NATURAL FEATURES n 



The creeper has five leaflets to the leaf with comparatively 

 rare exceptions while the poisonous plant has only three. 

 Avoid, therefore, all tri-lobed climbers. The creeper is a charm- 

 ing, graceful thing, and it may be trained over anything you wish 

 by giving its twining tendrils something to clutch. 



Little Jack-in-the-pulpits spring up under foot in such a place, 

 and often there are lovely ferns hidden away under the rest, 

 if you look carefully for them. Keep the character of a spot like 

 this unchanged and bring in wild flowers rather than the usual 

 garden favorites. And here, as on stony ground, make no 

 attempt to carry out formality of design. Nothing is lovelier 

 than architectural gardens, in their own distinct and proper 

 place but unsuitably placed they are an abomination. 



Even a very gentle slope affords a charming variation in a 

 garden, while a hillside is a fascinating site for both house and 

 garden. Yet not infrequently, with the former at least, elabo- 

 rate grading is resorted to, to level the place up ; which is proof 

 of our unhappy bondage to a conventionality that stifles all 

 original ideas. Unless the slope is so steep as to be actually 

 impassable, not a particle of grading is necessary. If the getting 

 up and down is too much of an effort, a very little cutting and 

 filling will break it into terraces, which not only make every 

 part accessible but also give a succession of levels, along which 

 walks may be carried from which to view the whole. 



Where this plan is adopted bear in mind that the entire gar- 

 den, whether seen from above or below, is seen at once, unless 

 screens of planting are introduced. The design may be formal 

 or not, according to outlying conditions, the style of the dwelling, 

 the owner's taste, and the evenness of the slope. But land which 

 descends sharply at one point and slopes off gradually at others 

 is obviously not ready-made for an architectural design to be 



