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THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
‘OcroseEr 2, 1905 
4. 
Planning, Forming, 
z AND 
Maintaining Small Gardens. 
BY C. BOGUE-LUFFMANN. 
In the economy of nature there are no fallows. 
JIN See all Australian work falls under 
the title of villa gardening, since archi- 
tectural features are rare in the domain. 
We are not really engaged in encouraging 
horticulture or gardening for the pure love of 
doing so, ‘We want neat, attractive and satisfy- 
ing home surroundings at the least expenditure 
of personal energy and capital. This confines us 
to purely domestic gardening, and what follows 
on this subject comes as near to what we may 
and ought to do as can be conceived. 
Small gardens vary greatly in design and 
requirements, according as they surround villas, 
cottages, or country homesteads. 
Tt must ever be accounted wrong to lay out 
in a stiff and formal style land which surrounds 
small houses, or such as are destitute of archi- 
~ tectural beauty. . 
The money and labor available; the size, 
shape and position ; the form of house, nature 
of surroundings; and the owner’s special wants 
in the form of fruits, vegetables and flowers, 
will determine the plan. Design the garden asa 
whole, be it never so small: it will then be 
possible to keep it strong and beautfull in every 
part at all seasons of the year. 
The garden must be clean, orderly, and 
beautiful. Where these features are wanting, 
we know that the plan is wrong, or that the 
-absence of any plan and solid foundation work 
“proyiaes the disorder. a 
‘as so many imagine, assigned to houses in order 
to add to the troubles and responsibilities of 
The garden area is not, 
their inmates, but to increase their means, 
knowledge, health and happiness. : 
The true gardener considers ths house and 
its occupants. 
and cultivating flowers never so well may leave 
the garden a stupid and unsightly thing. The 
most difficult task is set the small gardener 
where the house is a kind of square barn with 
windows in it, placed on perfectly flat land, and 
destitute of any” background or foreground 
worthy the name. B Iria 
‘the undulating character of the city and 
suburban sites provides for very effective 
gardening on a small scale; but in many ~ 
Be country places the task becomes extremely diffi- 
cult unless plenty of trees are at command. 
The universal want is more true soil. To its 
scarcity is due the rapid decline of most plants 
and the wasted and blighted character of the 
garden during summer. Thorefore we should 
plan and strive most of all to obtain an abund- 
ance of soil. 
preparing material. Should the soil be rich and 
abundant, the principal outlay will be in the 
direction of draining and sweetening, and in 
creating a fine surface form. | aes 
For a guiding principle, make no shapes or 
lines which are not more or less common in 
nature, for where streets, buildings, and the 
 ding-dong of city life provide so much that is 
artificial and discomforting, we should find in’ 
our gardens a short cut back to nature and rest. 
Architects and builders often put entrance 
: gates in wholly unsuitable positions from a gar- 
dening point of view, and, as there is no law to 
revent one moving his gate, he may sometimes 
oe so with very fine results. For example, if a 
oo small square piece of land fronts a house, a path 
“All else is vanity, since loving 
It is well to spend about ninety~ 
_ per cent. of the-money available in getting and 
-roundings. 
running through its centre makes two insigni- 
cant and monotonous little patches. Privacy is 
lost, and trumpery borders and cockney de- 
vices become excusable. But if the small garden 
is lumped there is room for variety, and far less 
expense is involved in both making and main- 
tenance. There is little meaning and less beauty 
in the average garden path. It runs where no 
one need walk. It wastes space, and wearies 
the eye with its hard monotony. It picks up the 
sun’s heat, and thereby dries out the adjacent 
soil. It is,in short, a stupid, blighting thing, 
and, considering that it is a creation of man’s, it 
says little for his common sense in local garden- 
ing. 
Now it must be repeated that we never desire 
to dwarf a garden area: hence the small garden 
~ must be a correctly balanced piece of-work. ‘The 
entrance gate shonld be as far away from main 
door as ‘possible, so as to provide for solid and 
varied features between these important points. 
Paths are needed only to reach various doors, 
gates and detached buildings. By way of confin- ~ 
ing them to their proper limits, it may be stated 
that the extent of paths in a small garden should 
not exceed its length and breadth. 
The number and courses of the paths decide 
_the plan of the small garden. The proportion of 
the surface covered with turf, shrubs and beds 
or borders of flowers will be governed chiefly by 
aspect and the quality of the soil. With rich, 
deep soil it will be possible to have more 
strength and variety than where the surface 
material is thin and the aspect hot and exposed. 
Weakness in the soil must always weaken 
the plan, whereas none but a strong and liberal 
little scene will be sufficient. 
Similar to large gardens, all the rough native 
material has to be graded and balanced between 
the various points, so that easy and graceful 
levels are produced. Adjacent houses, the sur- 
rounding walls or fences, or neighboring trees, 
may overawe and afford protection to or in some 
measure affect the quality of part of the small 
garden, so that it may be most appropriately 
used for a shady section, or for the growing of 
a group of plants, which will thrive in a dark and 
dank soil. — 
On the other hand, there may be a quarter 
containing clay or rock running near the sur- 
face and no means to cover with god soil, and 
at the same time preserve good form. Under 
such conditions, rocks or stumps may be used, 
but as a rule only where a solid background 
exists, since rocks look painfully weak and un- 
natural where they form cones or heaps amidst 
turf or artificially formed beds. Forsupports to 
house foundations or walls, masses at the 
approach to steps, or any pronounced alteration 
~ of level, rocks and roots may be used with 
lasting effect. 
' Water is too scarce or expensive to be much 
employed in small gardens: but it is possible to 
create tiny pools—the merest basins, of two or 
three feet in diameter—by digging small holes 
and puddling their sides with clay. The main 
point is to have water only where it will har- 
monise with and be of real service to its sur- 
Water requires to bein the shady 
quarter, where a broken light and variation in 
the levels will produce a natural looking posi- 
‘tion for something resembliug a little pool or 
stream. Quite frequently the ordinary surface 
drainage may be conducted to a point by a wind- 
ing course which can throughout its length be 
clothed with more or less aquatic vegetation, 
thus producing’ a’ beautiful little gully or glade, 
-and terminating in the basin, If a seat or arbor 
‘can be placed here the scene will be perfect. 
The defect of summer houses in ordinary is 
their uselessness, since they are placed in such 
defective positions as to make it impossible for 
one to rest and gather refreshment in them. The 
ee ~ ~ ee tert 
summer or garden house, or arbor, or covered 
way, must be so placed and built as to provide 
very pleasant prospects. , 
Sarghum 
Amber Cane Lucerne 
Essex Rape 
Globe and Long Red Mangold 
And Paspalum Seed 
Bone Dust, Bone SuperAmmonia 
Etc. Etc, * 
Shell grit | Oyster shells” 
Bone Meal ... and... Chick Meal 
F. F. Clement, 
SEEDSMAN 
229 RUNDLE STREET EAST 
Telephone 1360 fs 
Tt, J, BIGCHREDS 
CARRIACE, BUCCY 
.. And 
SULKY BUILDER 
Hindmarsh Square, 
... ADELAIDE ... 
And 
West Mitcham. 
Wet Paint 
As Applied by — 
Blanden Bros. 
Painters ands 
Decorators 
Payneham Road, St. Peters, 
Lasts for years. 
: Best Materials. 
= | : 
We Use "| Best Labor 
And guarantee satisfaction, 
Prices Right. — 
