Suggestions for the Planting of Shrubbery. 



I. Some general considerations. 



The trouble with home grounds is not so much that there is 

 too little planting of trees and shrubs, but that this planting is 

 meaningless. Every yard should be a picture. That is, the area 

 should be set off from every other area, and it should have such 

 ^ character that the observer catches its entire effect and pur- 

 pose without stopping to analyze its parts. The yard should be 

 one thing, one area, with every feature contributing its part to 

 one strong homogeneous effect. 



150. — The common or nursery type of planting. 



These remarks will become concrete if the reader turns his eye 

 to Figs. 150 and 151. The former represents the common type 

 of planting of front yards. The bushes and trees are scattered 

 promiscuously over the area. Such a yard has no purpose, no 

 central idea. It shows plainly that the planter had no construc- 

 tive conception, no grasp of any design, and no appreciation of 

 the fundamental elements of the beauty of landscape. Its only 

 merit is the fact that trees and shrubs have been planted; and 

 this, to most minds, comprises the essence and sum of the orna- 



