20 
House & Garden 
Two gardens are devel¬ 
oped on this irregular 
property—a forecourt 
and a formal garden* in 
the rear 
that it is French, since the 
French are a people who 
mentally and spiritually are 
constantly in costume. 
Whether it is the small gar¬ 
den of today or the classic 
examples of the past, the 
French is a fastidious gar¬ 
den laid out with a fine 
economy of space and a rare appreciation of 
vistas. It is, in short, an elegant extension of 
their homes. 
The strange ideas of democracy that we har¬ 
bor in America do not as yet permit us to en¬ 
close our gardens. We rather enjoy gardening 
in coram populo. We make our gardens for 
the passer-by as well as for our own enjoy¬ 
ment. The French, on the other hand, make 
their gardens for the owner.and such friends 
as he may invite to inspect that garden. He 
encloses it with a clipped hedge or a wall that 
gives it a definite boundary and sets it apart 
from the surrounding world. 
Once a garden is enclosed, the problem of 
its design becomes a serious study in the values 
of space. Spendthrift American notions are 
doubtless responsible for our disregard of 
space. The French have set themselves a limit 
and make the most of it. In accomplishing 
this perfection their gardens are a logical de¬ 
velopment of the architecture of their houses. 
Each window has its definite, studied view. 
A seat or pergola stands at the end of that 
view not because it affords a place where one 
may sit but because it terminates the view. 
Although some of the subtlest blending of 
flower colors have been created by the French, 
the popular taste is for flowers bold in tone. 
Those delicate shades we know as pastel do 
not find as much favor among average French 
gardeners as they do in America. The funda¬ 
mental beauty of their gardens lies in the de¬ 
sign; the mere form of it is beautiful in itself 
—beautiful in its paved walks, its arbors, its 
enclosing wall or hedges. The space reserved 
for colorful flowers is a minor part of the gen¬ 
eral layout. Color is concentrated in small 
areas. Consequently strong color is used. It 
is not unusual to find scarlet salvia and purple 
ageratum massed side by side in French gar¬ 
dens—a combination that would throw many 
an otherwise sane American gardener into 
paroxysms of horticultural anguish. 
The three little French gardens illustrated 
here are designs by J. C. N. Forestier who, it 
will be remembered, laid out the famous 
roserie of the Bagatelle and is now in charge 
A formal garden in such 
a small space is wholly 
desirable and possible for 
suburban development in 
America 
of the park system of Paris. 
M. Forestier is eminent in 
his profession. His recent 
volume Jar dins, from which 
these three examples are 
chosen, show creations of 
his in various parts of 
France and Spain. His so¬ 
lution of these three small 
problems offers an excellent opportunity to 
study modern French garden design. They 
contain, moreover, many suggestions that might 
well be adapted in laying out American gar¬ 
dens of this general character. 
The first is a garden obviously for the sub¬ 
urbs, with the house set well back from the 
road, giving it a front yard and assuring a 
certain amount of privacy for the owner. 
Flowers in masses here afford the relief of 
color. 
The main garden lies behind the house. It 
is developed on an axis extending from the 
living-room to a middle point in the rear wall, 
where there is an arbor. This wide central 
alley has two changes in grade, making the 
garden a series of three terraces. On each side 
are wide beds for flowers, with low edgings of 
clipped box. The immediate outlook from the 
windows of the living-room is this mass of 
color, with two rising terraces behind it formed 
of shrubbery. The house terrace terminates 
at one end in a curved bench and at the other 
in a sun dial. Save for a small space in front 
