THE LITTLE GARDEN 



SITUATION, SOIL, SHRROnNDENGS 



If I were asked to say what word I thought most vital to 

 success in any garden, and particularly in the little garden, it 

 would be the word relate. This question of relation is- of necessity 

 first. All beauty in design, in garden-planting, rests on suitabil- 

 ity. When an architect and his collaborator, the landscape archi- 

 tect, meet to decide upon the placing of a house on a given site, 

 what is their first consideration? The character and appearance 

 of the surroundings. This is the large maimer of looking at such 

 questions. The practice of this large manner by an individual 

 results sooner or later in the acquirement of that elusive posses- 

 sion, taste. Taste lies ia the habit of sifting, with the ultimate ar- 

 rival at what is good. And in the little garden, taste is, if possible, 

 more important than in the large. The large garden may occa- 

 sionally contaia certain defects in its recesses, certain misarrange- 

 ments, which, from given points, are unseen and do not, there- 

 fore, immediately offend; there is a choice of aspects, some of 

 which may be excellent, though others are poor. In the case of 

 the little garden, there is no escape from the eye. There are no 

 maskings, there can be no concealment; the whole of a smaU bit 

 of ground, unless treated with a skill and knowledge almost 

 superhuman, stands exposed to the beholder; and he will be a 

 sorry owner and gardener who has not the sense to reckon with 

 this fact. Relation of the elements in the little garden is the secret 

 of all success: its relation, first, to the house which it adjoins; its 

 relation to the surrounding landscape, if the situation is open; its 



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