Suburban Home Grounds. 75 



Do not cut flower beds in the lawn but use herbaceous per- 

 ennials and plant them along the edge of the shrubbery border. 

 The shrubbery forms a good background to set off the bloom. 



Some people have a liking or hobl)y for hyl^rid roses, and tlie 

 lawn is dug into beds and roses planted in every conspicuous 

 place. The roses are beautiful when in bloom but at other 

 seasons they are a group of straggling briars. The best way 

 to have roses is to set apart an area especially for them, or 

 plan a rose garden. 



In designing the planting it is a good idea to study nature, 

 walk along the roadside or in the fields and observe how masses 

 are formed by the intermingling of the various trees and shrul^s. 

 These have character and grouping that is often artistically 

 perfect. Such gi-oups were formed by the seeds being carried 

 b}^ the winds or by birds. They represent the survival of 

 the fittest, the stronger varieties predominating in the group. 



In planning a group or mass the practice of having the plants 

 arranged in tiers or ranks should be discarded, as the result 

 is tame and uninteresting. The introduction of some pointed 

 or spiry formed shi'ubs or trees as a lombardy poplar at salient 

 points gives character and adds interest to what otherwise 

 would be a dull and uninteresting plantation. See Plate XXV. 



In planning it should be remembered that the plan gives 

 only the locations of the various features and plants, and it 

 must be borne in mind that everything will be seen in per- 

 spective when the plan is executed. 



The human eye has been trained to seek balance of parts 

 or symmetry of design. In fact, nature seems to be arranged 

 with the idea of balance about some common centre. If there 

 is one particular thing, it is placed in the centre. If there are 

 two, they are placed equidistant from the centre. Thus in 

 planning the home grounds there will need to be a sense of 

 balance in the treatment. It is not necessary always to have 

 the individual shrubs duplicated about a common axis, although 

 in certain instances this might be admissible. It is the gen- 



