DOI Heft:
No. 91 (Oct., 1900)
DOI Artikel:Prior, Edward S.: Garden-making, [1]
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19786#0043
Gar den-Making
GARDEN-MAKING. BY ED- something in expression of his own individuality,
WARD S. PRIOR. comes home to many a man for the first time in his
trial to make his own garden. Since the playing
It is the intention in this short essay days of childhood he has been under the sway of
to take gardens modestly, since their making is a other people's art—it has all been done for him.
simple homely work within the reach of any one The general or average experts in clothes, in bric-a-
who has the control of a quarter of an acre or less. brae, in house and furniture have suppled him,
At the same time—because of this homely work while his own heart and fancy have been in his
rather than in spite of it—it will be claimed that business—in the livelihood necessary to buy his
garden-making is an art, bounded by conditions surroundings. But when that livelihood has pros-
which can be abused as well as used ; that if it be pered so that he has house and home and leisure
easy to make a good garden, it is sadly easy to as well, he takes to his garden with the feeling that
make a bad one ; for that, in gardening as in all he can here do something of his own, shape beauty
arts, sense and feeling produce beauty, while per- as he likes it, and with the joy of a creator see that
verseness and indifference make ugliness. it is good.
Nor do I think gardeners are unconscious of this It is, therefore, to garden-makers as artists that
art of theirs. The sense of being an artist, of creating this paper is addressed. It purposes to deal with
its subject under three
heads : first, the principles ;
> secondly, the practice;
and, thirdly, the materials ;
and to see where the con-
,§(„.. ditions lie in each.
Now the inherent motive
of art is that it is made by
man for man's purposes.
The garden artist will im-
mediately recognise and
cling to this principle as
his guide. Yet though the
way seem plain, there lie
in wait for him beguiling
\ " rS^s^Hr" phantoms who would lead
HBBk:'». f a him astray. Of these false
'C •- ~hLs i "£'« eidola the most plausible is
IsiiiSl'i^**' " that which calls itself the
"Natural" garden, pre-
tending that a look of wild-
ness is more beautiful than
anything man can make.
Such should go by the
name of the unnatural
garden — for, since man
is a part of Nature, his
natural garden will be
that which shows itself
his, not by its wildness,
but by the marks of
order and design which
are inseparable from his
. work. If, however, "Na-
ture " be defined as being
that motive in the uni-
example of cliff garden by r. t. blomfield Verse which lies Outside
28
GARDEN-MAKING. BY ED- something in expression of his own individuality,
WARD S. PRIOR. comes home to many a man for the first time in his
trial to make his own garden. Since the playing
It is the intention in this short essay days of childhood he has been under the sway of
to take gardens modestly, since their making is a other people's art—it has all been done for him.
simple homely work within the reach of any one The general or average experts in clothes, in bric-a-
who has the control of a quarter of an acre or less. brae, in house and furniture have suppled him,
At the same time—because of this homely work while his own heart and fancy have been in his
rather than in spite of it—it will be claimed that business—in the livelihood necessary to buy his
garden-making is an art, bounded by conditions surroundings. But when that livelihood has pros-
which can be abused as well as used ; that if it be pered so that he has house and home and leisure
easy to make a good garden, it is sadly easy to as well, he takes to his garden with the feeling that
make a bad one ; for that, in gardening as in all he can here do something of his own, shape beauty
arts, sense and feeling produce beauty, while per- as he likes it, and with the joy of a creator see that
verseness and indifference make ugliness. it is good.
Nor do I think gardeners are unconscious of this It is, therefore, to garden-makers as artists that
art of theirs. The sense of being an artist, of creating this paper is addressed. It purposes to deal with
its subject under three
heads : first, the principles ;
> secondly, the practice;
and, thirdly, the materials ;
and to see where the con-
,§(„.. ditions lie in each.
Now the inherent motive
of art is that it is made by
man for man's purposes.
The garden artist will im-
mediately recognise and
cling to this principle as
his guide. Yet though the
way seem plain, there lie
in wait for him beguiling
\ " rS^s^Hr" phantoms who would lead
HBBk:'». f a him astray. Of these false
'C •- ~hLs i "£'« eidola the most plausible is
IsiiiSl'i^**' " that which calls itself the
"Natural" garden, pre-
tending that a look of wild-
ness is more beautiful than
anything man can make.
Such should go by the
name of the unnatural
garden — for, since man
is a part of Nature, his
natural garden will be
that which shows itself
his, not by its wildness,
but by the marks of
order and design which
are inseparable from his
. work. If, however, "Na-
ture " be defined as being
that motive in the uni-
example of cliff garden by r. t. blomfield Verse which lies Outside
28