Can you fit the house to this setting? 
How to Plant a Paper Garden 
FROM CUT-OUT SHEETS, PROVIDING EVEN HOLLYHOCKS AND HENS—THE AMA¬ 
TEUR CAN STAGE HIS GARDEN MUCH AS A PLAYWRIGHT STAGES A PLAY 
by Ruth MacFarland Furniss 
4 4 '! S HE apple tree might look better on the other side of 
JL the house.” The landscape specialist surveyed the 
scene spread out before her with narrowed eyes, and finally 
concluded, “Yes; there will be room enough for it if the lilac 
bushes and the rose arbor are moved to the farther end of the 
garden.” 
The casual way in which these radical changes were proposed 
sounded curiously reminiscent of the ancient Pharaohs’ lofty dis¬ 
regard for manual labor which they themselves would not have 
to perform. Especially did it sound incongruous since the con¬ 
versation took place in a little hidden corner of old New York 
where vegetation is confined either to window boxes or to cran¬ 
nies of the flagging where an occasional scrawny ailanthus strug¬ 
gles for a foothold in the grit-sodden soil. Notwithstanding the 
grimness of this unflowered and unflowering spot, the problem 
as the landscape specialist solved it was 
singularly vivid to her client. For the 
scene was a paper scene, the garden she 
had planted was a paper garden ; the apple 
tree, the lilac bushes and the rose arbor 
were all “cut-outs.” Even the house, the 
flowers and shrubs, the tennis court and 
the pool—everything had been reproduced 
on cardboard, and the artist had arranged 
her client’s garden in much the same man¬ 
ner — and as successfully — as did Napo¬ 
leon fight his miniature battles with pha¬ 
lanxes of toy soldiers. 
This ingenious little model for a garden was designed by Miss 
Frances Duncan to supply her need for a simple, and at the same 
time practical, method of explaining by mail her solutions of the 
various garden problems submitted to her. She found that the 
usual flat diagrams were too technical to be readily grasped by 
the average layman. Even expert horticulturists, whose familiar 
language these diagrams are, occasionally find it perplexing to 
visualize plans he himself has not originated. How much more 
of a problem it is for the amateur to associate definite combina¬ 
tions of form and color with the names of flowers and shrubs 
with which he has only the most casual acquaintance! 
But the little working model designed by Miss Duncan is not 
for professionals alone; it enables the amateur to try out dif¬ 
ferent arrangements without any of the inconvenience and exer¬ 
tion of actual transplanting. The difficulty a beginner usually has 
in attempting to remember all four views of 
any plan is also obviated. An accurate im¬ 
pression of form alone is not easy to retain in 
the mind. Color is even more difficult. To 
recall distinctly the combination of both form 
and color without losing the impression of any 
part of the “lay-out,” is to accomplish some¬ 
thing which even an expert finds almost im¬ 
possible. 
To escape this pitfall, conservative begin¬ 
ners in garden planning are all too apt to resort 
to the old and tried shrub and flower arrange¬ 
ments which have been used so perseveringly 
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