GARDENING. 



Sept. 



Landscape Gardening. 



flow I MADE MY GftRDEN; SIX YEflRS flOO IT 

 WAS WILD WOODLflND. 



The exoerience of an ama* eur in convert- 

 ing a piece of uncouth virgin ground, as 

 he was ignorant of the first principles of 

 landscape effects, may be of assistance to 

 others who desire to be the designers and 

 creators of their own country seats. 

 Faults there may be, j^et, and criticisms 

 of professionals in order, still the encomi- 

 ums ot visitors show that at least some- 

 thing has been accomplished. The place 

 is six years old in one sense and but three 

 in another, that is, three years were lost 

 by following wrong principles. The na- 

 tive trees were mainly second growth, ris- 

 ing from old stumps left when the wood 

 chopper was monarch of all be surveyed. 

 These were left here and there all overthe 

 ground. 



Of course I must have a rockery, and it 

 must be near the center, so all could see it. 

 So one was built, and my man and myself 

 prided ourselves thatnocastellatedtower 

 was ever built with as much precise sym- 

 metry, but as I remember it now it seems 

 to have been like a mammoth cheese box, 

 lacking the flavor. When all was done I 

 was very proud of the results, and had 

 "my lawn" photographed. I sent one of 

 thcphotographs to Mr. A. S. Fuller, who 

 had been very kind to me in matters of 

 advice in floricultural matters. Hemildh- 

 and gently wrote back "Take those long 

 legged trees away; they belong to the 

 pasture, not to a small lawn." That 

 was \he first e3'e opener I had. It sud- 

 denly dawned upon me that a tree clothed 

 to the ground with verdure was a beauti- 

 ful object. He said nothing about the 

 cheese box, for he knew I built it with lov- 

 ing care and did not want to hurt my feel- 

 ings. Next fall out came the long legged 

 trees, but the cheese box, the apple of my 

 eye, remained. 



.\ selection ot ornamental trees and 

 shrubs was obtained, and the following 

 spring they were planted here and there 

 and anywhere. Where I saw an open 

 space in went a tree, acting upon the 

 same principle that prompted the Irish- 

 man's advice, "when you see a head hit 

 it." When done it would have made a 

 splendid pattern for an old fashioned bed 

 ((uilt. I had to stay in nights, for I could 

 not walk over the lawn after dark with- 

 out stumbling against a tree or shrub. 

 And my man, after cutting the lawn, 

 couldn't walk straight for a week; dodg- 

 ing some object became instinctive. 



As I looked over mj' place I wondered 

 if the granter gave me all the land the 

 deed called for. I seemed to have -no 

 ground, and what I did have seemed 

 "spotty." Something was wrong; what 

 was it? where could I find out? I wanted 

 to paddle my own canoe, but I was in 

 strange waters, and lost. Then I pur- 

 chased books on the subject, and Garden- 

 ing luckily entered the field, and has ever 

 since been a great factor in guiding my 

 course. I studied examples illustrated, 

 and saw many of my errors. I noticed 

 one main feature in landscape work, viz., 

 open up in the center and mass at the 

 sides. I did so, and I seemed to have 

 twice the sized lawn I did before; in fact 

 the village authorities coincided with me, 

 for they increased my taxes. 



Traveling in California one winter I no- 

 ticed an outcrop of rock on a green hill 

 side, in which some flowering shrubs 

 were growing. 1 thought of uiy cheese 

 ))i)X al home and compared it with na- 



ture's rockery, so out came mine, and a 

 more natural one was built at the head of 

 a side spur of the ravine. 



I had read that one secret of good land- 

 scape work was to create agreeable sur- 

 prises. Don't show all you have at one 

 glance; keep up a constant chain of "Oh, 

 I didn't see that before." Nature had 

 done a great deal for me; she had bordered 

 my place on nearly three sides with a heav- 

 ily wooded ravine, some eighty feet deep. 

 The steep banks were densely clothed 

 with those flowers and shrubs that love 

 the retirement and quiet of an unpeopled 

 woods, and that resent the heavy foot of 

 man. How to preserve them was my first 

 thought. Winding steps were cut in the 

 steep bank and sodded, leading to a walk 

 parallel to the upper edge, and situated 

 about half way down. All occupants of 

 my place are forbidden to go up or down 

 the ravine except when using this walk. 

 Consequently all the nattiral under- 

 growth of flowers and shrubs is preserved , 

 and in a moment one can pass from the 

 cultivated lawn to the wild, natural 

 wooded ravine. This ravine, with its 

 occasional short spurs penetrating the 

 tableland, gives opportunities for sur- 

 prises. Almost hidden beds of ferns 

 planted in masses are suddenly seen when 

 walking along the edge. Rustic bridges 

 crossing the small ravines are sunken 

 rather than raised, so that you almost 

 have to hunt for them. Odd looking 

 thatched summer houses, behind a mass 

 of shrubbery, are not seen until within a 

 few feet of them. All these make what 

 John Thorpe once said to a friend of mine 

 regarding this place, "It is the largest 

 small place I ever saw." 



Mass j'our trees and shrubs at the sides, 

 forming bays and promontories, and if 

 your lawn is small mass heavily at the 

 last promontory in view, so that the eye 

 in following the green lawn cannot see the 

 side margins of the bay beyond (see Colo- 

 rado blue spruce in picture). Your imag- 

 ination will enlarge the actual conditions. 

