ON MAKING A GARDEN 5 



It is difficult to give a graceful curve to a walk within a small 

 area ; the curve, when restricted, so easily deteriorates into a 

 wriggle. If a walk is to follow a lawn, as it usually does, it is 

 not necessary to make it straight : curves with graceful outline look 

 well. An occasional bay may be formed by cutting into the grass. 

 Such a site offers an opportunity of placing a seat, arbour, summer- 

 house, rockery, tree, group of shrubs or pillar roses. The corners 

 of the lawn may, as the owner wishes, be left square or rounded 

 or tapering, and they, too, can be adorned with flowers in beds or 

 baskets. Variety is the soul of a garden, and especially is this 

 true of a small garden. The greater the variety the more sustained 

 is the interest. 



When the ground at the back of the house is sloping, it is 

 customary to have a terraced walk dividing house and lawn. The 

 general conception of a terrace is that it shall be perfectly straight, 

 though a terrace that curves either outwards or inwards has a more 

 novel and graceful effect. When there is no slope, one often sees a 

 straight walk between lawn and window : this cannot be objected 

 to, supposing the sides of the lawn and the side paths offer devia- 

 tions from the straight-edge principle ; yet to undulate the lawn 

 edges and the horizontal path is an easy method of securing a 

 better effect. If there is not room for a path of reasonable width, 

 say 3 or 4 feet, it is wiser to let the lawn come right up to the 

 borders at the foot of. the house. A path dividing the lawns, run- 

 ning from the horizontal walk down the garden, is attractive when 

 it is not stiff and straight, and the pergola is seen at its best in 

 such a situation, since it may easily be made, in fact, is almost 

 bound, to lead to some definite object. The flat-topped pergola, 

 until smothered in leaves and blossom, has a somewhat tunnel- 

 like appearance, and a pleasant alternative is to have raised arches 

 at intervals. They may either be rounded or sharply pointed, or, 

 when creeper-covered, a series of distinct colour masses, high in 

 the air, will be visible from some distance. 



If there is no pergola, the wide, undulating central walk may 

 be flanked by different ornamental features half-moon beds, groups 

 of pillar roses, low trellises, curving from the lawn, against which 

 pretty seats can be built, specimen evergreen and other trees, and 

 clumps of giant grasses. Standard rose trees in small round beds 

 set along lawn edges are often seen, but they are not important 

 enough to adorn much of a fair sized lawn, having a monotonous 

 and mean appearance. Along a small grass plot, however, they 



