In the United States, garden design from the late 19th century to the 1930s was often influenced by British landscape style. However, designs from this period also included gardening on a smaller scale, suggesting to homeowners that they, too, could create and maintain their own gardens regardless of size. Elements of formal European gardens were often used as an inspiration for modest gardens in the United States. Shown here are two examples of European gardens on a smaller scale.

The garden manual and a reproduction of two pages show modest garden plans and provide step-by-step pictorial instructions and encouragement to those new to the art.

1. Gardens: A Note-book of Plans and Sketches by J.C.N. Forestier, translated by Helen Morgenthau Fox. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1924.
2. Hausgärten: Skizzen und Entwürfe aus dem Wettbewerb der Woche. Berlin: A. Scherl, 1908.
3. The Art of Home Landscape by M.E. Bottomley. New York, NY: A.T. De La Mare Co., Inc., 1935.