THE GARDEN PICTURE 39 



Preconceived ideas, acquired before the site 

 has been thoroughly surveyed, should not 

 be allowed to influence the designer. Your 

 neighbour's garden may be a model of good 

 taste and successful horticulture, but, slavishly 

 copied on another site, may be a dismal failure. 



The picturesque character of a garden may 

 be marred as much by sins of commission as 

 by sins of omission. There are gardens in 

 which no expense has been spared to ensure 

 a splendid succession of bloom, utterly ruined 

 by the introduction of garish and incongruous 

 accessories. The smaller the plot, the stronger 

 apparently the temptation to import these 

 eyesores. The garden maker cannot be too 

 watchful against the use of inharmonious 

 features. Such accessories as summer houses, 

 arches, pergolas, dials, and garden seats should 

 be designed to suit the garden, and their 

 details and mode of construction should be 

 simple and unostentatious. Paint should be 

 sparingly used, if at all, and its colour should 

 be chosen so as not to compete with the flowers. 

 I have seen a wide expanse of trellis painted 

 canary yellow, which for crudity and ill-taste 

 would be hard to match, yet the perpetrator 



