Garden Wonders in a 25 x 35 Backyard— By 1. G. Tabor & 



MAKING A GARDEN "WHERE THERE ISN'T ROOM FOR ONE "—SIX HIGHLY 

 ORIGINAL PLANS THAT WOULD COST YOU ORDINARILY $100 EACH— A ROSE 

 GARDEN, A WATER-LILY GARDEN, A "WINTER GARDEN" OR "OUTDOOR NUR- 

 SERY" AND A GARDEN WITH A LAWN, HARDY BORDERS AND A PERGOLA 



Editor's Note: — Ever since Professor Bailey's article, of pleasant memory, in the first number of The Garden Magazine, entitled "Originality in Gardens," we have been glad to 

 publish such accounts of actual gardens showing creative imagination and artistic sense as our readers have sent us from their own experience. The one described by Mr. Henry G. Taylor 

 elsewhere in this number is an example. But the smaller the garden the harder to make it beautiful and distinctive. It is the same sort of problem that made the great architect, 

 Richardson, take an interest in a man who wanted a $1,500 house. The extraordinary difficulty of such a proposition appealed to him, but when the client announced that he could spend 

 $3,000 the architect simply waved him aside. 



We have therefore called in the services of a landscape gardener to help us on the hardest gardening problem we could think of — the situation that thousands of people in 

 New York, for instance, have to confront — the typical 25 X 35 backyard. 



We need plans of the widest possible application. The Garden Magazine now ojjers a means by which such plans can be presented to the people. We hope that everyone who 

 has consummate skill in planning will send us some solution of the backyard problem, as his contribution to the glorious movement for civic betterment. 



PLAN A shows a different development 

 for each of four plots, size 25x35 feet. 

 Plans B and C give the same four plots 

 thrown together into a community park with 

 an area 50 x 70. 



Number I. of Plan A has flowers in abun- 

 dance in the herbaceous borders that extend 

 along the outer side of the paths to the pergola, 

 which is covered with flowering vines and 

 gives seclusion. 



The cost of this plan depends upon the 

 sort of pergola used. If it is the simplest and 

 cheapest possible — plain uprights and cross- 

 pieces — it should not exceed $25.00. If a 

 more elaborate one with turned columns is 

 desired, it may easily run to $150.00. If the 

 owner wants to put it up himself, the mate- 

 rials will cost him about $10.00. 



Number II. has an informal curved path, 

 with shrubbery bordering it, which broadens 

 into a graveled space around the water-lily 

 pond. Windings and informality are never 

 as well suited to so small a space, yet, as a 

 concession to those who abhor formal lines 

 under any circumstances, this arrangement 

 is not impossible. The pond is the expensive 

 part; it may be omitted entirely, or, instead 

 of being excavated and cemented, it can be 

 merely a tub sunk to the ground level. The 

 seats beside it will cost from $8.00 to $10.00. 



Number III. is planned for a winter garden. 

 The central grass plot has been left for a play- 

 ground, and is completely sheltered by the 

 surrounding hedge and also by being lowered 

 twenty inches below the general level. The 

 coldest, stinging winter winds can hardly 



reach down into this snug "outdoor nursery." 

 At the back, framed by the clipped arch in 

 the hedge, is the bust of a faun. Two stone 

 benches stand at the edge of the terrace next 

 the house, and massed peonies with flower- 

 ing vines give the necessary color. This 

 costs more, the stone benches being $25.00 

 for the pair, and the faun with pedestal in 



A winter playground or outdoor nursery. The 

 high evergreen hedges will enable the children to 

 play outdoors on cold, windy days. See Plan A, No. III. 



terra cotta at least $70.00. The grading 

 and steps will increase it $50.00. 



Number IV. is a rose garden centering 

 upon a rose arbor, with a path running 

 through it, and, if one wishes, an urn within 

 the arbor. The arbor should be put up in a 

 day and a half, so $25.00 is a liberal allow- 

 ance for it. The two rustic seats at $5.00, 



and the urn from $12.00 to $18.00, make the 

 total for these features less than $50.00. 



Plan B is somewhat informal in effect and 

 the arrangement gives each of the four houses 

 a pleasing view of all its features. The 

 arbor floor is on three levels, which divide it 

 into sections, each of which will have its 

 chairs and benches. The cost of construc- 

 tion in this plan, for pool, arbor and seats, will 

 be within $300.00. 



Plan C is on formal lines. In this the 

 double pergola circles a terraced depression, 

 around which runs a narrow walk. Inside 

 this is a pool and fountain; the basin of the 

 fountain is of champagne-glass shape, and 

 from its rim the water overflows gently into 

 the pool. This will cost $500.00, not in- 

 cluding plants nor the planting. 

 *> The community scheme does not demand 

 that the families going into it be friends, but 

 they must be friendly and willing to consider 

 the good of the little park. Certain things 

 should be agreed upon and embodied in a 

 legal contract. Meetings at stated intervals 

 would be necessary, and one member elected 

 executive officer for a definite period, to pay 

 bills, hire labor and generally oversee the 

 whole. 



Large sums are spent on the gardening of 

 country places, where the air is already clean 

 and pure. May not something be spent on 

 gardening in the choked, evil-smelling city? 

 The cost is so little compared to the perma- 

 nent good it will do, and each individual 

 needs to do only such a small part to accom- 

 plish such a great result. 



A glimpse of the little " community parK " which can be created, even in the Another picture which these same neighbors could create, showing the 



heart of a densely crowded city liKe New YorK, by four neighbors whose back- central fountain with its encircling pergola, also a goodly space for lawn and 

 yards measure only 25x35 apiece. See Plan B, on the next page. flowers. The entire area is only 50x70 feet. Consult Plan C 



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