jor October, 1920 



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A Lesson on Beautifying Home Surroundings 



Being Une of a Series of Lessons of a Home Study Course on Gardening, Appearing Regularly in The Gardeners' Chronicle 



Under the Direction of ARTHUR SMITH 



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In no country in the world during the past fifteen years has 

 there been a greater amount of what is called landscape work 

 carried out than in the United States. As a consequence, land- 

 scape gardeners and others claiming the higher-sounding title of 

 landscape arcliitects. have sprung up like mushrooms, among 

 whom true artists form the minority, with the consequent result 

 of causing the average method of laying out the grounds of 

 country homes to be characterized by more ugliness than beauty. 



In connection with the terms landscape gardener and landscape 

 architect, the terms mean nothing as regards the capabilities of 

 the persons using them, as the work of many calling themselves 

 by the latter term is characterized by a conspicuous want of 

 knowledge concerning tlie elementary principles of true landscape 

 art. When applied to the art of laying out artistic and therefore 

 beautiful gardens we regard the term landscape architect as a 

 misnomer, although it is applicable to, and is more often used 

 by, those whose work is the reverse of artistic because they 

 know nothing about gardening. The term is not out of place 

 when applied to those who make the more prominent features 

 of their plans to consist of concrete, stone, or marble stairways, 

 balustrades, urns, fountains, statues and topiary work ; those who 

 are willing to have these architectural gardens surrounding their 

 homes only show themselves to be possessed of depraved tastes 

 and incapable of appreciating the true beauties of Nature. 



If the word landscape means anything at all it is "the natural 

 aspect of the country or a representation thereof." It can. there- 

 fore, onl\- be correctly used with that phase of gardening which 

 uses plants in such a way as to form an artistic picture within 

 the limits of a garden or of the grounds surrounding a house. 

 In creating this picture the more formal and therefore the more 

 inartistic the style the further will the picture be away from 

 true landscape art. There is no reason why we should not have 

 true art in the garden and no reason why a garden should be 

 inartistic and merely conventional. The word "art" is used here 

 in its highest sense and perhaps as good a definition of the word 

 as any is "power to see and give form to beautiful things." The 

 work of the artist is always marked by its fidelity to Nature. 

 All who see natural beauty in landscape know that no imagining 

 can come near to the beauty of things seen, art being frequently 

 powerless to seize their full beauty, and the landscape painter 

 has often to let the brush fall in despair. Great landscape painters 

 like Turner and Corot have given us pictures from a faithful 

 study of Nature, and that is the only true path for the landscape 

 gardener, all true art being based upon her eternal laws. Any 

 deviation from the truth of Nature, though it may pass for a 

 time, is in the end — it may he years after the artist is dead — 

 classed as debased art, and we may be as true artists in the gar- 

 den and home landscape as anywhere else. 



Much of the crude and inartistic work which one sees about the 

 country, more especially that carried out in recent years, is the 

 outcome of the false idea that landscape gardening can be taught 

 either at college or by other means. Men sometimes take it up 

 in response to statements that they can earn by it while learning 

 it. Nothing which can be learned by means of memorizing rules, 

 formulre, combined with mere manual tlexerity, can be called 

 an art, and those who place landscaping among the things capable 

 of being taught, lower it to the level of mechanical trades, such 

 as plumliing. which can be learned in si.x weeks. The artist in 

 landscape gardening portrays a picture upon the earth by means 

 of living plants : a landscape painter does the same thing upon 

 canvas by means of pigments. If in its real and fullest sense 

 the latter could be taught there could be plenty of landscape 

 painters capable of producing works equal to those of Turner and 

 Corot, and landscape painting would be degraded to the level 

 of a commercial business, a level to which landscape gardening 

 is rapidly lowering itself. 



.A true landscape artist cannot hand down his artistic genius to 

 bis heirs and successors, and yet many firms of landscape archi- 

 tects hold a reputation based entirely upon the names of real 

 landscape artists who have been dead many years, and who, 

 if they could come to life, would be ashamed to have their names 

 connected with much of the work now being done. 



