MAKING THE BEST USE OF A LITTLE PLOT 
SYDNEY B. MITCHELL 
Simple Rules for the Making of a Definite Plan for the 
Small Garden Leading to Economy in Material and Labor 
Editors’ Note Mr. Mitchell is already known to many of the readers, and he writes from wide experience in practical gardening in both Europe and 
America. This present article is part of a chapter in his recently published book “Gardening in California,” (Copyright 1923, Doubleday, Page & Co.) and like 
other fundamental material in that volume has an interest and application that knows no state boundaries. 
HE rare person who has the temerity to begin the build¬ 
ing of a house without making, or having made for 
him, a careful plan of the structure is generally con¬ 
sidered highly irresponsible. Is not this criticism 
equally applicable to the casual individual who starts on his 
garden without the remotest idea of how he will finish it, often 
with no consideration of what he wants, or of what he can get 
out of his property? Before he realizes it his place becomes a 
conglomeration of casually acquired material, arranged with no 
law or order, not beautiful in itself, not pleasant to live in, and 
adding nothing as a setting for his house. He has, moreover, in 
all probability put trees or shrubs in places which they will out¬ 
grow, and perhaps put bulbs and flowers in situations to which 
they are not adapted, and his garden is in a continual state of 
being changed, always failing of the repose which comes with 
order, and never entirely satisfactory because every alteration is 
a compromise with existing conditions, due to his disinclination 
to give up the years of growth acquired by shrubs or plants 
wrongly placed to begin with. 
Compare that sad picture with the prospects of the man who 
from the beginning has had a plan in mind, even locating his 
house on the lot with reference to the garden that is to be. 
Should the cost of his house exceed his expectations, he may 
not be able to carry out completely the plans which have been 
prepared for the garden; but with its future mapped out, each 
step he takes will be one toward the realization of his scheme. 
His first expenditures will be for those plant materials which 
take years to make the desired effect—trees, vines, and shrubs. 
11 is early work in the greater part of the garden may have to be 
crude and largely with the less costly materials, but his rough 
paths will be along the lines laid out, and his flower-beds, bright 
with inexpensive annuals, will be where he at some time hopes 
to have more interesting bulbs and perennials. Each year some¬ 
thing can be added, as in furnishing a house, and the pleasure 
will be continuous in seeing progress made toward an ideal. 
Getting Advice in Time 
T HE gardener should, after long and careful study of the 
principles involved, and preferably also after having ex¬ 
amined good gardens approximating his own in size, make a 
plan of his place for himself; or better, if he can afford it, call 
into consultation an expert who will at least start him right. 
There are so many spurious landscape gardeners, perhaps ex¬ 
cellent workmen but without the knowledge, the training, or 
the necessary taste for this work, that 1 cannot too strongly 
urge that when advice or a plan is being purchased a person 
known to be an expert be employed. The satisfaction given 
by his plan will be remembered long after the cost of his ser¬ 
vices has been forgotten. 
Ready-made or stock plans can never be entirely satisfactory. 
Good ones may be very useful in showing how the principles of 
design may be carried out on a given plot; the study of them 
may be very helpful and suggestive, but it is inherent in them 
that they cannot have taken into consideration varying contours, 
different exposures, conditions of soil, prevailing winds, heat and 
cold, and other climatic factors. If plant materials are sug¬ 
gested, their perfect applicability to any particular garden must 
be carefully questioned. 
The landscape architect, no matter how small a place he may 
be planning, will always prefer to visit it, to examine its con¬ 
tours, or even if it be perfectly level to give careful considera¬ 
tion to the other factors mentioned. Moreoever, like a good 
architect, he will endeavor to acquaint himself with the in¬ 
terests and pursuits of his client, so as to provide him with a 
garden which will be so adapted to his needs that it will in some 
measure reflect his personality. 
Personality in a Garden 
T HIS careful consideration of individual preferences has 
made it possible for some very interested amateurs to plan 
their own small gardens quite successfully. The secret of their 
success was the intense preoccupation with their personal 
problem and the study of all matters which in any way affected 
it. The purpose of one man may be merely to present as good 
a front to the street as possible. He will naturally be ready to 
give up much of his property to a front lawn and to spend con¬ 
siderable money for the purchase of fine trees and shrubs to set 
off his house. To him the space in the rear may be of no value 
except for drying clothes or other household purposes, and he will 
be unwilling to spend either time or money in its development. 
Another may look upon his garden as an outdoor living room or, 
if it be large enough, as a series of these, each with its different 
interest or purpose. He will either so screen the plot in front of 
his house as to secure some privacy, or, much more probably, 
he will endeavor to reduce the size of this more public part so 
as to give him ampler room in the secluded rear garden. Such 
a man will build high walls, or will give much attention to the 
planting of boundaries. He will use more trees and shrubs 
than flowers, and may consider the trouble and cost of main¬ 
taining lawns as well paid for in the greater comfort of the place. 
To him, garden furniture, summerhouses, pergolas, pools, or 
running water will especially appeal, as all these add to the 
pleasure of living in a garden. 
The flower lover gets his greatest satisfaction in flowers at all 
seasons of the year, lots of them, in many varieties and well 
taken care of. To satisfy this desire he may have to give 
practically all his space to them, and may eliminate lawns as a 
waste of room and trees because their shade or their roots would 
be a hindrance to the flowers. Sometimes the flower-lover be¬ 
comes a specialist, centring his interests on a single flower and 
subordinating landscape effect to the exigencies of a collection. 
Inasmuch as the excuse for a garden is the pleasure which it 
gives to the owner and his family, all of these aims are equally 
legitimate. In a small place it is impossible to do everything, 
and as simplicity of design should be the keynote in arrange¬ 
ment, simplicity of purpose will be one of the greatest elements 
of success. 
There has been much unnecessary argument about the re¬ 
lative merits of the formal and the informal garden, a good 
deal of it due to confusion of terms. The advocate of the first 
has in mind the advantages of form or design in what he feels 
is distinctly an art. The man who opposes him frequently 
does so because of a fixed idea that “formal” means torturing 
shrubs into artificial shapes, the perfect balancing of all plant 
materials, and the useof characterless bedding-plants arranged in 
geometrical designs in the beds—a centre of pink Geraniums sur- 
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