This view of the garden shows what a pleasant effect was obtained by vistas through an opening in the wall suggestive of cloisters. No elaborate 
horticulture is attempted, the floral effects being restricted to vines on walls and trellises, and urns filled with ferns and an occasional geranium 
Embellishing the Back Yard 
HOW CITY YARDS MAY BE IMMENSELY IMPROVED BY THE USE OF BRICK AND PLASTER 
AND THE ASSISTANCE OF GARDEN FURNITURE-SUBSTITUTING ARCHITECTURAL 
BEAUTY FOR THAT OF BLOOM AND BLOSSOM—THE VALUE OF VINES 
by Violet Gordon Gray 
Photographs 
F OR years the city back yard has been placidly accepted as 
hopeless. A convenient spot, it is true, in which to keep 
the household garbage-pail and ash-barrel, but certainly not a 
place which could ever be expected to lay the slightest claim to 
the aesthetic. Lately, however, the city householder has ceased 
to shrug his shoulders quite so calmly, for the dreariness of his 
little yard is affecting his nerves. Besides, he is realizing that 
there is a remedy; that his tiny scrap of ground may be made to 
yield almost as much real pleasure and refreshment as the half¬ 
acre of his suburban brother. 
Of course, for the city dweller there can be no great, glorious 
beds of brilliant-hued flowers sprawling in the sunshine, no 
massive clumps of shrubbery, no- wide-spreading trees. His 
garden must necessarily be compact and formal—specialized. 
Paradoxically enough in its meagerness and formality lies its 
charm, a quaint charm reminiscent of the little cloistered gardens 
that are so frequently to be found in the old monasteries. 
by the Author 
Even more than the country garden the city one is dependent 
for success upon thoughtful and judicious planning, rather than 
on the mere expenditure of money. Where space is so restricted 
every detail is of importance, and a false not'e is disastrous. 
The background of the garden, its surrounding walls, are the 
first and greatest problem. A high wall built of handsome, dull 
brick, with the quaint coping we find in Kate Greenaway’s 
pictures is considered the ideal thing by many experts, but in 
the long run the ordinary brick wall, its crude redness hidden 
under a coat of plaster tinted in soft, old ivory tones, may be 
even more satisfactory and certainly affords an artistic back¬ 
ground for vines and shrubs. 
If the garden is surrounded by a board fence this may either 
be painted the conventional white with the green lattices of the 
French garden, or, more practically, be stained a soft brown. 
A few well-chosen pieces of garden furniture are needed. 
Beautiful reproductions of the old-world marble benches and. 
(386) 