While in its entirety the art of composing artistic pictures 



upon the earth cannot be taught, at the same time there are 

 some underlying principles connected with it which are capable 

 of being set forth which are the same in their application to 

 both large and small gardens, more perhaps along the lines of 

 what not to do than otherwise, and which are additionally val- 

 uable in enabling the layman to have a sympathetic understanding 

 of the artist's work. 



Strangely enough those who make the strongest claims to teach 

 landscape gardening in its fullest sense ignore entirely the most 

 fundamental and necessary principle which the greatest genius in 

 this art must have, namely, a thorough knowledge of everything 

 connected with the living material with which they compose' their 

 pictures. In other words, a man must first be an expert gar- 

 dener before it is possible for him to create a really artistic 

 garden. 



Absolute ignorance of plants is lamentably apparent in many 

 of the planting plans emanating from the offices of many land- 

 scapists. Examples have come before me of shrubs being set down 

 to be planted unifonnly at eighteen inches apart, instead of from 

 three to eight feet, according to their character; trees planted 

 at three feet when twenty or more feet are necssar>- for their 

 growth and development ; plants which require sun, placed in 

 positions where the sun will never reach, and those requiring 

 shade placed in full sun; group plantings having plants of a dwarf 

 nature placed entirely at the back of others of the tallest grow- 

 ing potentialities, and so on. 



When a painter has finished his picture upon canvas it is com- 

 pleted for all time, excepting so far as time may modifv the 

 colors; but when the planting of a garden is finished the pic- 

 ture is very far from being complete, except in the mind's eye 

 of the artist. If the planting has been properly devised and 

 carried out the beauty of the composition will have to be brought 

 out by time and will increase as the individual plants develop. 

 This development requires, among other things, room ; the full 

 beauty of trees can only be obtained wdien their branches can 

 persist down to the ground, and in many cases the spread of the 

 branches will equal the height of the tree: shrubs require suffi- 

 cient room to attain to their fullest beauty of form and to realize 

 all their potentialities in the way of flowers, beauties which are 

 annually destroyed in inany gardens by the system of shearing 

 and bad pruning to which they are subjected. 



It is not only the effect of a composition as a whole when 

 seen from a distace which has to be considered, bul also the 

 beauty of the individual subjects composing it when viewed from 

 their immediate vicinity. Overcrowding plants is a very com- 

 mon source of inartistic eflfccts and is generally caused by in- 

 ability to visualize what a planting will look like in a few years' 

 time. Upon one occasion two people were discussing the ques- 

 tion as to whether a tree was or was not blocking up a vista 

 of distant scenery. A third party who was present.but who did 

 not happen to have much acquaintance with the general subject, 

 was, during the discussion, trying to discover where the tree 

 stood, and was surprised to learn that it was just in front of 

 him and only three feet tall. The others could see in their mind's 

 eye what the tree would be like in years to come and wanted to 

 be sure it was put in the right place to start with. 



In these days it is of course possible to surround a new 

 house w'ith a garden ten, twenty, or more years old by planting 

 trees and shrubs of those ages; but apart from the question of 

 expense in transplanting more or less full grown things, there 

 is with many plant lovers considerable interest and enjoyment 

 to be obtained from watching natural growth and development 

 from small beginnings, 



Hefore laying out a garden, owners should have, in addition 

 to the cost of carrying out the plan, some idea of the annual 

 cost of care and upkeep after the planting is finished. Many 

 well-planted gardens have been ruined and all beamy extinguished 

 because the owner could not afford the necessary expense for 

 proper care. It is much better in every way to do only a little 

 in the way of planting and to give it the re(|uisite care and 

 attention, than the reverse. The result of the former is con- 

 tinual beauty, and of the latter continual ugliness. Any really 

 expert gardener can by looking at a planting plan form a close 



