WHOSO MAKETH A GARDEN.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 180, 29 July 1916, Page 17

WHOSO MAKETH A GARDEN.

Russell Lowell once said, "Who does his duty? Who can say? But this is how it seems to mc. He does his who .plants a tree"; or words to that effect. I How much more so the woman who makes a garden. What intellectual joy we women of Auckland arc losing each . day by not making a garden. A garden ! is not a piece of ground where a certain ; number of green things struggle for a ' livelihood. It is a small space of the j earth, filled with dear friends, loved and • ; cherished through the years. In the making of a garden it is a dis- " | tinct disadvantage to have money. How [little they know of the joy of gardening ' | —these satisfied people, who ride borne » in the car -with a poor bunch of drooping •jcaptives tied up in a string and brown ' • paper, the leaves drooping, and the poor -: shrivelled roots sinless of soil! The -flower-lover can almost hear their dying 1 pants. These are the martyrs of the I floral kingdom, whese doom is foretold.

and whose requiem is sung in tbe presence of some abused shop-hand that day s week. ' There is so much that is hard and , ugly in many people's lives that it is sad- * ness itself to see so many women in this beautiful city of Auckland wasting one I. of the great joys of existence—the knowledge and love of flowers. This knowledge only comes to those strong, sweet souls whose liea'rts are attuned to Nature's melodies, and these can be attained in the smallest backyard, better there, in fact, than in the model garden. How few people in this city make their backyards anything but an odourful arena for the prowling and melodious . Thomas feline. Yet how little it needs —| just a little giving up of the stupid pleasures and a turning towards beauty for its own sake. One woman with beauty in her soul, •and a fine soul invariably shows itself in a fine-expressioncd face, has told a . Sydney paper how she transformed the usual hideous backyard, filled with old tins, various forms of garbage, and the prowling To-m, into a scene of beauty where creepers hung over the walls and sweet peas, salpiglossis (with their . velvety colouts), petunias, pansies, phlox, gallardias. balsams, snapdragons (the dwarf variety), sunflowers, and , other glorious ilorai friends ran riot. All this in one season. It can be done. It .is but knowledge and inclination that are lacking. A Christchureh man with a love of flowers in his soul, was suddenly dumped I down by Fate (in the guise of com- 1 ' merce) into Wellington. He became , heir to the usual teu feet square of , mingled horrors. Nothing daunted, he . bought a pickaxe and dug out the old bricks, bones, tins and bottles. Then he sowed sweet peas. Naturally he studied and tended them. When- the ' sweet pea show came round he carried ■ away nearly all the prizes. It was , monotonous to go round and record his i name. As a financial speculation those • few feet of rocky backyard had paid, - and how much more had he achieved iiy soul's satisfaction? If the women of Auckland only knew the power of fiowerß to form character, every mother would take the children with her into the garden each day, and thus implant in them one of the most beautiful gifts God has given us on ' earth, the love of flowers. "Angels of " tho grass," Talmagc once called them. > and he never spoke a truer word. "If • you have sinned and suffered," says an a English writer, (ry working in the * garden." ,If you arc lonely, or if life 1 has hurt yon unmercifully, see if digging ] will not cure you. If you are rich and 1 do not have to work, do it, anyhow. * You probably need more than anything <" to be tired and hungry. Why depend i upon golf? There is always a blank in activity that is not creative. But it - you arc poor —if the garden is narrow v and the fence ugly—your reasons for 1 gardening are even more urgent. c Life will seem safer to you when the g flowers look up and smile. They nre the ii one friend on eartli whose friendship is r secure if you understand and cherish c them. The love of gardening for its own % Rake will open to your soul vistas of c beauty and lanes of interest, now but I, dimly guessed.