An unusual hillside location for the pool is found on the estate 
of Edwin Stanton George, Esq., at Yonkers, New York 
THE MISSION OF THE WATER GARDEN 
Is to Add the Finishing Touch to a Perfectly Natural Effec t—M a k i n g 
and Planting the Pool, the Fountain, the Rivulet and the Bog Garden 
D. R. EDSON 
T HE home should extend beyond the 
house. At least, a small part of the 
grounds should be so intimately connected 
with the house, should so harmonize with 
it in effect and tone, and should be such a 
tempting spot in which to spend spare hours 
that the sense of indoors and outdoors will 
be to a great extent lost. We in this coun¬ 
try are still too largely obsessed with the 
idea that the garden is an aim and end in 
itself. We have all kinds and varieties of 
gardens. But there are far too many “fad” 
gardens, and all too few old and mellow 
and well seasoned gardens that are a part 
of the home first and gardens afterward. 
Nor is this solely because we have not had 
time. Such a garden effect can be achieved 
in a comparatively short time if the gar¬ 
dener has the right ideals to begin with. 
A Part of the Picture 
I have approached the subject of this 
article indirectly because I wish, if pos¬ 
sible, to keep it in its proper perspective. 
For the garden in which it is good to stroll 
and to loaf, and to meditate not only upon 
cabbages but upon kings and the affairs 
of men as well, and occasionally to sit down 
and read—for such a garden nothing is 
more important than an appropriate “water 
feature.” No part of the garden, as a mat¬ 
ter of fact, should be a “feature,” and least 
of all should be “featured” that part in the 
general effect of beauty which water, when 
artistically handled, will play. On the con¬ 
trary, water should be so used that it will 
add the finishing touch to the creation of 
a perfectly natural effect. It should help 
to make the flower garden conspicuously 
attractive and natural instead of being con¬ 
spicuous in itself. Therefore, above all 
things, in utilizing water to enhance the 
beauty and attractiveness of your garden, 
you should study long and carefully to give 
it its proper place in the garden picture. 
In every garden there is a place for water 
where nothing else can be substituted. It 
possesses a singular and beautiful charm. 
A visitor in any garden will as certainly 
gravitate to the pool or fountain edge, even 
if it is no larger than a wall mirror, as a 
sunflower will face the sun. The smallest 
pool changes the whole aspect of a garden. 
It is a shrine and the birds will come in 
dozens where formerly they came singly. 
They will remain after meals to sing and 
bathe, instead of flying away to some other 
garden. And if you are so fortunate as to 
be able to arrange things so that you can 
have the music of falling water to tinkle 
through your garden, making one perpet¬ 
ually conscious of its presence even when 
it is not within range of the eye, you will 
have gone far toward making a garden in 
which you will like to live as well as 
work. 
Having, then, some idea of the general 
effect you wish to create, how should you 
go about attaining it? What is the best 
kind of a water garden to have? 
Various Types of Water Gardens 
To take the last question first, there is no 
“best.” Several lines of development will 
be open to you, and which of them should 
be selected will depend upon your own taste 
and the exigencies of this particular case— 
the amount of water available, the size of 
the garden and its present construction. So 
before discussing any technical details let 
us consider briefly the various forms of 
