THE easiest way to work out a composition is to make a plant ing plan on paper. To many people this seems so onerous that, to avoid it, they make all sorts of excuses-their garden is so simple it doesn't need a plan; they can visualize better with the plants right there; they can carry the scheme in their heads as they go along; a planting plan results in too "set" effects, and so on. If experience in garden designing proves anything, it proves that none of these excuses is valid. Even a very simple planting is best studied first on paper. Having the plants right there is more likely to confuse than to clarify, and it is impossible to carry in your head a complicated planting scheme for a whole border. There are too many things that must be thought of. All at once you must take ac count of habit of growth, ultimate height, foliage color and texture, color of blossoms, and time of bloom. Then there are questions of soil preference, hardiness, and whether a plant wants full sun, partial shade, or will thrive in deeper shadow.

There are just too many angles to the problem. Furthermore, a planting plan offers an easy way to estimate quantities and, as time goes on, it is an essential reference as to what was planted before.

Drawing the Plan

On your plan, indicate first the existing features-the house and garage, the walks, driveway, walls, fences, and any other structures, and draw these to scale. Locate also any trees and shrub masses that are to remain, or outcrops of rocks, in fact anything that is a governing factor. If you al ready have a general plan showing the approximate location of plants and the pattern of the garden, use a tracing of the garden section as the basis for your planting plan.

The basic design may call for specimens at various points, enclosure for a lawn or garden, or the framing of a view. Screen plantings may be required; garden pictures may need backgrounds. Certain areas may have to be filled with plants to provide color, while at other points a mere line of separa tion or demarcation of green foliage may be needed.

While you are determining where your planting areas will be, and how much space they are to occupy, you will also be conducting a secondary operation. You will be thinking (but still in general terms), of what sort of plants will go in each area. You will still not be concerned with specific varieties, but will decide generally that trees, or shrubs, or herbaceous plants are to go in here or there. You will indicate this on your plan, or perhaps carry this part of the scheme in your head for the present.