CHAPTER XV 

 How TO ^Iake a Formal Garden at a Moderate Cost 



By Warren H. Manning 



T is the small home grounds of vil- 

 lages that offer the most favour- 

 able opportunities for a marked 

 advance in civic improvement and 

 in the broadening of the home life, 

 this to be brought about by 

 estabhshing upon the grounds 

 compartments for various purposes 

 as clearly defined as are those 

 of the house and in some of which 

 I the same degree of comfort and 

 privacy can be secured. In 

 ordinary village lots such 

 compartments would be the 

 back yard, of which a part would be used for service requirements and 

 a part turfed or cultivated, an area at the side of the house for garden, 

 lawn or terrace, with direct access to the living-rooms, and the front lawn 

 — a continuous, unfenced area maintained for the mutual benefit of the 

 householder, his neighbours, and the public. The public may thus secure 

 vistas over turf between street, trees, and houses. The center of 

 the vistas should be kept open, and there should be, along and 

 between the front lines of the houses, a nearly continuous but irregular belt 

 of vines, shrubs, and herbs. Such a belt, by the continuity of its greenness 

 and its graceful drapery of foliage and stems, brings houses varying in style, 

 size and colour into harmonious relations with each other, with the grounds, 

 and with the surrounding landscape, and gives a relief to the rigidity of 

 architectural lines. That part of the plantation extending from house to 

 house will serve also to screen a garden or terrace from passers-by. 



In assigning space to each compartment, provision should also be made 



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