If our suburban villas were fronted by unpretentious plots cultivated frankly as cottage gardens and bordered by simple palings, how very different would be their aspect, and how much more pleasant would a suburban walk become. For there are numerous plants of great beauty which would thrive even in the suburbs of London, given care and a little knowledge as to the correct preparation of the soil.
In the country, very much may be done by those who care to do so. Country squires, doctors, parsons and others who have money, or time, or influence can very materially alter the appearance of their district by encouraging the gardening spirit among working folks, by helping with advice if they are themselves gardeners, by helping with surplus plants, seeds and cuttings, and by organising competitions and offering prizes for the best kept cottage gardens.
Small gardens are the largest which are at the disposal of most of us, but we need not bemoan our fate on that account. Fully as great pleasure may be extracted from a tiny plot as from broad acres, and a few plants well grown are as productive of satisfaction as is the largest collection. "It was a singular experience that long acquaintance which I cultivated with beans," said Thoreau, "but I was determined to know beans." That is the true gardening spirit, and with that as a possession one may pluck as much joy from the cultivation and study of Thistles or Brambles, or even Docks (as Canon Ellacombe reports a friend as growing—his acquaintances, of course, laughing at him for making a Dock-yard), as from the rarest Orchids of the millionaire.
One of the greatest gifts of a perfect garden is the gift of solitude, and that is generally beyond the power of the little cottage plot to offer; but, as a source of infinite pleasure to its owner, as a source of pleasure to all those who pass by, as a cheering feature of English landscape, and as a great force tending towards contentment and peace, the cottage garden is beyond price.
[THE GARDEN IN WINTER]
When the last of the Michaelmas daisies and of the out-door chrysanthemums have cast their blooms, many gardeners are apt to think that the interest and beauty of the garden are over, and that for three months there is nothing to be done but to dig and enrich the soil, and to wait patiently for the onset of spring. This is a narrow and an ill-informed view, for, though through the months of winter we cannot hope to see many or gaudy flowers, we may yet have our gardens bright and interesting with evergrey and evergreen shrubs and herbs, with the delightfully-coloured barks of willows, dog-woods and other trees, and, not less interesting, with the often beautiful stems of the last season's growth of herbaceous plants, usually sacrificed to the tidying spirit of those who would tidy the floor of heaven itself. Moreover, even in winter, flowers of no mean rank may be had in the open borders of English gardens.
FRITILLARIES