CONQUERING THE 

 RESTRICTED AREA 



E. C. STILES 



Landscape Architect 



Utilizing Areas on Different Sides 

 of a Street — Masterly Handling 

 of Separated Plots of Ground to 

 Give the Appearance of One by 

 Eliminating Boundaries 



JHE little garden herein discussed was stumbled on by 

 chance in a small town of western Pennsylvania, and, 

 from local information, I believe that it may have been 

 the work of the late Oglesby Paul of Philadelphia. 

 Whoever the designer, it is a partic- 

 ularly successful piece of work. 



The piece of land upon which the 

 garden has been built is separated 

 from the house by a broad alley-way. 

 The residence proper fronts upon .and 

 is well set back from a quiet village 

 street, and there was no room for 

 development except at the rear. The 

 existence of the alley-way was entirely 

 disregarded and land on the other side 

 of it was acquired, and though framed 

 in by sheds, back yards etc., it has 

 been so planted that the very exis- 

 tence of the alley-way is rendered 

 unnoticeable from either garden or 

 house. Cleverly located screen plant- 

 ings have at maturity entirely hidden 

 every objectionable feature of the 

 surroundings, while at the same time 

 revealing the surrounding roof-lines. 



A large stone-flagged and balus- 

 traded terrace was run along the 

 rear of the residence; whence one 

 may overlook the garden below with- 

 out ever a thought of the alley-way. 

 The steps in front of the terrace 

 seem to lead directly into the garden. 



In a similar manner, when viewed PLAN OF THE 



172 



WHO CAN FIND THE ALLEY-WAY? 



■ 



A clever conception, cleverly executed to conceal 

 unattractive features which could not be done 

 away with and conveying a sense of unity and se- 

 clusion in the heart of a crowded, cut-up district. 

 Vista from the foot of the garden shown above 

 and at left a view from terrace steps 



from the garden, the house is apparently 

 directly connected with it, the pairs of steps 

 giving the appearance of but one flight 

 instead of two. 



The final element in the success of the com- 

 position lies in the clever use of plants in the 

 garden area. Of course, every gardener knows 

 that a design is merely the initial step and 

 that the real test of any successful garden is 

 the ability to develop and maintain it so as to 

 ultimately bear out the ideas of the original 

 plan. In a small country town like this, anything elaborate 

 was wisely eschewed and much of this area left in lawn. Gravel 

 walks, a square pool, and hardy Privet hedging — kept very low 

 inside the garden — aided materially in bringing out the general 



shape of the design. As space was 

 limited, interest was focused at the 

 centre of the garden- by the use of 

 the pool with four stone seats around 

 it. *s * 



The smallness of the lawn areas is 

 cleverly disguised by evergreen plant- 

 ings which break the view toward the 

 corners of the garden giving an im- 

 pression of distance; and two long 

 vistas down the axes of the garden 

 are of such pleasing character that 

 one hardly notices that is really about 

 all there is to the garden. 



The beds bordering the cross walks 

 are planted solidly with Peonies, 

 which give a good color note to the 

 garden at one season of the year and 

 interesting foliage for the remainder 

 with a minimum of care. The shrub- 

 bery around the edge of the garden 

 is of good old-fashioned kinds kept in 

 order by occasional pruning out of 

 the old wood. Olden-time annuals 

 fill the flowerbeds along the main 

 axis and supply sufficient diversity to 

 sustain interest the season through, 

 at the same time requiring compara- 

 property tively little attention. 



