Evening star., 1943-06-08

Henry MeLemors. OF his own 1000,
the Engnshman was faced with a
pretty problem. He met 1t in a
pretty way. He combined utility
with beauty in his Victory garden,
For every onion he planted. he also
planted a rose He mingled turnips
with tulips. daisies with potatoes.
artichokes with crocuses, parsley
with whatever the plural of iris is.
He planted Victory garden that
fed the eye as we'll as the stomach.
He didn't always tuck his Victory
garden away in a backyard as If it
were something to be ashamed of.
He placed it out front where, be-
cause of a combination of flowers
and food, it served as decoration.
This column is being written after
two hours work in the Victory gar
den of an English friend. Normally,
there is just about as much of a
farmer in me as there is in Wall
Street broker. I have never had
what you would call an even slight
ly green finger and the thought Of
tending vegetables during their
growing pains has never appealed
to me in the slightest. In fact I
have always avoided Congressman
in the fear that to get my vote they
would send me packet Of seeds.
His Set Was Shocked.
But working in garden where
the radishes rustic with the del
phiniums and the turnips talk to
the crocuses is something else again.
A man would have to be completely
callous to natures delights to mind
wedding among such surroundings.
All the strain of farming is taken
away when you know that after
you have dropped the brussels
sprouts and parsley in the kitchen
you can pass on into the living room
and fill the vases with lovely
flowers.
When I left America and, more
particularly, when I left New York.
the thought Of having to tend a
Victory garden Mortified those in
my set. We shuddered over our
martins at the thought of pulling
on heavy cotton gloves and roofing
among the worms Of a plain, ordi-
nary vegetable garden. Americans
would be wise to learn from the
English. Our suburban farmers
should combine the lovely with tho
life-giving.
The friends I am staying with
here in Sussex always have after
noon tea in their Victory garden.
It's amazing how homely vegetable
takes on a new glow when placed
next to real beauty. You can
almost see an onion trying to look
like rose and turnip attempting
TO match the wallhowers in beauty.
Tries Stewed Tulips.
1t would not surprise me, although
it probably would surprise Burbank
and his kind, to find that after this
war vegetables-just because Of the
competition they have faced with
fiowers-develop an entire new love-
illness. There may be a time not
so far away when florist shops will
feature corsage of carrots and
parsnips. just as they now feature
orchids and gardenias.
The only hazard of combining
vegetables with flowers in a garden.
as I have found out down here in
Sussex, is that the host, after five
or six layers, is likely to insist on
the cook serving flowers instead OF
vegetables.
To be perfectly honest, this hap
pened last night and not until you
have had, stewed tulips or iris au
gratin can you possibly appreciate
that flowers were meant to adorn
man, not provide him with calories,
vitamins and the like.
managed to eat these two dishes,
but when we got crocuses vinegar
cite" I was tempted to sneak out
in the dead of night and take the
scarecrow from the garden 50 that
the birds would lay waste to it ere
another dinner was served by my
tipsy host.
Distributed By McNausht Syndicate. 1ne)
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