LANDSCAPING IN MINIATURE 
CURTIS REDFERN 
Creating the “Garden Beautiful ’’ on a 25 x40 ft. Lot where Prize-winning Dahlias Flourish 
Editors’ Note: With very commendable modesty Mr. Redfern omits from this little tale of a little garden the interesting fact that it won two awards in the 
San Francisco Chronicle’s Beautiful Garden Contest last year—the only garden out of more than six hundred thus distinguished. Another fact of interest to lovers 
and growers of Dahlias is that within these tiny confines Mr. Redfern succeeded in fostering blooms which received a special prize at the 1923 Show of the Dahlia 
Society of California. 
MOST of our cities residential lots are usually small; 
in San Francisco the average lot is 25 x 130 ft. and 
i n New York 20 x 100 ft., for example, and little garden 
lUOi? space remains after the house and garage are built. 
How to make a garden with this little plot is a problem. Of 
course, it can be planted to lawn with a Maltese cross set piece 
or an oval bed in the centre that resembles nothing so much 
as an elephant’s grave, and let go at that. When the plants in 
the piece de resistance bloom and the temptation to pick can not 
be overcome, there is soon nothing left but a few naked stems— 
the bones from the feast. I am not over-drawing the picture, 
for my right-hand neighbor grows Gladiolus in a Maltese cross 
bed in the centre of his back lawn, and my friend to the left 
has an elephant’s grave planted with Irish Elegance Roses. 
Needless to say, they both grow red Geraniums, too. 
The accompanying photographs plainly prove that such 
treatment is not necessary in even the smallest space—my 
miniature landscape garden is a plot roughly 25 x 40 ft., and 
the Dahlia bed is confined to a space 8 x 50 ft. The effect of 
spaciousness is obtained by leaving the centre open and planted 
to grass; straight lines are avoided by rock groups jutting into 
the lawn and by slow-growing evergreen shrubs in the corners, 
flanked and fronted by lower-growing shrubs, berry-bearing 
plants—Bamboos, Boxwood, Junipers, dwarf Pines, wild Ferns, 
Irises, Columbines, and Sedums. 
I avoid annuals and specialize on Gladiolus, I ris, spring-flower¬ 
ing bulbs, rock plants, and Dahlias. 1 lift the bulbs every 
two or three years; the Dahlias, of course, are taken up 
every year. 
1 break most of the rules laid down in catalogues and books on 
gardening. My Irises and Roses grow together—and both 
thrive; my Dahlias are planted no more than two feet apart 
instead of the customary four feet, getting good quality of 
blooms from healthy plants. To insure proper circulation of air 
in the Dahlia bed 1 keep the lower foliage cut out. This treat¬ 
ment seems to strengthen the plants and to give the blossoms 
greater size. 
A sunless area between my house and my neighbor’s proved 
the ideal situation for an Australian Tree Fern. With it thrive 
Primroses, Azaleas, Fuchsias, Lilies, Columbine, Bleeding- 
“STRAIGHT LINES ARE AVOIDED” 
Native Ferns and Iris naturally fit in with rock groups. This part of the garden in the late fall is a symphony of greens—the Juniper with 
its new growth will have several shades, the Ferns and Cypress other shades, and the Cryptomeria or Japanese Pine (at right) will begin 
taking on its purple and reddish-green winter coat. It is at this season of the year that rocks in the garden contribute so much of interest 
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