 Preserve or make a broken sky line. The 

 tall trees seen in the picture to the right 

 materiallv help the sky line. Have your 

 shrubbery belts in undulating lines. 

 Plant hardy perennials among them and 

 in masses, never less than half a dozen 

 plants, unless very large growing. Don't 

 repeat the same flower again where both 

 groups can be seen at once. Try to have 

 each bed or series of beds contain such 

 plants that at some point you will have 

 blooms at all seasons, and be careful that 

 the colors don't quarrel with each other. 

 Study imture, where she pleases you, try 

 to copv her, study the outer fringe of the 

 Wooded Island at the World's Fair, that 

 most admirable piece of landscape work. 

 Study the most excellent plans illustrated 

 in Gardkning and designed by Mr. J. W. 

 Elliott Notice that he does not place the 

 house in the center of the lot and thus cut 

 the lawn in two, but places it at oneside, 

 and in this way gets more expanse of 

 lawn. Notice that he opens in the center 

 and masses at the sides. 



Don't buy large trees from an over- 

 crowded nursery; they are apt to be long 

 legged. Buy small bushy stock; it will 

 grow fast enough under good care, and 

 the pleasure in seeing the plants thrive 

 will prolong your life long enough to ste 

 them mature. Mr. W. R. Smith of the \' . 

 S, liotanical Gardens at Washington 

 raised nearly all the handsome street trees 

 in use there from seed, and he was old 

 enough to vote twice when he started 

 them. Don't buv of the ordinaiv travel- 

 ing tree pe.ldler.'who will plant andguar- 

 antee them to live. He ,nul Geo. Wash- 



on the gorgeous lithographic colored 

 plates he carries. Trust to the actual 

 reproductions from nature that appear in 

 Gardening, and above all don't plant 

 more trees than you will and can take 

 care of. A small place well kept has more 

 charms than a large untidy one. 



Now FOR THE Illustrations.— The 

 house stands on a partial terrace, made 

 neeessarj' on account of the sloping 

 ground, and where the camera stood the 

 surface is some four feet lower than the 

 ground at the base of the porch, thus mak- 

 ing the roof look somewhat "squatty. " 

 The photo is one of a yearly series which 

 Mrs. Egan takes merely to illustrate 

 progress of growth of vine, and is a 

 nearer view than that illustrated in Gar- 

 dening, December 15, 1892. The position 

 of the canna bed had been changed, it be- 

 ing more to one side. The tall tree to the 

 left is a native white oak, one of the few 

 good ones found on the place. Immedi- 

 ately in front of the porch steps, and out- 

 side a walk that runs parallel to the 

 porch are a pair of George Peabody 

 golden arbor-vita:-s. Directly over the 

 canna bed and on the terrace is a P'ums 

 Muglio, dwarf mountain pine. At the 

 corner of the terrace is a splendid speci- 

 men of our native spreading juniper. The 

 vine mainly used on the porch is the 

 Akebia quinata, now five years planted; 

 it is trained on iron rods. At each side of 

 the porch steps is the golden netted hon- 

 eysuckle, while between the pillars vari- 

 ous forms of the large flowered clematis 

 are trained. The view of a portion of the 

 lawn was taken from the interior of the 

 porch, and through the right hand corner 

 arch, as seen in the house picture, and is 

 the first one taken from that position. I 

 imagine that one showing more of the 

 lawn to the left would be more effective. 

 The tall trees seen at the right ate native 

 oaks left for sky line effect. They are near 

 the edge of the ravine. Massed in front 

 of them — to hide a rustic summer house — 

 is a group of Prunus Pissardii, the purple 

 plum. The low shrub at lower right hand 

 comer is the golden hop (Ptelia trifoliata 

 aurea) standing out in the lawn. Infront 

 of the purple plums are some fifty fox- 

 gloves. The border to the first point pro- 

 jecting into the lawn is Sedum spcctabilc, 

 the showv Japanese stone crop. Back of 

 them are perenial phloxes. Then comes 

 in succession a castor oil plant, Eulalin 

 Japonlca stricta, large rhododendron and 

 a Colorado blue spruce, The rear border 

 of the bay beyond is the ravine trees. The 

 ])rominent dark shrub on the lawn is the 

 common red cedar of the woods, but a 

 very handsome specimen. Back of it is 

 the rockery, with a Salix vitellina Bril- 

 y.ensis at its left, and sheared that vines 

 may trail over it. At the extreme left 

 and a little nearer is the new American 

 weeping willow. W. C. Egan. 



As a lesson in landscape gardening we 

 reprint this illustration from Gardening. 

 page 305, June 15, 1893. It is a view of 

 part of the lawn as Mr. Egan first planted 

 it, with its naked stemmed trees retained, 

 and young trees and shrubs dotted all 

 over it. When he sent us the new picture 

 the other day he wrote: "Thisisthelawn 

 about which you asked me 'Why are so 

 many things stuck around upon 3'our 

 lawns?' Where are they now?" They 

 are where they ought to be— banished— 

 and we are sure evervone who looks upon 

 the two i)ictnres will' admit the great im- 

 provement in tlie arraugenienl and ])laiit- 

 ing of to-day over what it w.is th.ee years 



