II 



THE PLAN 



The plan for the little garden is the pivot of success. Unless 

 all is first put down on paper, drawn to scale, and visualized by 

 its owner, nothing is likely to turn out well. It is the lack of plan 

 that is responsible for most that is ugly in America; and it is the 

 plan that is responsible for the value and amazing production of 

 most small foreign gardens, notably those of the French, whose 

 plots yield out of all proportion to their size, in fruits, vegetables, 

 and flowers. 



As a practical matter, the plan is a necessity; and here we may, 

 we must, turn to the landscape architect. There is no alternative. 

 The good book, the clever or able friend, is a poor substitute for 

 that adviser, whose training, knowledge, and experience will 

 bring all that is best out of the least promising situation. Where 

 circumstances permit, neglect to call in the services of a land- 

 scape architect, and that before the house site is decided upon, 

 is almost worse than the failure to bring to a sick man that other 

 professional man whom he needs. It is worse. For, in the latter 

 case, it is but the individual who suffers and may die. In the 

 former, it is all who see that suffer. Not only the garden's owner, 

 and those who dwell within its fence, hedge, or wall, but every- 

 one who enters there thenceforth fares ill or well, as beauty or 

 the lack of it meets his gaze. In the ways of beauty no man Uveth 

 to himself. "Call a landscape architect to design so small a 

 place as mine!" you exclaim. Certainly. The smaller the space, 

 the more important is expert advice for treatment. I cannot too 

 emphatically assert and reassert the need of the landscape archi- 

 tect for every man, as he commits himself, to use the phrase of 



