June, i 9 i 6 
21 
water utilization from which you ma} 
select: the pool, the pond, the foun 
tain, the rivulet and the bog garden. 
The Pool and the Rivulet 
The pool is the most widely used, 
and the simplest to conceive and con 
struct. If your flower garden hap¬ 
pens to be a formal one, the pool is 
the logical thing to use. In this case 
the greatest nicety of judgment must 
be employed to get the pool in correct 
proportion to the rest of the garden. 
Not only the diameter of the 
but the proportions of the edging or 
coping to the pool should be perfectly 
pleasing to the eye. This is a matter 
of taste and suggestions cannot be 
reduced to feet and inches. Person¬ 
ally, for a small formal pool, I pre¬ 
fer one that is absolutely round, with 
a severely plain, slightly elevated edge. 
Over this, at one or two points, there 
may be a tracery of ivy, or some other 
running plant. The pool itself, if very 
small, should be left clear. Water 
lilies or other aquatics in such a small 
space look about as appropriate as 
would a Russian sunflower in a vase 
on the dinner table. But a few nsn 
and a suitable number of sub-aquatic 
plants are in keeping. Incidentally, 
the combination of both fish and plants 
helps to keep the water sweet, and the 
fish keep down mosquitoes. 
The pond, or larger pool, may be of any 
shape so long as it is in keeping with the 
garden or grounds. An irregular shaped, 
naturalistic pool looks out of place in a 
formal or semi-formal garden, and vice 
versa. For the most artistic effect a variety 
of plants, rather than water lilies alone, 
should be used. A very common error in 
arranging the pond or 
large pool is to have 
the plants scattered 
over the entire sur¬ 
face. The old rule 
for lawn planting also 
applies here: keep an 
open center. If the 
pond or pool is in the 
center of the grounds, 
the outside planting 
around the edges 
should be low, with 
frequent open places 
to reveal the coping. 
The pool is often 
placed in the center 
of the grounds when 
a much better effect 
could have been ob¬ 
tained by a situation 
at the back or to one 
side, and by making 
it long and narrow 
with an irregular 
foreline and a suit¬ 
able massed back- 
ground including 
some weeping or 
semi - weeping moist¬ 
ure loving shrubs and 
plants. Such an ar¬ 
rangement gives an 
opportunity for the 
most effective use of 
some of the tall 
grasses and hardy 
bamboos. This type 
It should be “stepped” in such a way 
as to make a succession of little drops 
or falls. If the slope is not steep 
enough for this, the water may enter 
the picture, being screened by appro¬ 
priate planting, with a fall of several 
feet, and then meander off over level 
ground. In either case some still 
places should be arranged, both be¬ 
cause of their added beauty and be¬ 
cause the majority of aquatics will not 
do as well in a moving current as in 
water that is nearly motionless. 
But the mechanical features are the 
easiest part of it. A rivulet is about 
the most informal thing imaginable—- 
therein lies its spell! Therefore, both 
the planting and the stonework must 
be handled with the greatest nicety if 
the illusion is going to ring true. 
Here, if anywhere in the whole scale 
of gardening, art must indeed hide 
itself in order to be art. Better a 
hundred times a frankly formal pool 
than an attempt at nature which suc¬ 
ceeds only in looking as if it is trying 
to be natural. 
The bog garden can be made part of 
the informal pool or streamlet, but 
its chief use is where a natural con¬ 
dition of soil gives one the opportunity 
to make a thing of beauty out of what 
might otherwise be an eyesore. Often, 
by a little draining and digging, a combi¬ 
nation bog garden and formal or informal 
pool may be made, and almost always this 
is the preferable thing to do where it does 
not involve too great an expense. 
Some Available Plants 
As to the plants available for use in 
water gardens there is not space here to 
go into detailed descriptions of varieties. 
The most important 
group, of course, is 
the water lilies. These 
include four different 
types, suitable for va¬ 
rious purposes, with 
characteristics which 
the wise gardener 
should fix in mind be¬ 
fore ordering. There 
are the Nelumbiums, 
with very large bluish 
green leaves almost 
circular in form and 
held above the water, 
and with flowers pro¬ 
portionately gigantic 
in size but somewhat 
stiff. They grow 
easily and will thrive 
even with tub culture, 
but are so large as to 
look very much out 
of place in a small 
pool or pond. They 
do best with 2' or so 
of soil and not much 
over 6" of water. The 
hardy Nymphaeas are 
like our native white 
water lily (Nymphoea 
odorata ), but there 
are some wonderful 
new hybrid varieties, 
and several pleasing 
shades of color, in¬ 
cluding light pink, 
( Cont. on page 54) 
The site of the pool should be excavated to a 
depth of T or 3'. Concrete makes a good lining 
if a fairly rich mixture is used 
of development is particularly useful where 
it is desired to accent the effect of roomi¬ 
ness, as the background, while cutting off 
the vision at the boundary line, leaves the 
effect of an indefinite amount of growth 
beyond it. 
Where there are sloping ground and an 
adequate water supply, it is not a difficult 
matter to handle the water in that most 
attractive of all forms, a running rivulet. 
In its best application, xvater is not a “ feature ” but rather the final touch to a picture of 
balanced blending and perfect naturalness. Of course, careful handling of the brook is 
essential to an effect like this 
