A Problem in Garden Remodeling 
OVERCOMING UNDESIRABLE LANDSCAPE EFFECTS DUE TO LAND CONTOUR BY THE CAREFUL ARRANGE¬ 
MENT OF TREES AND SHRUBS—HOW THE MATERIAL ALREADY AT HAND WAS TURNED TO GOOD USE 
by Grace Tabor 
M AKING over a garden with the material at hand is some¬ 
times a problem to try the very soul of the gardener. 
And always it is a prob¬ 
lem to try his skill, cru¬ 
cially. For the use of 
old garden material, 
while it would seem to 
be easily accomplished, 
may really be one of the 
most thankless of garden¬ 
ing tasks, owing to the 
mistakes made in choos¬ 
ing this material in the 
beginning. 
I am not of course re¬ 
ferring here to the shrubs 
and flowers to be found 
in a really old garden, 
but to the stuff intro¬ 
duced on a place that 
has been “gardened” un¬ 
der the modern influences 
so generally at work 
where planting of any 
consequence is to be un¬ 
dertaken. There is no 
end of such places— 
places where large sums 
of money have gone into 
the purchase of quanti¬ 
ties of material, and where just this fact, and this alone, is the 
most emphatic note in the resultant effect. It is with the reso¬ 
lution of such an effect 
into something like a gar¬ 
den in the true sense 
that the problem herein 
considered deals. 
The fragment of plan 
here given shows the 
work as completed, and 
also shows by dotted 
lines the spaces from 
which most of the ma¬ 
terial was taken. From 
the house it will be seen 
that the ground slopes 
gently down toward the 
south, drops away at a 
steeper angle which be¬ 
comes a deep terrace 
above a walled garden on 
the east, and descends 
abruptly over a continua¬ 
tion of this wall on the 
north—so abruptly, in¬ 
deed, that it is lost to 
sight altogether from the 
house level. The north 
end of the dwelling is 
the service wing, and 
This plan shows the remodeled garden when completed, and also indicates by dotted lines the 
spaces from which most of the trees and shrubs used were taken. The results in improving the 
lines of the place are good 
■ A.'-'-'v i " • ,-u 
" ' A, 
The land slopes downward beyond the north wall of the flower garden, necessitating tree planting along that border in order to relieve the bare appearance. Arborvitae* 
were accordingly transplanted there, and now form an attractive line leading to and up the terrace appearing at the left of this picture 
