IN FLORIDA 7 



garden perchance. This can be placed to one side and screened 

 off from the more natural part by a wide border of planting, irreg- 

 ular on the outside and more evenly finished on the inside. 



One of the fine examples of geometrical gardening is the grounds 

 of the Casino at Monte Carlo, France. The garden at Mount 

 Vernon, the former home of Washington, is an example in our 

 own country of the old-fashioned formal style of gardening. In 

 it are closely sheared hedges, some of them straight, others made 

 into a variety of more or less intricate patterns. 



It may be well for those who have only a city or town lot to adopt 

 the formal style of decoration in a greater or less degree. The 

 front walk had best run from the main entrance to the road or 

 street and at right angles with the house. If desired some kind 

 of geometric design could be made on each side of it, either in the 

 way of plant beds or a simple affair bordered with some such 

 thing as Alternanthera, Alyssum, Echeveria or box. 



To my mind the specimens of sheared trees and shrubs which 

 we sometimes see in formal grounds are simply monstrosities. 

 They certainly do not represent nature and they are atrocities 

 as art. It may be allowable sometimes to shear a couple of 

 trees or shrubs at the entrance of a formal garden so that with 

 training they will form an arch, but what beauty or sense is there 

 in mutilating with the shears an acre or more of trees as is seen 

 in some of the so-called Italian gardens? 



Remember that whatever is attempted in formal gardening 

 should be honest. Unless one is a master at designing the plan 

 had better be simple, and simplicity often marks the work of a 

 great designer. The geometrical garden is a picture and the 

 picture should represent something; it should not be spoiled by 

 frivolities and absurdities. 



