240 



LANDSCAPE DESIGN 



Inclosure 



Materials 



Retaining 

 Walls and 

 Banks 



of interest in the garden : such objects as may be placed at the point of 

 convergence of several paths, or which may mark an axis or strengthen 

 a corner ; objects which attract attention to themselves, and thus 

 make more important the position in which they are set. Since formal 

 composition is much easier to visualize and to describe and discuss, 

 and since very many gardens are essentially formal, we will continue 

 our discussion of the garden in terms of formal design, but it should be 

 borne in mind, nevertheless, that gardens need not be formal, and 

 moreover that much of what we say in relation to design in formal 

 shapes is applicable, with proper modifications, to design in informal 

 shapes, no less intentionally determined, but not to be so definitely 

 described. 



It is possible, as we have seen, that a garden should seem to be 

 sufficiently inclosed and segregated* although it is open on one side 

 so that the visitor may look from it into another unit of the larger de- 

 sign ; but if the garden is to be itself satisfactorily unified under these 

 circumstances, there must still be a sufficient line of demarcation on 

 the open side. A low hedge or fence may be sufficient, a low retaining 

 wall may be ample, where the view rises from the garden, as where, 

 for instance, the garden lies at the foot of an open slope. A low fence 

 or wall, however, is likely to seem unmotived if the elevation of the 

 ground surface is the same on both sides of it. An elevation of the sur- 

 face of the garden above that of the outside unit, even though this 

 difference of elevation is very slight, will usually serve as a sufficient 

 boundary. It is, exceptionally, possible to mark the break in grade 

 merely by a grass bank, or by a retaining wall with its coping 

 practically flush with the surface of the garden. More commonly, 

 however, some parapet — hedge, wall, rail, or balustrade* — extending 

 above the surface of the garden will be necessary, both as a guard 

 for the top of a dangerous wall and as a stronger marking of the 

 garden boundary, especially as seen from within. For practical pur- 

 poses this parapet may be as low as fifteen inches if it be sufficiently 

 wide, and it seldom is more than waist high. Otherwise its height will 

 be determined by its proportions in the whole design of the garden, 



* For a discussion of kinds of inclosures, — hedges, walls, fences, and so on, — 

 see the sections devoted to these in Chapters IX and X. 



