PLANTING DESIGN i^ 



are the dominant areas. In naturalistic design it reveals, more than 

 any other material, the form of the ground which it clothes, and being 

 more than any other ground cover resistant to the damage from tram- 

 pling feet, it has come to be the chosen surface of the open spaces of our 

 parks and estates. (See Plate 33.) The desirable fineness and smooth- 

 ness of its texture will depend on the refinement of finish of the design, 

 and the amount and expense of upkeep thereby entailed will depend on 

 the intensity of its use. The effect of an English lawn before some well- 

 kept great country house is worth the century of care which has brought 

 it to its perfection. In an outlying metropolitan reservation, or before 

 a summer cottage on the rugged Maine coast,* a grass area cut but twice 

 a year, and resembling a pasture rather than a lawn, might well be not 

 only less expensive but also more appropriate and beautiful. 



In the smaller naturalistic scenes where the ground surface as well Planting in 

 as the planting masses may be modeled by the designer, there are ■^"^''°" '^ 

 certain relations of ground form and form of planting mass which the 

 landscape architect will seek. In larger landscapes these relations 

 will also be valuable, but they are obtainable by the choice and location 

 of the planting rather than by the more expensive grading changes in 

 the surface of the ground. A mass of planting usually looks best if the 

 ground slopes slightly up to its foot. A base ma}" be thus given to the 

 planting mass and a sequential relation suggested between the planting 

 and the open ground on a small lawn, with a change of ground elevation 

 of only a few inches. In larger schemes this may be a greater under- 

 taking, but sometimes where the ground surface rounds over and slopes 

 down in a place where the designer would prefer that at least for a few 

 feet it should remain level or slope up, the difficulty may be overcome 

 by placing lower shrubs where the ground surface still maintains a 

 satisfactory modeling, and then behind these, at a lower level, larger 

 shrubs or trees which shall carry the line up with their surface and not 

 down with the now concealed surface of the ground. Similarly an 

 elevation which is too slight to bear its part in the design may be in- 

 creased by planting, which may be highest on top of the knoll, lowest 

 where it merges into the flat ; and thus very considerable effects of 



* See Charles Eliot's Anglomania in Park Making, an article reprinted in Charles 

 Eliot, Landscape Architect, p. 215-218. (See References.) 



