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Planning Your Garden

The Elements Of The Garden Plan

THERE are three main factors in the garden plan — the beds, the walks, and the grass.

In the evolution of the garden design the beds (in which term I include borders) should receive first consideration. They may well occupy more space than is usually allowed them. The narrow strips of border so often seen skirting the fences of suburban gardens are practically useless for flower culture. A width of six feet is not too much for the principal border, and it should, if possible, be in full sun. If the main path defines its near boundary, another border parallel to it may be made on the other side of the path but narrower, say four feet wide. This disparity in width is designed to secure variety and to eliminate one - sidedness. Two such borders, the wide one planted with shrubs and herbaceous plants, the narrow one with surface growing flowers, become complementary, and offer opportunity for many charming effects, and for the creation of a fine vista. The narrow border would on one side abut on the grass plot, and short transverse extensions of it might be carried into the grass area to break its inner line and to extend the flower space laterally. Such offshoots from a long border become partial screens, helping to secure that quality which I have already referred to as "reticence."

It is by no means necessary that every border should be served by a path. On the contrary, variety of effect is assisted by introducing a border between the grass and the boundary fence, say on the side of the garden opposite to the main walk. These points I shall further elucidate when I come to consider special examples. The main point I wish to emphasize at this stage is that the borders, in which the gardener aims at securing his principal flower display, should be in full sun, and served by the principal path. I also desire to make it clear that these borders must be the dominating factor in the design, for it is not too much to say that they constitute the garden in the truest sense of the word. The path is for utility, the grass for repose, and both must ever be subordinate to the beds and borders. Hence we cannot give too careful thought to the latter.

Just how the further elaboration of the scheme is contrived after the positions of the principal borders have been determined will depend upon circumstances and the fancy of the garden maker. If the garden is of considerable length it may be advisable to divert the path before it has traversed the full extent of the plot. How this may be done without sacrificing the welfare of the flowers, and with best results to the garden picture, will appear hereafter.