March, 
1911 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 119 
Planning and Planting a Small Water-Garden 
Estimated Cost Complete Fifty Dollars 
By Martha Haskell Clark 
ROM the intricate water-courses and foun- 
tains of Roman. days, whose charm we 
may still see in the beautiful ruined gardens 
of tne Villa d’Este, at Tivoli, to the mod- 
estly designated ‘“‘water-garden” of our 
suburban towns, or the back yard hogs- 
head of some aspiring city-dweller, is a 
far cry along the horticultural highway. Yet the funda- 
mental charm of water in connection with gardening, water 
in broad shady pools that mirror the magnolia blossoms in 
the south, the splash of a fountain in the sunlight, or the 
tiny pool in the midst of the Iris, is the same to-day, as it 
was when our togaed aristocrat planned his artificial water- 
ways on the hillsides of Tivoli. 
There are as many types of water-gardens in the United 
States as there are 
conceptions of what 
the two words, 
“water - garden” 
BAMBOO METAKE , 
BAMB00 SINCE 
'HENONISS NK 
PEON Y, 
ERIANTHUS 
RAVENNAE 
mean. One man, he 
with the _ plump 
purse, will require 
an acre of ground, 
and fifty skilled 
workmen to work 2 
out his definition; S 
others, less imagin- & 
ative, or with purses al} S 
SS 
less successfully S] xX 
tuned as an accom- si XS 
: a S 
paniment to _ tneir SiN 
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desire, will satisfy Ns 
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themselves with x 
some such little gar- 
den as I shall treat 
of in this article. 
Small and unpreten- 
tious as it may ap- 
pear, as compared 
with the marble cop- 
PINK 
OOUBLE 
ALTHEA 
E 
PMADLLPHUS 
ORONARIUS 
PERSIAN LILACS 
ing accordingly. Is it to be a pool in the midst of a rose- 
garden? Or a tiny Japanese garden? Do you wish to 
steal a bit of tne tropics, and transplant it bodily to your 
backyard? Do you want to grow a collection of water- 
lilies and make their collecting your hobby? Or do you 
simply desire to produce a pretty picture? 
For each of these questions there is a different answer, 
any one of which might well form an article in itself. But 
here I prefer to deal solely with the last question. How can 
I make an artistic picture with my limited resources? How 
can I plan and plant a water-garden on my place that will 
agree with both my desires and my purse? 
Foremost, of course, comes the problem of the pool it- 
self. And here your choice will be limited only by your 
own desires and means. There are pools with bottoms of 
beaten clay and nat- 
ural outlines, pools 
with marble and ce- 
ment edgings, and a 
myriad designs of 
tanks, manufactured 
from marble or gran- 
ite down to cement 
BAMBOO. , 
"ME TAKE * 
ARUNDO_ DOMAX 
VARIEGATA 
V/7OS/LV7 VION) 
and composition 
stone. 
i} “have read ~ a 
great many works on 
tank construction. [| 
have _ perused nu- 
merous articles relat- 
ing to the same sub- 
ject in most of our 
garden magazines, 
and one and all dis- 
carded without men- 
tion, the easiest, 
simplest, and cheap- 
est construction, in 
favor of a cement 
tank, or others of 
S141 NVWYFZI CFXIW 
WHITE 
DOUBLE 
ALTHEA 
ings, and luxuriant one. 5 Cee ie! few, erqpumanl 1 y expensive 
pools of many of LAME!) ery ee ae ea mY DU ee [ol se CORDATA construction. And to 
our well-known L/LIES Te all you discouraged 
country e S RHODODEWDRONS ese RHODODENORONS 4 avi 
y estates, yet FON) Nwapanese PHODODENDRONS readers, of whom I 
nevertheless a _ no- was one for a long 
ticeable step beyond 
the half-barrel, set 
upright in a sunny corner of the yard. The first point to 
be considered in planning a water-garden, is to place your 
pool and its surroundings in proportion to each other. A 
tiny sheet of water, burried irrevocably in the midst of 
massive shrubbery, suggest too much the proverbial needle 
and the haystack; while a pool, bare of surrounding plant- 
ing, set in the middle of a sun-scorched stretch of lawn, 
reminds one rather too unpleasantly of an open length of 
sewer. In the accompanying diagram the whole garden is 
contained in a 38 foot square, a convenient size for a usual 
suburban lot, but the same principles apply whether the 
garden is to be larger or smaller. 
The next important step, is to decide just what sort of 
a water-garden yours is to be, and to harmonize your plant- 
The garden plan 
time, who count up 
initial expenses in- 
volved of the tank alone and then shaking your heads and 
pocketing your purses, regretfully strike water-gardens 
from your program of OSS DIE oS—srney this tale of a 
simple unpretentious, but useful tank, bring a ray of hope. 
Your pool should be two feet in depth, and of any length 
and breadth to suit your fancy. But do not make the mis- 
take of planning for too large a tank. It is so easy to desig- 
nate a large pool on a piece of paver, and so hard to make 
a pretty picture of that pool without the expenditure of 
many pennies. A small water-garden, well-planted and 
cared for, will give better results than a tank too large to 
be managed by its owner. 
After deciding the dimensions of your tank, go to your 
local carpenter and get him to make an uncovered box of 
