Book of Gardens 
47 
Will Supply that Water Feature Which, Provided 
It Is in Keeping , Will Add to the Beauty of Any Place 
<< AND when you have left the desert, and 
F\. come again to the fresh green of the 
river valleys, the last thing to which you grow 
accustomed is the sound of running water.” 
The last thing and, it might be added, the 
most welcome and soothing and wholly refresh¬ 
ing thing. In the glaring heat of the cactus 
country one misses keenly the softening effect 
of water in the landscape. By day, at least, the 
desert lacks intimacy, and when the reason is 
analyzed it is found to lie largely 
in the absence of flowing streams. 
For whether in Nature’s gardens or 
in our own small imitations of her 
handiwork, water as a purely es¬ 
thetic feature fills a place which no 
other one element can hope to 
attain. 
There is no need here to dwell 
upon this humanizing influence of 
water in our gardens—our interest 
is centered rather on how it can be 
brought to serve our needs. The 
running brook admits of the great¬ 
est variety of effects, perhaps, but 
for comparatively few of our gar¬ 
dens is it available. Most of us 
must of necessity turn to the vari¬ 
ous forms of pools and pond-like 
water gardens. In the planning, 
making and care of these are cer¬ 
tain well-ordered rules. 
Broadly speaking, there are two 
kinds of water features: the formal 
and the naturalistic. The first may take one of 
several forms, such as the fountain basin pure 
and simple; the lily pool of regular contour, 
round, oval or rectangular, placed usually at 
the intersection of the garden axes; and the 
geometrically accurate pool whose primary pur¬ 
pose as a mirror of the surrounding trees and 
architectural features is served without the use 
of any water plants. 
It is not the purpose here to take up in any 
A cross-section of the concrete-lined, pool shows the sloping 
arrangement of the soil and the partitions to hold it in place 
detail the subject of garden fountains and their 
accessories, as these fully deserve an article all 
to themselves. Today one can find in the open 
market all manner of fountain designs espe¬ 
cially executed for garden use, and the only 
confronting problem is the selection of that one 
of them which will harmonize best with the 
planting scheme in general, and the exact loca¬ 
tion in particular. 
All of these fountains, of course, have one 
point in common: they call for a 
source of supply which has enough 
force to cause the water to flow 
from the opening provided for it. 
Provision must also be made to 
carry off the surplus water when 
the fountain is in operation. In 
some cases this overflow can be 
utilized to form a little rill which 
wanders away through the garden, 
fringed with ferns and cardinal 
flowers in the shady spots and in 
the sunlight bright with the blue of 
forget-me-nots catching the color of 
the sky. Or it may be led to a bird 
pool in some secluded comer. 
In the great majority of pools 
some provision must be made for 
replenishing or changing the water, 
usually by simple inlet and outlet 
pipes, as suggested above. Much 
can be done to keep the water free 
from mosquito larae by introduc¬ 
ing a few goldfish. 
The formal pool invariably calls for a formal setting. Here the wide concrete coping 
forms an integral and important part of the design 
