56 The Landscape Gardening Book 



light and air and view. Vines clothing walls should likewise 

 be trimmed sharply away around casements and other openings. 

 Indeed the effect is better if they are not allowed to cover an 

 entire wall surface but are restrained at suitable points, so that 

 the wall itself is visible for perhaps a third of its area. The con- 

 trast between wall and foliage is usually more pleasing than the 

 unbroken expanse of green — and cornice lines, comers, and angles 

 here and there should always be left imcovered, to reveal unmis- 

 takably the definite form and strong sharj) outline of the 

 building. 



The use of flowering climbers against a house is never a source 

 of any particular pleasure to the dwellers therein, for the blossoms 

 are borne where they cannot be seen excepting from without. 

 It is well to bear this in mind in selecting and planting ; not that 

 it is a reason for not planting flowering climbers, but rather that 

 it is a reason for planting two of them — one against the house, 

 if you will, and one against a trellis or an arbor or outbuilding, 

 where it can be seen from the house. 



It is a good rule to keep to the green and leafy vines for the 

 dwelling, however, because of their freedom from insects and the 

 absence of litter in the shape of falling petals and flowers. 

 Roses require spraying invariably, and other flower-bearing 

 climbers are likely to. It is a very great nuisance to accompHsh 

 this where they are trained against a surface which may be 

 stained by the spray. 



Chmbers are the one means whereby Nature's green may creep 

 up and cover foundation walls where they rise from the groimd — 

 and that is the particular place where they need covering. The 

 work of garden construction on any place is well begun when 

 plants to furnish this cover are once established. The planting 

 of shrubs later, at points along a foimdation, is a matter to be 



