48 
House & Garden 
The paths can he gravel, crushed stone or cement. They can he 
edged with hrick, as here, or bordered with dwarf nasturtiums 
The center where the axes cross and the paths converge should he 
marked hy a fountain, a quaint Japanese lantern or a gazing glohe 
THE POSSIBILITIES OF A 
SMALL 
FORMAL GARDEN 
Prim Paths and Orderly Beds That Will Make 
a Little Jewel of Blossoms in Any Garden 
I N the very heart of a middle-western city 
there is a small garden hugged close be¬ 
tween a private residence and a tall office 
building. It is sheltered from the street by 
a wall of cream brick, in the center of which 
is a gate of green painted wood, flanked by 
two stiff little Kate Greenaway bay trees in 
blue earthenware pots. The garden itself, 
to him who opens the green painted gate 
and steps within, is as decorous as the 
grounds of a French chateau. 
Every sprig of grass is trimmed to even 
length, every blossom primly placed. There 
are neat plots of green, and flower-beds of 
careful variegation, and geometrical little 
gravel walks. In the center, replacing the 
familiar sun-dial, is a Chinese lantern of 
wrought iron on a stone base. Its yellow 
globe, when lighted, casts over the garden by 
night a warm glow of perpetual moonlight. 
This is a garden to be worked in, rested 
in, always to be enjoyed. It is a hundred 
miles from the city 
street it borders on. 
Even though a 
formal garden meas¬ 
ures only 50' X 70' 
as this one does, re¬ 
sults are not to be 
had without careful 
thought. Indeed, the 
smaller the garden, 
t h e more carefully 
one must plan. A 
single plant of jar¬ 
ring color will spoil 
everything. 
As TO Color 
Harmony 
Another point is 
that in the small 
garden the color of 
the house and other 
buildings m u s t be 
considered in your 
garden color scheme. 
Possibly the day has 
passed when magen¬ 
ta phlox and petu¬ 
nias are planted in a 
garden w i t h a red 
brick house for 
ELISE MORRIS and 
MARGARET WINSTON CALDWELL 
background, but almost as great offences to 
good taste are still perpetrated by the incon¬ 
siderate gardener who plants without think¬ 
ing of his colors. A crude color like ma¬ 
genta is ruinous to the beauty of a garden. 
Particularly for the small garden, soft 
colors are most satisfying, though a brilliant 
splash of color may occasionally be dared so 
long as it blends into the whole. 
One woman who owns a very perfect 
small formal garden has chosen blue, white 
and pink as the color scheme of her garden 
and adheres to it rigidly the season through. 
At one time last summer her garden was a 
mass of blue and white delphiniums, white 
Japanese iris and pink roses, as exquisite as 
a bit of Dresden china. 
The owner of this garden has system¬ 
atized her work (she is her own gardener) 
by planting her seeds or roots in a plot of 
ground separate from the formal garden, 
and transplanting as the flowers mature and 
the last set cease to bloom. By this method 
she can select the most promising plants for 
the garden scheme itself. 
Another small formal garden consists of 
a narrow strip, possibly 25' x 70', of ground 
that lies between a vineyard and the vege¬ 
table garden of a country place in the South. 
The color scheme here is unusual. The 
owner has chosen vivid reds and yellows on' 
the theory that these colors are needed to 
offset the dull greens of the domestic onion 
and turnip tops and the grey greens of the 
grape vines. From the red and yellow 
tulips, the Dutch hyacinths and the gold jon¬ 
quils of early spring to the shaggy yellow 
and red button chrysanthemums of late fall, 
the garden is rich with vivid color. It is 
laid out in stiff little circles and fancy 
shaped beds, but the outline is softened by 
the use of dwarf 
nasturtiums. 
Planning the 
Garden 
Before you select 
any form in which to 
plant your small 
garden take into 
consideration the 
architecture of your 
house. A beautiful 
house may be 
marred by its set¬ 
ting, just as a beauti¬ 
ful picture can be in¬ 
jured by its frame. 
If the planting of 
your garden is out 
of harmony with the 
lines of the build¬ 
ings, it will disfigure 
rather than beautify 
your place. 
Of the three styles 
of gardens more fre¬ 
quently use d—the 
geometrical or Ital¬ 
ian garden, the Eng¬ 
lish or natural, and 
the picturesque gar- 
The plan here is practically for a suburban place where the land is limited, for this 
garden can he planted in a plot 70' x 100' or in even less space 
