A garden should be owned not to be monopolized, but to be shared, as a
song is owned not to be hushed, but to be sung; and the wide giving of
its flowers is but one of several ways in which a garden may sing or be
sung--for the garden is both song and singer. At any rate it cannot help
but be a public benefaction and a public asset, if only its art be true.
Hence one of the values of our gardening in Northampton: making the
gardens so many and so artistically true and good, it makes the town, as
a whole, more interesting and pleasing to itself, and in corresponding
degree the better to live in. Possibly there may be some further value
in telling here how we do it.
As soon as signs of spring are plain to the general eye the visiting for
enrolment begins. A secretary of the institute sets out to canvass such
quarters of the field as have not been apportioned among themselves
individually by the ladies composing the committee of "volunteer garden
visitors." At the same time these ladies begin their calls, some
undertaking more, some less, according to each one's willingness or
ability.
This first round consists merely in enrolling the competitors by name,
street, and number and in sending these registrations in to the
institute. Later, by the same ladies, the same ground is more or less
gone over again in visits of observation, inquiry and counsel, and once
a month throughout the season the ladies meet together with the
president of the institute to report the conditions and sentiments
encountered and to plan further work.
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