HOUSE AND GARDEN 
July, 
1912 
plants. This does not mean that the veriest tyro at gardening 
cannot succeed. Note that it is sympathy, not horticultural 
knowledge, that is the fundamental essential. All flowers 
should be approached with sympathy; but wild flowers must be, 
else they will elude entirely, or pine and show a broken spirit and 
great anguish. Hence wild gardening is of all forms of garden¬ 
ing the most subtle — indeed, I am almost tempted to say that it 
is mystic. 
Yet let us understand that even this quickened perception offers 
no really magic success without the aid of proper material condi¬ 
tions. Soil and sunlight and moisture must be studied in order 
to learn the physical needs of every plant, and in growing wild 
flowers it is especially desirable to provide the exact conditions of 
all three under which they naturally flourish. They are like wild 
men or wild animals, in that civilization is likely to be too much 
for them; and like all wild things which are free to choose as 
they will, they live and thrive only where they wish to be. Skunk 
at last arrives. So it is perhaps well to be reminded of the ever 
existent need of appropriateness. 
Wild “gardens" have been known to flourish in city back yards, 
but they can never be more than curiosities in such an environ¬ 
ment, even as the wild beasts of the jungles and mountains are 
curiosities when caged in the city Zoo. Land and space are 
needed for the wild garden, and varying conditions of soil and ex¬ 
posure and sun and shade. Yet I should say that a very satis¬ 
factory and delightful wild garden might be compassed within a 
place a quarter of an acre in size — which is 100 by 100 feet—and 
space allowed for a house besides. 
On such a place, or with a wild garden in any locality for that 
matter, the first step towards its wildness consists in excluding 
from it every suggestion of the busy, everyday world. You are 
aiming to create not only ideal conditions for the growth of wild 
flowers, but also you should aim to create the illusion of wilder¬ 
ness. Not a peek-hole should remain after the barriers are set up, 
mean a garden of wood, rocks, or streams. It may combine these features or it may be a corner of 
field by a river bank, such as this one, where the lupine grows 
necessari 
cabbage loves the muck and wet, hence in muck and wet the 
skunk cabbage lives; violets love a sunny bank, hence on sunny 
banks are great violet communities. Speaking of communities, I 
am reminded to say, by the way, that most wild flowers have the 
social instinct; and that they have their particular friendships as 
well as their particular antipathies. Bear this in mind — and learn 
what they are by observing them in their natural state. 
So much for the general question. Now as to the special one 
of making, or I should prefer to say, developing, a wild garden. 
The location is of course the first consideration, once the resolu¬ 
tion to have such a garden is formed. That the possibilities and 
character of a place should have something to do with the form¬ 
ing of this resolution ought to be self-evident. Still I know that 
very often the wish to have a certain long-time, much-loved castle- 
in-Spain of a garden will lead one into really dreadful garden 
indiscretions and inharmonies, when the day of accomplishment 
through which the outside may look in or the inside may, by ac¬ 
cident, see out, unless some lovely bit of view exists for which 
allowance must be made. But even in making such allowance it is 
perfectly possible to exclude the outer world, to preserve inviolate 
the seclusion. 
A boundary planting of trees and shrubbery, preferably seventy 
per cent, evergreen, should surround in a general way the area se¬ 
lected for the garden, providing it is not already isolated by be¬ 
ing in the midst of such a natural screen. This boundary is, in 
effect, a part of the garden, although it marks its limits. Sup¬ 
plementary to this comes the treatment which the natural condi¬ 
tions of the site may demand. If it is woodland to start with, 
clearing a portion entirely to provide space for such plants as re¬ 
quire the open, will be necessary; while another part or parts will 
have to be left half cleared to furnish half shade. The garden 
site which occupies an area already cleared, on the other hand, 
