LIGHT AND SHADE IN THE GARDEN 53 



connection with area and have relation thereto. Driveways which may be 

 expected to serve also as walks should be ten or twelve feet wide in small 

 places, and often as wide as eighteen feet in larger areas. This will enable 

 vehicles to pass each other. 



On small places -borders should usually not be less than four feet in 

 width, so that two or three plants may still be within reach from the walk 

 and the soil may be worked with hoe and rake without stepping between 

 them, while on large places borders, irregularly two or three times that 

 width, may be desirable. Usually these border plants should not be set in 

 parallel lines but in a way to break lines unless trench irrigation is planned 

 for, and even then it is not necessary to run straight trenches ; turnings in 

 them may cause the water to run more slowly and sink more deeply into 

 the soil. 



LAYING OUT FOR LIGHT AND SHADE 



In the great interior valleys of California conditions prevail which are 

 striking and characteristic and throw great emphasis upon points in garden 

 design which are quite unique, though widely true of the whole State in 

 varying degrees. Such an element is suggested in the following beautiful 

 paragraphs by the late Mrs. Minna Eshelman Sherman. Writing of her 

 Fresno garden experience she said: 



"In laying out a new garden in the country the direction in which the 

 lights and shadows fall should be as much considered as in the lighting of 

 a picture. The fullest beauty of light and shade is obtained if the struc- 

 tural lines of planting are laid east and west. The rising sun, until it 

 reaches the Meridian, throws long shadows and if the garden groups are 

 well planted they show their perfection of colors and shapes through the 

 misty morning light, and as the sun gains strength the new tints of color 

 and greater definitions of form gives added beauty to the garden. The 

 early morning air is nimble with glad quaint fancies when all is at its best 

 in the morning freshness. The same east and west garden is glorified by 

 the golden sunset and the lingering afterglow falls in subdued harmony 

 over the trees and shrubs. It is really two gardens in one. 



"Now in the garden planted north and south, in the morning the 

 shadows are black, cold and undefined ; at noon the light pours down with 

 a glare and at sunset, instead of golden paths leading heavenward through 

 the flowers, only the tree tops are gilded with the sun. In the moonlight 

 the loss in light and shadow is even more marked, for, as Hawthorne says, 

 'Moonlight is sculpture.' When the trees, shrubs, flowers and fountains 

 are so lighted that their shadows fall lightly, the massed effects are as 

 though they were cut of stone, all detail is lost in the broad sweeping lines 

 and blocking out of the clear, cold light. The moonflowers and nicotines 

 send out their subtle scents and occasionally a bird stirs sleepily on a tree 

 and speaks softly to its mate. All is still in the great white glory of the 



