To accompany the plan make a list of plant names and assign a key number to each. Of course when you actually get to planting, you will not separate varieties as definitely as on the plan. You will blend and intermingle them to avoid abrupt changes. To show this process on the plan is unnecessarily complicated and not worth the trouble.

In the case of all but herbaceous plantings, indicate a size for use in ordering. If the planting plan is large enough, the names of plants can be lettered on it instead of key numbers. This saves having two papers to handle in the garden. Sometimes it is also possible to letter the planting list with key numbers on the plan.

Working by Scale

We make planting plans for large areas at the scale of 20' to 1"; for suburban properties 8' to 1"; and for flower gar dens and intimate plantings 4' to 1". These scales permit the problem to appear in sufficient detail, but do not make the plan so large that it is unwieldy.

At 20' to 1", a 10-acre property would appear about 24 by 48 inches; at 8' to 1", a suburban property 100 by 150 feet would be about 10 by 15 inches, and at 4' to 1*, a flower gar den 50 by 100 feet would be 10 by 20 inches. Such compact plans are cheap to have blueprinted and easy to handle. Yet they are large enough to show all necessary details of plant arrangement. Any plan larger than 2 by 4 feet is hard to man age out of doors. Beginners tend to make plans too large, and try to incorporate too much detail in them.

If small plans are used, there is no room to indicate details, and the whole design benefits by being" more broadly con ceived. We indicate varieties by the key-number system in stead of lettering the names in full on the plan itself. Most plans have to be made unnecessarily large if there is to be room in the small planting areas for all the plant names. Still you may consider it an advantage to have a single sheet with all the necessary information on it.

Plant Sizes and Spacing

Professional designers make a habit of using certain plant sizes for certain kinds of work, having found these to be large enough to give a reasonably quick effect and yet not so large as to be too expensive. Sizes must vary, for to compose well into groups, plants should not all be the same size. Usually plants for immediate effect, or for those parts of the design nearest the house, are purchased in larger sizes than those for locations farther away where it is less important if it takes several years for them to become effective.