38 
House & Garden 
MAKING SMALL GARDENS IN TOWN 
By Jjsing a I ormal Treatment the Back Yard Can Be 
Transformed Into a Delightful Spot 
E. T. DIXON 
A tiny pool for goldfish, with rock 
plants growing in the crevices of its rim, 
gives charm to this city garden. The 
decorative screen adds the desired privacy 
to create an effect of space that is unwar¬ 
ranted by the hard facts of the case. 
To lower the walls, the best and most 
obvious plan is to raise the beds, an eleva¬ 
tion of a foot or so making all the dif¬ 
ference in the world. The edges of the bed 
should be supported by a dry wall of brick 
or stones, which, if small plants are grown 
in the earth-filled crevices, can be made 
ornamental as well as useful. 
A trellis on the top of the walls, rising 
above the level of the eye, will serve as an 
effective screen to one’s neighbors’ bricks 
and mortar. Also, by making the boundary 
line less hard and definite, it will help to 
create the illusion of spaciousness. This 
effect is also assisted by covering the walls 
with ivy, which, however, needs careful 
tending in the early spring, or by masking 
them with a privet hedge, while corners may 
be softened by filling them with flowering 
shrubs. 
The trellis may be compared with the 
“flies” of stage-craft; it enhances the length 
of the garden by means of lined openings. 
Often the front yard affords a bit of 
space for gardening. Here a dry wall 
can hold narrow flower beds about a 
flagged walk and little garden figure 
T HE tiny rectangle of ground which is 
usually all that is allotted to a city 
house by way of garden is too often allowed 
to degenerate into a mere back yard, with a 
dingy grass plot, and, perhaps, two or three 
smoke-grimed ailanthus trees for its only 
decoration. And yet while its limitations 
must, of course, be recognized, within them 
quite charming results are possible. 
The city gardener should not try to imi¬ 
tate the methods of his country cousin with 
acres at his disposal. Landscape gardening 
is not possible in town, and he who aims at 
the unconventional will only achieve un¬ 
tidiness. The form and surroundings of the 
garden, being artificial and conventional, 
demand a corresponding treatment. 
City gardening has close analogies with 
the scenic art of the theatre, which is an art 
not only of presentation, but of concealment 
and illusion. High boundary walls in most 
cases have to be masked, the weight of sur¬ 
rounding buildings to be mitigated, and 
while square feet cannot be transformed into 
acres, much may be done by a cunning hand 
