56 VARIETY IN THE LITTLE GARDEN 



duced, if proper thought and knowledge are bent upon this spot. 

 A little hedged square or oblong, with a tree giving some shadow 

 in it from outside (it would be in that shadow that you would 

 place your forget-me-nots, delphiniums, thalictrums, aconites), 

 four rectangular beds for flowers, grass walks between, a bench 

 or two for the quiet enjoyment of your picture — one could do 

 this in twenty feet, keeping watch of proportions. Choose a 

 place, if you can, where the tree boughs help the picture. The 

 roots will not interfere too much. 



There is a garden near me in whose simple design I had a 

 hand, and the plan of which is given opposite this page. This 

 garden is — roughly — thirty by eighty feet, outlined by a foot- 

 high hedge of privet. The garden runs from east to west; at the 

 west end is a brick platform about ten by six feet for a sitting- 

 place, at the other end, an extra semicircle of hedge-enclosed 

 space, straight on one side, curved on the other, for a few choice 

 roses, A space of grass three feet wide is left through the rose 

 garden as entrance to the main perennial one. On either side 

 of the long stretch of grass, three narrow beds of perennials and 

 annuals find place; these are spaced carefully, just opposite 

 each other. Down the centre of the grass panel or lawn are 

 three small apple-trees, which we did not wish to disturb, and 

 two feet outside of the hedge on three sides, north, south and 

 west, are borders of tall shrubs like bush honeysuckle, forsythia, 

 mock orange, lilac and so on. Here only bulbs are planted. 



On the farm there is often a tree not far from the house, 

 which might easily be taken as the pivotal feature for a little 

 garden. If on the axis of the tree a low wall (low on the entrance 

 side, higher on the three others) could be built in a square or 

 well-proportioned parallelogram, if a broad walk could be made 

 five feet wide, — parallel to and five feet away from the wall 

 on the left, — of brick or of flat stone flagging, there would be 



