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GARDEN FURNITURE 
i. 
ITS USES AND ABUSES 
I 
E. C. STILES 
j§ 
Landscape Architect 
Some Suggestions by a Designer of Gardens as to How 
Mistakes in Furnishing May be Avoided — Various 
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Kinds of Garden Accessories and Where Best Placed 
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H E history of garden making is nearly as old as the his- 
tory housing itself; but in spite of this and the fact 
that more and more attention is being given to the 
ehP(P selection and arrangement of furniture for the house, 
the problem of properly furnishing our gardens is still, to a 
great extent, an untouched one. 
The traditions of an earlier day continue largely to govern the 
uses and the forms of garden furniture; and, though much inter- 
esting and instructive literature on interior furnishing has been 
published, practically nothing has been offered for the guidance 
of the general reader in the proper selection and placing of furni- 
ture out of doors. 
In the garden, as elsewhere, the principles of correct use 
may be summarized by the word “propriety.” This word 
is all-embracing and governs not only the placing of the article 
in a particular situation, but determines as well the style of the 
article chosen in its relation to the feeling or atmosphere of the 
whole garden. 
Probably the point best taken up first with the reader is the 
actual location of the various articles of furniture in the different 
types of garden. A second consideration would be the use of 
garden accessories at salient points of interest on the property 
which do not fall inside of fixed garden areas: such as the placing 
of vases, statues, benches, etc. on house terraces, in wall-niches 
or at look-out points which offer vistas over surrounding terri- 
tory. 
O F THE two chief types of garden, the formal and the in- 
formal, the formal is perhaps the more difficult to furnish 
suitably. One of the confusing aspects of this problem, to the 
uninitiated, is the question of the correct points at which to place 
various garden accessories; yet the solution is quite simple once 
certain fundamental rules are clearly grasped. A survey of 
Plan 1, which offers an example of the ordinary type of formal 
garden for a place of a moderate acreage, will serve by way of 
illustration. As can be readily seen, there are certain fixed 
focal points toward which the eye is attracted when one walks 
about the garden; and which are the governing factors in any 
Nathan R. Graves Co., Photo. 
THE SUMMER-HOUSE SERVING DOUBLE PURPOSE 
Affording a comfortable seat sheltered from over-much glare on a sunshiny day, 
the summer-house here furnishes as well a logical termination for the garden walk 
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