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GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



On Designing a Garden 



PERCY S. CANE in The Garden 



T 



U plan and make a garden is a pastime that api)eals 

 very much to most of us. The love of plants and 

 the soil is a natural one, and the rich brown color 

 and clean, healthy scent of newly turned ground is de- 

 lightful to nearly all of us. In larger gardens much of the 

 work must be done by gardeners, but true plant-lovers 

 like digging and planting, and the pleasure of seeing the 

 results of their own handiwork. 



The gardens of today are carefully thought oul. and 

 are generally in their results much more beautiful than 

 was formerly the case. They may be formal or informal, 

 stately or picturesque, as seems most fitting, but what- 

 ever the style, one should feel in any garden that its own 

 particular character has been developed in the most 

 effective way. 



Whether large or small, any grounds should contain, in 

 balanced arrangement, as many of the different kinds of 

 gardens as the nature of the site makes reasonable. 



Of the different gardens that one may have, several 

 may be classed as intlispensable. Everyone will wish to 

 possess a rose garden, and almost everyone will want 

 herbaceous borders ; while a collection of flowering and 

 foliage trees and shrubs may, in Spring and early Sum- 

 mer, form some of the most beautiful and typically Eng- 

 lish scenes it is ix>ssible to have. Rock gardens are al- 

 ways interesting, and when well placed and u'ell made 

 may be very beautiful. Their site, however, needs care- 

 ful choosing, for. of all gardens, a rock garden must fit 

 hai)pily into its surroundings, otherwise it is better far 

 to do without it. This may be said to apply to greater 

 or less extent to all types of garden, but a formal garden 

 is obviously designed and made, whereas the appearance 

 of a rock garden should arouse the feeling that it has 

 grown there naturally and that no other sort of garden 

 could possibly be in that place. 



It has sometimes occurred to me that a great number 

 of peojile miss a lot of the pleasure of garden making. 

 They like plants of all kinds, but they like them as sepa- 

 rate plants, and often entirely miss the added delight of 

 putting them in their right place in the garden. In work- 

 ing or playing with them, whichever way you like to have 

 it, they should, in fact, be used as an artist uses the paint 

 on his canvas, every bit of form and every touch of color 

 subservient to and helping to make the finished picture. 

 This is the way to use plants, unless you are, or wish to 

 be a collector, and like to see them in straight rows, each 

 plant with every atom of its natural beauty carefully 

 staked away. 1 think that even collections should be in 

 groups and each group as big as the space allows. 



Some jjeople possess a hap]jy instinct so far as the de- 

 sign and arrangement of gardens is concerned. The qual- 

 ity most csseiilial to success in such w-ork and the (piality, 

 the evidence of which I have found most often missing in 

 gardens I have visited, is the sense of ]>roportion. Many 

 people realize this, yet I have often l>een asked to treat a 

 certain area of ground, my client saying 'Sve can go 

 farther if necessary when this is done." api>arently 

 oblivious of the fact that to extend the gardens in any 

 particular direction might very probably entail the rdtera- 

 tion of every garden already made on that axial line. I'or 

 the plant-lover the choosing of trees, shrubs and plants 

 is an engrossing task. The choice and use of ])lants are 

 inseparably interwTjven. Certain plants lx;long to certain 

 parts of tiie garden, and one feels instinctively that they 

 could only be used in particular places and for certain 

 kinds of planting. Shrubs, especially those of l)eautiful 



habit of growth, seldom, if ever, look well in straight 

 borders, and, generally, the more informal the method of 

 planting the better. As with most other plants, the greater 

 number of shrubs should be planted in masses. To see 

 this it is only necessary to compare the ett'ect of a glow- 

 ing bank of Uerberis Thunbergii in Autumn, a stretch of 

 Cotoneaster horizontalis, or a foamy mass of Cytisus albus 

 or C. prsecox in flower, or seas of Rhododendrons, with 

 single specimens of these same plants dotted in a mixed 

 shrubbery. In fact, the difference between single plants 

 and masses of the same thing is often so wonderful that 

 it is difficult to believe they are the same. 



Do not plant uninteresting trees, shrubs or plants. 

 There are so many that are really beautiful that the 

 largest garden could scarcely contain them all, at any 

 rate in sufficient numbers to make the most eff'ective 

 planting. It is a sense, partly intuitive, partly the result 

 of training and constantly observing plants, that tells us 

 how and where to use certain plants and what kinds are 

 best for certain positions. 



Unite a large number of plants may be grown under 

 any ordinary conditions, but nu one would think of plant- 

 ing the Candelabra Primulas, Japanese Irises or Alyosotis 

 jxilustris, for example, or any other moisture-loving 

 plants on dry banks or in any position other than low 

 down in damp ground or near water. 



In some way one must always contrive a culminating 

 point, which must be approached with increasing interest. 

 I'rom it one must go to unexpected but lesser features, 

 being surprised and pleased to the limits of the grounds. 



Between the house and its immediate .terraces and sur- 

 roundings and this principal feature in any set of gardens 

 there should be a pause, as in a good musical composition 

 one must be prepared for, and lead gradually to the point 

 of greatest interest. It is also interesting to take the best 

 of whatever old work is most suitable, and by judgment 

 and good taste make of it a beautiful adaptation for your 

 own grounds. 



Another reason for having gardens as widely contrast- 

 ing in character as space will allow — and it is wonderful 

 how much may be done in a small space if everything Is 

 ke])t to scale — is that one can grow all. of the hosts of 

 dilTerenl plants as they should be grown in their proper 

 places. Herbaceous plants, annuals and biennials will be 

 planted in the more formal gardens — roses, of course, in 

 the rose garden, and the smaller-growing trees and most 

 of the shrubs in the more natural parts of the grounds. 

 Do not make the mistalce of mixing roses with other 

 things, they are essentially plants to be grown by them- 

 selves. As in many other races of plants, there is a har- 

 mony in their coloring that, like the Scottish clannish 

 feeling, is for members of the family alone. There are. 

 however, exceptions to this rule, as to most others. 

 .Numbers of the rose si>ecies, such as Moyesii, rubrifolia 

 and several others can be used most effectively in shrub- 

 beries, on banks and in many places other than in the rose 

 garden. 



With the significance that the apjiearancc of most 

 shrubberies gives to it, the word "shrubbery" is a detest- 

 able one. The shrubbery walks and gardens in which, as 

 well as shrubs, many of the smaller trees w^ill lie included, 

 should be some of the most naturally beautiful parts of 

 any garden. The bright colors of their flowers in Spring 

 and early Summer, the variety of choice they offer for 

 anv soil and situation and, alx)ve all, the beauty of form 

 (Continued on page 154) 



