The Livable House 



sizes of beds, paths, stretches of green, etc. Even though one has 

 conscientiously built a wall around the garden, narrow beds or 

 small flowers, lost in a sea of green grass, will still leave it with a 

 big loose feeling, or too many flowers and narrow paths make it 

 cramped. Beds must be of sufficient size so that the flowers will 

 count in masses, and paths should be wide enough so that two 

 people may walk abreast on them. Half the fun of a garden is 

 showing it to some one else — and to have to walk through it single 

 file is as uncomfortable as having to pass down a narrow hall side- 

 wise for fear of scraping one's elbows. 



Four feet six inches is the minimum width which will allow 

 two people to walk comfortably side by side, and a flower bed 

 which is narrower than seven feet used in connection with such 

 a path is apt to look thin and tenuous. Ten feet is in better pro- 

 portion. Small dooryard gardens and box gardens are exceptions 

 to this rule, and the paths of such gardens may be three feet or 

 even narrower. 



In a larger garden a lot of small beds cut up by as many paths 

 make the garden a restless place, just as numerous little rugs on 

 the floor of a room spoil its repose and dignity. Big masses of 

 flowers and paths wide enough to be in proportion are essentials, 

 if a garden is to be comfortable and livable — and at the same 

 time pictoriallv worth while. 



A stretch of green in the garden with the beds grouped about it 

 is a good plan to adopt, when lawn space about the grounds is 

 limited, or when for any reason the garden is apt to have a shut-in 

 feeling. In any case the scheme rightly handled is a good one 



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