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Planning Your Garden
It is not unusual for house builders to defer consideration of the garden until the architect and builder have completed their work. The garden designer is then called in, and has to make the best of those spaces which are left to him. A wiser course is to bring architect and garden designer together in the first instance, so that they may exchange notes, and each work out his plan in accordance with such decisions as they may mutually agree upon. Such a course is eminently to the advantage of the owner of the site, who thereby secures a consistent design for house and garden. A thorough understanding between the two craftsmen lightens the task of both, and precludes an incongruous result.
A further point is the question of outlay to be made on the garden. This is usually assumed to be so small an item in the total outlay that it is left out of consideration altogether. The result is that the house builder discovers that the expense of building, with the inevitable "extras," has mounted up to such a sum that he must perforce economize on the garden. Then it is that, with mistaken views as to the economy of the transaction, he calls in the help of a local nurseryman to "lay out" his garden, and in the long run pays a larger bill than he would have incurred had he secured the services of a competent designer, at the same time securing an indifferent result. The nurseryman who works out his own plan, charges what he likes, whereas, if a properly prepared plan is available, the house owner may obtain competitive prices from two or more nurserymen, and make a contract for the work on the best terms.
The cost of a good design is a trifling sum on the total outlay, and it invariably justifies itself. A fair allotment of money to the garden at the beginning is ten per cent of the total.
The Garden Picture
THE design of a garden should take its general character from the local conditions and environment. In the first instance, it must be adapted to the special requirements of the gardener. If he is his own designer, he will, of course, always have these requirements in mind; if another makes the design, the gardener cannot be too clear in specifying his exact requirements.
The natural conditions of the ground must be well studied. The contours, slope, and aspect of the plot are the first factors to be considered, and these will offer the first suggestions for its treatment. The shape of its boundaries will be important, and equally so the position and shape of the house.
