238 
The Garden Magazine, January, 1921 
up your lawn area by bringing it in from the other side of your 
lot (sketch No. i), unless the approach is equally good in both 
directions and you wish to use a semi-circular drive (dotted 
lines in sketch No. 2). The observance of this rule keeps the 
service portion of the grounds on the smallest and, therefore, 
least desirable portion of the property, and leaves considerable 
space for utilization on the living side of the property. 
Having decided upon this much, draw up your plot of ground 
to any convenient scale, such as ten or twenty feet to the inch, 
and reduce your house plans to the same scale, locating them 
at the correct distance from the front line and from the nearest 
property line. Then draw axis lines through the centre of your 
doors and windows to determine the entrance points and general 
direction of your walks and the line of the best views from your 
windows. 
able ground is not large enough to permit of the dignity of large 
lawn areas so that the garden takes on somewhat the character of 
an outdoor living room. The flower garden should not be permit- 
ted to extend any material distance beyond the front line of the 
house (sketch No. 1), as the lawn space should be kept, so 
far as practicable, intact and in harmony with other frontages 
along the street. Unbroken stretches of lawn and a certain 
unity of treatment are among the chief charms of the suburban 
block. The pattern for this garden will depend purely upon 
your own fancy or the inclination of your designer, but will take 
its cue from the axis lines of the steps which lead from the house 
into it; and its accent points, such as garden seats, small foun- 
tains, arbors, etc., should be in line with the axis lines which 
have been drawn through the doors and windows of the portion 
of the house which faces on that side of the property. 
N r EXT in importance to the house comes the garage, and 
this should be located as near the dwelling as consistent 
with insurance regulations, usually about fifty feet. This is 
a convenient distance, being far enough away to materially 
reduce the fire hazard and sufficiently close to save steps and 
yet afford ample room for the garage court and immediate ser- 
vice area. 
These initial points decided and the garage located upon your 
drawing there remain several undetermined minor factors 
which may be tabulated as follows: 
Do you wish a flower garden? (Large or small.) 
Do you wish a vegetable garden? (Large or small.) 
Do you wish a poultry yard? (Large or small.) 
Do you wish ta devote some area to fruit trees? 
Do you wish to provide for a children’s playground? 
Assuming that you wish all these features, their respective 
locations should be selected with a view to minimizing conse- 
quent undesirable conditions. For example, if you wish a good 
sized poultry yard, such an area needs screening and the best 
location for it is immediately behind your garage and running 
as far as necessary down that side of your property line (sketch 
No. 2), rather than across the rear (sketch No. 1), as this means 
added steps and a separation of service offices and outbuildings, 
which if kept together are more conveniently reached and 
much easier to screen off. 
The space which you wish to devote to each must somewhat 
determine the location of the flower or vegetable garden, the 
fruit orchard, and the playground, but if possible it is well for 
several reasons to locate the playground near the service area. 
The children should be within easy call and at the same time 
where their destructive tendencies can do no great harm. It 
is usually desirable to screen the playground to some extent. 
H AVING gotten thus far with your planning, it is well to re- 
vert to the flower garden proper— which is the feature con- 
sidered first by most inexperienced designers. The question 
naturally arising is whether it shall be placed immediately next 
the house or at some distance in the rear. For the small property 
the former solution is, 1 believe, the satisfactory one as the avail- 
I T IS well to remember that a good hedge or planting screen 
along the front of the garden will lend this outdoor living room 
an air of privacy and seclusion and will materially aid in beauti- 
fying the front portion of the property. Pergolas, arbors, 
lattice fences, etc., are best placed where they serve a genuine 
purpose (as for example in sketches No. 2 and 3 in which they 
furnish interestin gtransition points from one part of the devel- 
opment to another), rather than interjected as purely decorative 
features without relation to the fundamental scheme (sketch 
No. 1). Used in this way they lose much of their value and all of 
their meaning. Remember also in enclosing the sides and rear 
of your property that hedges are not only more ornamental than 
fences, but that a well-established hedge is arriving at its best 
just when the fence begins to deteriorate in value. Also keep 
in mind that the rose garden is better situated at some little dis- 
tance from the house and behind the flower garden proper 
(sketch No. 1), as its period of full bloom is a comparatively 
short one and during the remainder of the season the exposed 
soil in the bed areas shows up badly when placed in close 
proximity with living roomw indows. This holds particularly 
true in the South where lawns are hard to establish and maintain. 
Finally there is the question of where to put the vegetable 
garden. In general, it rightly belongs at the rear of the prop- 
erty adjacent to service and playground areas, but if a combined 
flower and vegetable garden of large extent is desired it may, 
indeed often must, be established elsewhere with lawn-surround- 
ings of an informal type. 
After you have come to a definite decision on these main points 
and have located the various desired features upon the plan, 
you will be delighted to find how readily adjustable the remain- 
ing details are. You may incorporate any number of individual 
fancies into your composition and elaborate it in all sorts of 
pleasing ways without in the least disturbing the harmony 
of the whole, a harmony basically sound which has fully and 
fittingly utilized every available bit of space and that will be in 
itself a source of satisfaction and inspiration to further elabo- 
ration. It is too often forgotten that the proper and fit 
planning of the moderate sized property taxes to the full the 
skill and ingenuity of the worker. 
