Small Suburban Properties 
Being a Plea for Another Style of Gardening 
By J. DONALD MARTIN 
A mong some of the older writers on land¬ 
scape, Sir Uvedale Price has gone to great 
length to classify the beauty of outdoor life 
into the following orders:—the sublime, the pictur¬ 
esque and the beautiful. He goes on to prove that it 
is almost beyond human achievement to create the 
sublime under any conditions, as the Master hand 
alone can produce it. This is such a self-evident 
truth that we need not enter upon it further in 
this article on small suburban properties. The pic¬ 
turesque may only be 
obtained in its high¬ 
est degree on properties 
that have some extent, 
that are extremely broken 
in contour, and natu¬ 
rally rugged. One would 
hardly find these three 
qualities on properties 
such as we are con¬ 
sidering, and if we did, 
few people would care to 
live surrounded by that 
wild state necessary to 
the absolute picturesque. 
The dividing line be¬ 
tween the picturesque 
and the beautiful is so 
fine that we may say that 
these two orders flow into 
each other, intermingling 
in such a way that it is 
impossible to separate 
them — yet between the 
two extremes of these 
orders, there is such a 
marked difference that we 
must recognize both. 
While few would care to be always surrounded by 
only the picturesque, a touch of this order is often 
extremely stimulating; so we can, at least, combine 
the picturesque and the beautiful in such a way that 
small views that have some of the qualities of each may 
be obtained on different parts of our small property. 
Certainly the beauty with which it is most desirable 
to surround a home is that which will live in the 
hearts of the family in after years; that quiet, digni¬ 
fied repose and feeling of mystery which are seldom 
found on small properties, except in a few extremely 
old places, where the gardeners confined themselves 
to formal work. 
As a means of comparison, let us consider the treat¬ 
ment of some large properties which has been pro¬ 
ductive of especially good results. Here the house 
and stable are usually placed some distance from 
the highway, and a feeling of privacy is acquired 
by mere distance. The driveways approach through 
well-kept lawns or meadows made doubly attractive 
by beautiful plant life. Every turn in the road means 
a new view, and many varied pictures of interest 
delight the eye before the house and gardens are 
reached. In many cases 
the estate has a park-like 
effect and, on account of 
the extent of the grounds, 
one feels free from intru¬ 
sion—beyond the multi¬ 
tude—and when one goes 
into the country or sub¬ 
urbs, is this not what is 
■w^anted ? To be beyond 
the dust and the grime 
and the noise and the 
w o r r y t h a t h a v e h e e n 
with us all day 
On these large estates 
we find a kind of heautv 
that is altogether out of 
the reach of the holder 
of a property of three or 
four acres, although very 
often one sees small places 
laid out on these princi¬ 
ples. If property holders 
in one locality would 
combine with the idea of 
treating the picture as a 
whole, this method would 
undoubtedly be excellent, 
d'hen the highway would be a part of the general 
scheme, and a park-like effect might he obtained; 
but I fear that day must be relegated to the far 
distant future. At present, these places are parks in 
miniature. The boundary hedging is about knee 
high; masses of shrubs are placed in the corners and 
along the boundaries; a few more at the house; a 
tree or two on the lawn; a spot of formal gardening, 
and the place is complete. I have the greatest sympa¬ 
thy for the owner, where he has shown that an effort 
has been made to create a pleasing effect with such 
poor results. 
Let us now see what can be done to produce 
THE BOX-HEDGED AND FRUEI'-LINED WALK 
