For Laying Out the Beds
Use a long pole with a sharp stake passed through a hole at one end and fastened with a nail driven through it horizontally, so that it can turn easily, with a number of holes for pegs at the required distances—six, eight and one-half, twelve and one-half, fifteen and nineteen feet. Drive the movable stake firmly into the ground, and do not remove until the work is finished. Slip the sharp marking peg into the hole, which it should fit closely, and mark out the circles. For the half circles, or crescents, a nine-foot stick laid straight across the edge of fourth circle will give an approximate fifth, the loss in the curve about equalling the fractional loss caused by multiplying by three alone. Drive a peg with a stick or string attached into the path a foot inside the third line and mark the circles on it; mark the paths by lengthening the stick or string two and a half feet and drawing sections of circles on each side of the half circles from the fourth to the fifth circles. Now bring the end of the long pole to the left corner of half circle and mark the radiating lines and half lines to the centre, and mark off the first row of beds as you did on paper. In this way almost any form of flowerbed may be laid out. The following diagrams for foliage-beds on the lawn will be helpful.