LITTLE GARDENS 
CHAPTER I 
On Making a Garden—Plans for Little Gardens—Rustic 
Arches—Log Ornaments—Garden Seats and Arbours. 
MAKING a garden may be likened to painting a picture. Just as 
the artist has before him the landscape which he is to depict on 
the canvas, so the gardener should have in his mind’s eye 
a strong impression of the kind of garden he wishes to make. 
There is nothing like being methodical, even in gardening, so it 
is best to materialise one’s ideas in the form of a rough sketch 
or plan. Then it is easier to judge whether the proposed design 
is suitable to the plot of ground to be laid out, and improvements 
suggest themselves more readily when one’s thoughts are set out 
in black and white. In the making of a little garden it is best, 
I think, not to follow any set design too closely. If a plan is 
drawn to scale and carried strictly into execution, then one misses 
much of the deligit of garden making, and the garden itself is 
apt to suffer. There should be as much pleasure in the execution 
as in the realisation of the scheme, yet this is only possible when 
fresh ideas, which are bound to come as the work proceeds, are 
allowed to have free play, even to the extent of interfering with 
the original design. Ideas which arise on the spur of the moment 
are often invaluable and are not to be lightly regarded ; if carried 
out, more often than not they make that indefinable yet most 
important ditference between a garden set out by rod and line and 
one that has been allowed, as it were, to have its own say in the 
matter. There will be a grace and charm in the latter that will be 
found wanting in the former. It is well to be original, although 
even originality must not be allowed to override commonsense, or the 
result may be a collection of paths and beds, borders and lawns, that 
has no just claim to be called a garden. 
Position of the Garden.—The first and most important 
consideration of all is the position of the garden in relation to the 
house, for it should not be forgotten that, after all, the garden is but 
an adjunct to the house. It is best, I think, unless local conditions 
B 
