There is nothing wrong with a simple garden pattern. Some of the largest and most noteworthy gardens are extremely simple in basic design. A complicated pattern does not achieve anything that a simple pattern cannot produce. On the other hand, a complicated pattern usually results in tightness of design, bad in most situations. Many narrow paths and small, odd-shaped beds clutter up the garden and reduce the plant ing areas so that it is difficult to make good plant compositions in them. This fault is particularly common in so-called mod ern designs. Odd- and unnamable-shaped planting spaces en closed by squares or circles are hard to plant well.

Furthermore it is a fact that the human eye cannot take in completely a complicated pattern. When it is baffled at first, it generally refuses to try further, but is content to focus on something fairly obvious. The broad, open pattern is an im mediate delight to the observer. Why then should a designer go to the trouble of creating a complicated picture, especially since it will entail a tremendous amount of labor and expense in upkeep?

This question of upkeep should always be in mind when you are creating a garden. If it were, more beginners would have smaller, simpler gardens. The original scheme can al ways be improved, increased in size, or further complicated by beds and paths if later, this is desirable.

Consider also the purpose of the garden. Avoid arbitrary patterns. These lack individuality, are difficult to harmonize with a site, difficult to keep in scale, and generally trouble some to handle.

Most small gardens require rather formal patterns because they are located where they are circumscribed by formal lines-the sides of a house or a property line. An informal scheme needs more room and the absence of restricting straight lines for its fullest development. A small formal pattern, how ever need not be intricate or fussy. A plain, straight-sided, grass panel with a terminal feature and wide flower borders along each side is essentially formal, although it is also ex tremely simple and an ideal pattern for a small garden where effective plant groups are to be the main feature.

Asymmetrical Patterns

Although such a simple garden pattern is the easiest to work out for most situations, there are places where such a scheme is not suitable. Perhaps, the axis cannot be laid out so as approximately to bisect the available area as on a narrow lot. Perhaps one side of the area is much sunnier than the other, and no matter how carefully balanced the planting scheme, one side inevitably grows better. Or perhaps a sym metrical scheme would seem too rigid, or out of keeping with the design of a rambling house.