IMITATING NATURE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23512, 28 May 1938, Page 24

IMITATING NATURE

NOT ALWAYS GOOD GARDENING Had we all acres of undulating lana, with outcropping rocks, natural springs and pools, sunny slopes, and shaded glades, we might, with good reason, and prospect of success, strive to do our planning and planting on such lines that no natural feature should be marred, but that everything introduced to our gardens should contribute an added charm to the already existing beauty which Mature had provided. When we realise that the great majority of amateur gardeners have considerably less than one acre of plain, featureless ground of which to make the best in the pursuit of their hobby, we get rather tired of the monotonous insistence of some writers who urge that the first principle in garden making and planting must be to follow Nature. That idea can be reduced to absurdity when endeavour is made to apply it in dealing with a fenced-in plot, measuring about 120 ft by 50ft, or less. BRING COMMON SENSE INTO PLAY

We have seen attempts at the " follow Nature " style on a tiny scale which have brought results only describable as ridiculous, as they must be, when they have a setting in the residential area of an industrial town. Wild gar dening is all very well in wild districts, where the background is a moun_ tain, a wood, or a wide stretch of heather and bracken, but that is no sound reason for telling a townsman that it is wrong to plant daffodils and forget-me-nots in an oblong bed; that the bulbs must be drifted in grass, and the forget-me-nots irregularly massed on the banks of a stream. A pet notion with some folk is that a garden path must never run straight, because, as they say, "Nature is intolerant of straight lines. So, top. we read incessantly that a border of herbaceous flowers must be formed o? irregular masses of plants of a. kind and sometimes it is almost made v appear that it would be a transgression to plant a single root of anything. Often enough, where this idea is put mto practice, the outcome is that a border of limited dimensions is filled with so few kinds of plants that there can be no continuity of bloom, but will be flowerless patches far too often. This is not the first occasion on which we have suggested that it is time we broke away from too much massed planting in borders, and 'devoted more attention to producing fine, well-developed specimens of individual plants. Gardening is not a pursuit which must be limited to any one definite style of planning or planting. To tens and hundreds of thousands of our countrymen and women gardening is the hobby which they pursue, very often in confined spaces and under difficulties unthought of by those whose one concern seems to be landscape architecture on the grand scale. Because a keen amateur has only his own patch of ground about his house to deal with is not to say he must fill all his ground with many plants of a sort to get massed effect. To many it gives a great deal more pleasure to posses and grow individuals of as many and varied kinds of plants as the space available can accommodate, and we say that in such circumstances all that id"j of following or imitating Nature is best put aside, and instead let consideration be concentrated upon selection of the best varieties of whatever kind of plant is required, and effort be exerted to grow each item in the garden as well as possible. Rosarians have not to plant their roses among brambles and rough weeds simply because that is where Nature puts dog roses. They plant sometimes formally, sometimes informally, sometimes in beds of a colour, sometimes in mixture, and in the culitvation of many kinds of roses which are very different from wild types they find satisfying enjoyment. A well-ordered garden, whether formal or informal, is a good possession and a good place to be in. A mass of rank weeds might be far nearer to following Nature, but that is not to say it would be more to the liking of the keen amateur gardener.— Amateur Gardening.