THE NEW SUBURBAN GARDEN 219 



We rarely see an herbaceous border or a rockery in a 

 suburban garden. The almost unvarying plan is to 

 make a series of straight borders alongside the fences, 

 and set them in rows of two or three popular flowers, 

 such as Zonal Geraniums and Lobelias, or else patches 

 of old-time favourites like Pansies, China Asters, Cal- 

 ceolarias, Monkey Flowers, Petunias, Marigolds, Nas- 

 turtiums and Mignonette. 



The first efforts of the suburbanist should be to rob 

 his plot of that formal and confined appearance which 

 distinguishes the majority of such places. To follow the 

 line of the fencing is to follow the line of least resistance, 

 and as such is a natural temptation to people who have 

 very little knowledge of modern flower-gardening. None 

 the less it is undesirable, and the flower-lover should 

 seek for a design by which the stiff lines of his plot are 

 broken, and an effect of greater area produced. 



I do not ask for impossibilities. I am sufficiently 

 familiar with the conditions which prevail in small 

 suburban gardens to be aware that the gardener's actions 

 are severely cramped. Small area, inflexible boundaries, 

 and a limited choice of plants all have to be reckoned 

 with. It is in a spirit of sympathetic suggestion, and not 

 of ill-considered criticism, that I approach the suburbanist. 



The stiffness of a small rectangular garden can be 

 overcome by a combination of several plans. The 

 campaign might be opened by an assault on the angles 

 of the fences, in one of which a small rock garden might 

 be established, in another a pool, and in a third a summer- 

 house. 



How can we establish a rockery in the angle of a fence, 

 and what plants can we grow on it ? 



We may first consider a raised rockery, the back of 

 which consists of the boundary itself. If it is a wall, well 



