AN ADJUSTABLE TYPE OF GARDEN 
MARTHA HASKELL CLARK 
Developed with Special Reference to Areas of Miniature Size, the Japan- 
ese Style of Garden Design Admirably Adapts Itself to City Conditions 
and more are 
|My| the city dwellers 
endeavoring to se- 
cure for themselves 
a modicum at least of the 
pleasures of the garden. 
And though many of the 
commonest things of the 
ordinary garden are denied 
them — such as the long 
vista over a park-like ex- 
panse of sward, or the trim 
perennial border, or the 
broad pathways .and gen- 
eral air of spaciousness of 
the country — the particular 
type of garden with which 
we are here concerned, 
which has been carried to 
such perfection by our 
friends the Japanese, is emi- 
nently suitable and perfectly 
possible. 
None in this country — 
save a Japanese himself — 
can hope to have a veritable 
Japanese garden; and none 
should for a moment aspire 
to have. For the true 
Japanese garden is a natural 
outgrowth of race senti- 
ment, tradition, and not in- 
frequently religion, and 
requires years of unbeliev- 
ably careful planning and 
minute attention to details 
before it reaches completion. 
Moreover, when it is at last 
complete the most admira- 
ble example of the Japanese 
garden might seem very 
bare and flowerless and un- 
like a real garden to our 
untrained, hence perhaps 
unseeing, western eyes. 
It is simply the Japanese 
garden type, so often wrong- 
fully called a “Japanese Garden,” that offers so many invaluable 
suggestions to the owner of a city lot or a small suburban place. 
For it allows of narrow winding paths that make the most of the 
tiniest area’s dimensions in an astonishing way, of sharp turns 
and twists that afford delightful opportunities of surprise and 
garden interest, of vistas in miniature, of tiny cascades and 
water-gardens, in short, of full and artistic use of every available 
foot of space. Such a garden can be admirably developed 
within a plot of ground from twentyAive feet square up. 
The two designs given on the opposite page are based on 
the assumption of a larger area, these having been prepared 
for a space fifty by fifty feet in size. But there are suggestions 
in them that will apply to almost any size plot; they may 
themselves indeed be elongated one way or the other to fit a nar- 
row space, and the planting reduced until it likewise conforms. 
Planting keys for each ac- 
company them, garden 
number one having been 
planned for both garden dis- 
play and cut flowers for the 
house, garden number two 
for garden display primarily. 
Key to Design I: — i, Arbor 
or tea-house with annual and 
perennial vines: 2, Rustic 
bridge: 3, Water-garden, with 
Water-lilies and Nelumbiums: 
4, Stone lantern with vines: 
5, Japanese Cherry: 6, White 
Lilac: 7, Forsythia: 8, Per- 
sian Lilac: 9, Mock-orange: 
10, Japanese Quince: 11, 
Hybrid Rhododendrons mixed: 
A-i, Bambusa Metake: A-2, 
Erianthus Ravennae: A-3, 
Miscanthus (Eulalia) japonica 
variegata: A-4, Bambusa 
Henonis: A-5, Arundo Donax 
variegata: B-i, B-2, B-3, 
Hemerocallis flava, aurantiaca 
and Thunbergiana: C-i, C-2, 
C-3, Japanese Maples vars: 
japonicum aureurn, polymor- 
phum dissectum, atropurpu- 
reum, and rubrum: D-i, 
Azaleas in yellows and flame 
color: D-2, Azaleas in pink 
and white: I-i, 1-2, I-3, I-4, 
Iris vars. Siberian, Flag, Japan- 
ese, and Oriental : J-1.J-2.J-3, 
Japanese Anemone Whirlwind, 
Queen Charlotte, and Prince 
Heinrich: K-i, K-2, K-3, Orien- 
tal Poppy Goliath, Princess 
Louise, and Silberblick: P, 
Japanese Peonies in mixed 
single and double: S, Shasta 
Daisy: R-i, Rugosa Roses, sin- 
gle pink and white varieties: 
R-2, Hybrid Tea Roses, Irish 
Star, Irish Fireflame, etc. 
Key to Design 1 1 : — 1 , Rustic 
thatched arbor or tea-house 
with vines: 2, Water-garden 
with water plants: 3, Stone 
lantern with vines: 4 and 7, White Lilac: 5 and 6, Purple Lilac: 8, 
Persian Lilac: A-i, A-2, A-3, Pink, white and scarlet Mallow: B-i, 
B-2, B-3, Azaleas in flame and orange, pink and white, and white and 
pale yellow: C-i, C-2, C-3, C-4, Aster laevis, nova-belgae flore plena, 
puniceus, and novae-angliae: E, Oriental Poppy: F, White Day-lily; 
G, Pyrethrums double and single in white and shades of pink: I-i, 
Flag Iris in lavender, white and yellows: 1-2, Japanese Iris: I-3, Siber- 
ian Iris in dark blue and white. 
As a final warning (the idea of a Japanese garden is so in- 
sidious that warnings are continually needed!) let me again say 
that here is a type of gardening distinctly national, speaking a 
language, we may say, of which the most of us are ignorant 
if not altogether unaware. Let us adopt its suggestions there- 
fore, but never undertake to copy a Japanese garden — unless the 
entire area can be wholly and completely hidden. 
DEEPENING SHADOWS FULL OF MYSTERY 
A true Japanese garden, an expression of tradition, sentiment and often religion, 
is not a practical possibility for Americans but the method may be adopted as here 
where the diminutive scale brings a sense of a greater expanse on a confined area 
