Nothing is more delightful than to pass along the borders of a garden, finding something new and unexpected every few yards. The garden may be divided up into separate compartments, each to come into full view only when you enter it.

Passing between well-filled borders, we may thread a wall water fountain clustered with flowering climbers, to reach an old-fashioned garden which, in turn, leads to a shady grass plot, or, by another flower-flanked path, to the vegetable garden. Each section of the garden is complete in itself, yet wedded to its neighbor, each a separate factor in the complete picture, and all united in a consistent and harmonious whole.

The task of a garden designer does not stop at this point because there are other factors to consider. It is essential that the overall picture should not be merely a group of closed-in compartments. The design must contrive a series of vistas, which, while giving pleasant peeps from certain points, convey a sense of space. In other words, the treatment must include that artistic quality known as "breadth." This can be attained in part by the opening up of vistas, and in part by simplicity of character in the principal details of the design.

One frequently hears the term "a natural garden." A natural garden within the limits of four square boundary walls, in the sense of a garden which shall deceive the spectator into believing that he/she is looking at a piece of pure nature, is unattainable. Nor is it desirable that we should strive to make such a garden. Yet nature cannot be left out of the question. The gardener provides a garden for the home and the occupant and there his work ends. The rest of the work must rely upon the hand of Mother Nature to fill in the outlines, which she can do far better than any human hand.

It should ever be remembered that the highest art is that which conceals art. The effects which we create in our gardens, therefore, must be so contrived as not to reveal too patently the means by which they are produced. By the observance of this principle we get the nearest approach to a natural garden, inasmuch as the examples of nature's work then impress us more strikingly than the work of the garden designer — and this is as it should be.

A further quality which it is important to introduce into the garden is that of repose. Repose is closely correlated with breadth of treatment, but it also involves a proper proportioning of the main elements of the design, the borders, grass, and walks.

With regard to the walks in a garden, it is only necessary to see that they exist for a definite purpose (not merely because the designer thinks they help the outlines on his paper plan) and that they do not sprawl aimlessly about the plot, cutting it up into awkward shapes Grass, more than any other feature, helps to secure a feeling of repose. As far as possible it should exist in a single stretch, or at least it should not consist of a number of scattered pieces.

Apart from questions of tennis and croquet, grass in a garden provides a valuable background to the flowers; a place where the feet may escape the "crunch" of gravel, and one may find perhaps a corner bathed in shadow, from which to look out upon one aspect of the garden picture, or to enjoy one's thoughts or thoughts of another between the covers of a book.