The Old Flowers Are The Best And Should
Grow Carelessly In Corners.
Indeed, the ideal fortune is to find
an old garden, once very richly cared for, since sunk into neglect,
And to tend, not repair, that neglect; it will thus have a smack of
nature and wildness which skilful dispositions cannot overtake.
The gardener should be an idler, and have a gross partiality to the
kitchen plots: an eager or toilful gardener misbecomes the garden
landscape; a tasteful gardener will be ever meddling, will keep the
borders raw, and take the bloom off nature. Close adjoining, if
you are in the south, an olive-yard, if in the north, a swarded
apple-orchard reaching to the stream, completes your miniature
domain; but this is perhaps best entered through a door in the high
fruit-wall; so that you close the door behind you on your sunny
plots, your hedges and evergreen jungle, when you go down to watch
the apples falling in the pool. It is a golden maxim to cultivate
the garden for the nose, and the eyes will take care of themselves.
Nor must the ear be forgotten: without birds a garden is a prison-
yard. There is a garden near Marseilles on a steep hill-side,
walking by which, upon a sunny morning, your ear will suddenly be
ravished with a burst of small and very cheerful singing: some
score of cages being set out there to sun their occupants. This is
a heavenly surprise to any passer-by; but the price paid, to keep
so many ardent and winged creatures from their liberty, will make
the luxury too dear for any thoughtful pleasure-lover.
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