as 
drainage and as a means to store the moisture in the earth. 
Quantities of stones buried over and among the roots of Ferns, 
evergreens, and many other plants in my garden testify, in 
quality and size, to the efficacy of this treatment. A colony of 
Shield Ferns growing in full sun among large rocks—an experi¬ 
ment—is likewise a picture of happy beauty. 
If we are not able to procure the natural earth of the woods— 
and who could acquire enough?—we can make something suf¬ 
ficiently like it to ensure satifactory results. Nothing of refuse 
from kitchen or garden can be wasted; the leaves of fall, the win¬ 
ter covering, grass cuttings, roughage, all stored, sprinkled with 
ordinary soil turned several times and screened, will make a 
treasure that would cost a fortune to buy. The “ wild” soil for 
centuries has been alchemized from fallen leaves, limbs, and 
trunks of trees. Lichens and Mosses spring up and in their 
turn become mediums for higher forms of plant life. 
My garden has “loggeries” made of ancient lichen-and-moss- 
bedecked pieces of once noble trees—picked up in the woods. 
One in particular is often covered overnight with spots of half 
a dozen different kinds of fungous growths of yellow, henna, and 
white. Some stay a few hours, others seem to disappear as the 
morning wanes. Such alluring things we can all have—in spite 
of their fugitiveness—for the trouble of creating them. 
The artist-gardener has his visions. Ideas come and go in 
countless numbers—one form develops out of another—plans 
are made and as soon dismissed—so subtle is the work. A truly 
beautiful garden is a high expression of education in the best 
sense of the word—but any sincere person with ordinary in¬ 
telligence can make a “worthwhile” garden if he but have 
mother-wit to find out how. 
A PARADISE OF WILD FLOWERS 
GARDNER 1 . HARDING 
More than a Hundred Wildings that Make Their Home Within 63 x 27 ft. in 
a Suburban Garden only a Half-hour’s Ride from the World’s Biggest City 
■ HEN the owner of a 
little half-acre gar¬ 
den in a New York 
suburb — a garden 
that seven years ago was a 
piece of Jersey clay, over¬ 
grown with deep meadow 
grass—is obliged to set aside 
Friday afternoons for the 
stream of visitors who come 
from all over the metropol¬ 
itan area, it is a sign that 
something very like a miracle 
has happened, a little miracle 
in patience and taste and in 
the perpetual puzzling over 
Nature’s ways which is the 
burden of all gardeners’ lives. 
The garden in question is a 
wild garden—one of the most 
beautiful and prolific collec¬ 
Plants Colonized 
in Mrs. Pickenbach’s 
Wild Garden Sanctuary 
Baneberry 
Forget-me-not 
Spring Beautv 
Bergamot (Rose, White) 
Goat’s-beard 
Star-of-Bethlehem 
Bittersweet 
Goat’s-rue 
Swamp Mallow 
Bloodroot 
Ground Ivv 
Swamp Rose 
Bluebells 
Herb Robert 
Sweet Woodruff 
Blue-eyed Grass 
Indian Cucumber Root 
Tall Meadowrue 
Blue Lobelia 
Indigo 
Tansy 
Broadleaved Arrowhead 
Iack-in-the-Pulpit 
Trumpet Vine 
Bugleweed 
jerusalem Artichoke 
Lilv (Blackberry, Canada, 
Butterflv-weed 
Large Bellwort 
Double 1 iger, Tiger, Turk's 
Canada-flower 
Large Twayblade 
Cap, Wood) 
Canada Phlox 
Liver Leaf 
Variegated Mint 
Cardinal-flower 
Loosestrife 
Virginia Creeper , 
Cat-tail 
Mandrake 
Vitis (Cut-leaved,Variegated) 
Clintonia 
Mountain Fringe 
Violet (Birdfoot, Downy 
Closed Gentian 
Moss Pink 
Yellow, Forked White, 
Columbine 
Nightshade 
Lanceleaf, Palmated, 
Creeping Charley 
Oswego Tea 
Sweet, Sweet White, Var- 
■ Crested Iris 
Partridge Berry 
iegated) 
S Devil's-bit 
Pennyroyal 
Wild Alum 
Dusty Miller 
Peppermint 
Wild Aster (varieties) 
Early Saxifrage 
Pinxter Flower 
Wild Bean . 
Evening Primrose 
Purple Cone-flower 
Wild Geranium 
False Dragonhead 
Purple Loosestrife 
Wild Ginger 
False Lily-of-the-Valley 
Rue Anemone 
Wild Speedwell 
False Solomon's Seal 
Snakeroot 
Wild Thyme 
Ferns (20 kinds) 
Solomon's Seal 
Windflower 
Feverfew 
Spearmint 
Yellow Adder’s Tongue 
Flag (Common Blue) 
Spiderwort (varieties) 
Yellow Star-grass 
tions of undomesticated 
plants and flowers anywhere 
in the East. Great clumps 
of delicate Cardinal-flowers 
(Lobelia cardinalis) spread 
vigorously from year to year 
amid Violets, blue, purple, 
yellow, and white; Saxifrage 
and Loosestrife, Spiderwort, 
Snakeroot, wood Orchids, 
Anemones. Jack-in-the-pul- 
pits spring up in their na¬ 
tural surroundings of Moss 
and Fern, of Moneywort and 
Jill-over-the-ground. Over¬ 
head hang Clematis, Virginia 
Creeper, Bittersweet, and 
Ivies of different varieties, 
while in the shady spots flour¬ 
ish more than 4,000 Ferns, in 
more than twenty kinds. 
