I would not, for anything, offend the reader's
dignity, but I must think that this midwinter garden may be made at
least as much lovelier than no garden as Alice's Cheshire cat was
lovelier--with or without its grin--than the grin without the cat.
[Illustration: "It is only there that I see anything so stalwart as a
pine or so rigid as a spruce."
The blossoming trees in this picture are a Chinese crab blooming ten
days later than the Japanese wild cherry (see illustration facing
p. 186), which is now in full leaf at their back.]
Shall we summarize? Our gist is this: that those gardens of New Orleans
are as they are, not by mere advantage of climate but for several other
reasons. Their bounds of ownership and privacy are enclosed in hedges,
tight or loose, or in vine-clad fences or walls. The lawn is regarded as
a ruling feature of the home's visage, but not as its whole
countenance--one flat feature never yet made a lovely face. This lawn
feature is beautified and magnified by keeping it open from shrub border
to shrub border, saving it, above all things, from the gaudy barbarism
of pattern-bedding; and by giving it swing and sweep of graceful
contours. And lastly, all ground lines of the house are clothed with
shrubberies whose deciduous growths are companioned with broad-leafed
evergreens and varied conifers, in whatever proportions will secure the
best midwinter effects without such abatement to those of summer as
would diminish the total of the whole year's joy.
Pages:
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152