A difficult aspect of flower beds and grass plots is getting around the injudicious chopping up of the space. Flower beds are a bit easier to work with, as you can always use patio statuary planters and ground level planters. The shape of the grass plot is determined in a large measure by the other elements of the plan. Yet there are opportunities for the gardener to go astray if he does not realize the principle of establishing the grass plot.

Take, for instance, a garden the boundaries of which converge. The planner may find when he has taken sufficient space for his borders and paths that his grass runs out to a mere wedge. In such event he would do well to take off the acute angle by adding the space either to border or path.

Again, in the making of borders and beds it is surprisingly easy to produce awkward shapes in the grass details, particularly when working with curved lines. A good rule, therefore, is to permit no acute angles, narrow isthmuses, tapering verges, or crescent horns in grass.

In the rectilinear treatment of small gardens these difficulties will hardly arise, but they may do so in cases where the garden plot is a converging one. When the garden is of sufficient size to call for treatment in curves, the shaping of the grass demands more careful consideration, the main object being to avoid anything that will detract from the breadth of effect, of which the items just enumerated are those most likely to beset the inexperienced designer.

The practice of loading the grass with an archipelago of small beds, cutting it up into a fretwork design, is to be condemned for the same reason. The placing of beds on grass calls for restraint and discretion on the part of the gardener.

The artist "feels" where a bed or group of beds could be placed with advantage to the garden picture, because he has an eye trained to proportion. Those who lack such training must first realize their deficiency, and then seek for guidance by studying elementary principles, of which that applying to breadth of effect, is one of the most important.

The accompanying illustration shows the correct way to correlate the bed with the grass when the former has to fill a projecting space. It is certainly better to err on the side of having too few than too many detached beds.

A grass verge, which can include the strips that separate bed from bed in a group should always have parallel sides and a minimum width of eighteen inches. Two feet is better if space permits.

When a garden plot is situated on sloping ground, if the slope is only slight, it is better to let the garden follow it than to attempt leveling, provided that no considerable space is to be reserved for tennis or croquet.

On ground of irregular contours the irregularities may call for modification, or they may be entirely desirable as affording opportunity for variety in the general treatment of the garden, according to the particular views of the garden owner. Whenever the character of the ground is such as to leave certain spaces in the form of hollows, these hollows should be filled in or drained. Otherwise they will become pools of water in wet weather.

As with lines and surfaces, the curves should flow without break, so that you cannot detect where one runs into the other. Grass slopes should be used sparingly because they involve extra labor when mowing and are more apt to suffer in time of drought. When nature dictates slopes, such as in hillside gardens, one should not be steeper than the other. Such a situation will only intensify the disadvantages.

Another point that you must consider when making a grass plot is to make sure that the grass plot is level with relation to the adjacent paths. It is not unusual to find paths that are sunk so much below the grass level that the soil is exposed beneath the turf. This allows soil to break away, or be washed out by the rain to the detriment of the path. It also involves additional work in trimming the edges of the grass.