It is a most elusive thing, this matter of design in the garden, and it is not always the most ardent horticulturist who achieves the best results. He might possess an unsurpassed capacity for producing Dahlias like footballs, he may know all the tricks of bringing to maturity a batch of Spring or Summer flowering annuals that will rival any in the street, but he may entirely miss the bus in making a garden that is restful and refreshing.

What we must realise of course, is that we all have different ideas about how the ground should be covered; I like it covered with low growing shrubs, flowering alpines, mossy rocks, creeping Thymes, paving stones, gritty gravel, or crushed rock in which little plants love to root about, and turf. Bare earth is anathema to me ... except in the vegetable garden, where a well dug patch is a goodly sight indeed.

I like a tree to shade the entrance gate at the hottest time of the day, and more trees to cast shadows across the pathway that leads to the house, and yet more to enframe the house...to separate it from those that may adjoin. There are two more places where trees are essential to my mind; and you have probably subconsciously noticed it too. A house with a background of trees is much more appealing than one whose roof line is unrelieved against the sky, and a garden in which the hard north light is unbroken with trees is much less restful and refreshing. It would then seem that those who like such gardens must give some time and study to those trees which they like, which will thrive in the locality, and which are suitable to the architecture and to the size of their gardens. Having armed yourself with such a list find someone with some arboricultural experience and put before them your intentions. Don't mistake a horticulturist for an arboriculturist, for though the former may be both they can be vastly different. The one studies the effect trees have upon the ground available for growing flowers. That is why if your desire is for trees you must be advised by an arboriculturist, one versed in the culture of trees and their habits, otherwise you will be liable to receive a somewhat distorted opinion which will have a disturbing effect upon your preconceived ideas.

But I like plenty of flowers, you may say. Well then, you cannot very well have trees, and so the design and the atmosphere of your garden is determined.

Whether it is to be a flower or a tree and shrub garden the beginning is much the same. As soon as ever it is possible the whole area is ploughed or turned over with a mattock. This preliminary opening up of the ground is immensely beneficial and should be proceeded with at the first opportunity so that the weather may make the ground friable and sweet long before it is needed for planting. Quite regardless of the design this work is done, for the more the ground is worked the better it will be.

Grading opportunities are the next consideration. Even on the smallest block the contour of the ground is extremely important. The flattest piece of ground can be made quite interesting by some alteration to the existing surface levels, and much more may be made of sloping or undulating ground than is achieved by the too frequent grading to a perfect plane, which leaves the ground unsuitable to both formal and informal design. There may be a bump on your piece of land that an experienced garden designer would view with delight so don't let some hearty fellow come along and smooth it all out for you. On one occasion I was called in to submit a design for a garden which sloped very steeply at the back. I came home and got to work immediately on the plan of an exciting little stairway which was to be the chief feature in the design. A few days later I dropped in with plan under arm and looked through the window onto a depressing sight. Vast quantities of filling had been dumped to fill up the depression. Gone was my stairway; gone was the sheltered little valley to which it would have led; gone was that rich top soil now buried beneath six feet of clay. My heart sagged for what hope had we now of making a garden that would be very different from all the other gardens about. And so you see how important it is to take advantage of anything that is unusual about the site and to guard it against any interference.

When alterations must be made to the natural contour, and it quite frequently happens, the entire depth of the top soil must first be stripped from the area to be raised or lowered. When the building up or the lowering of the subsoil has been completed the top soil is spread over the newly formed grade again. The same practice is adopted when clay is dumped otherwise you will have nothing to cover the bank with. Buying in soil is not only much more costly than stripping off what already exists, but it may bring in undesirable weeds and may be much less fertile, than the soil that is natural to the site.

Soft sweeping lines are essential to any raised mounds, for any suspicion that they are artificial would have the most detrimental effect upon the garden. These mounds may be used with great effect in helping to screen some other part of the garden so that the whole is not seen at one glance. Low stone walls, pergolas and colonnades will also lift the flatness and effect the necessary breaks on a level piece of ground.

The breadth between and the height of the pillars of a pergola is a matter which sometimes exercises the mind of some garden builders. A low and broad appearance is always more pleasing than anything that is tall and narrow. The dimensions depend upon the size of the garden but a good average height is seven feet three inches to seven feet six with a width of at least nine feet between the posts across the path. The distance between the posts running with the pathway is dependant upon the size of the beam that will carry the cross pieces. A span of nine or ten feet would require a beam at least eight inches by two.

There are very few situations where old worn slate paving is not appropriate for the garden pathways, but the observance of certain details is essential otherwise even with this delightful medium the pathways may be a failure. For instance to edge such a pathway with a row of rocks or with a wooden plinth will ruin the whole effect. You just have to put up with the earth spilling onto the paving until the creeping thymes, the prostrate Rosemary, the Lithospernums, and the tiny Dianthus have taken charge of the situation. Yes it takes a little time, but all gardening is a question of patience, and it's always worth it.

An enthralling little path may be made with crushed rock or some other gritty substance such as coarse sand, where an occasional rock crops up at the edge of the pathway with some rock plant nestling comfortably alongside it. The creeping plants at the side of such a path create their own line, a line more charming and elusive than any a human could devise, so leave well alone when these little fellows wander into the path and just keep them weed free.

Most emphatically would I warn you not to sow lawn seed amongst the paving stones, except of course when they are stepping stones in the grass. The ridges of grass become so lumpy that the stones soon form some little pools and you eventually find yourself with the irritating task of eliminating the grass.

I wonder who it was who said, "In a world of beautiful thoughts Fancy and Design roam undivided," so often I think of that in connection with garden design. Certainly one should give some fancy full play. One should shut out all the conventional ideas that march up and down every suburban street.