74 The Landscape Gardening Book 



which have been carefully taken advantage of m the layout of a 

 garden, when the greatest attention to economy of space has 

 produced it or emphasized it, well and good. In other words, 

 when it actually exists, where there actually is " space" to take 

 advantage of and to emphasize, then and only then is it suitably 

 made the motif of a place. Efforts to produce it under other 

 circumstances are misguided; none more so tha:i the unhappy 

 obliteration of boundaries to that end. 



The position of a dwelling, and its relation to other dwellings 

 or other buildings about it, show plainly where the boundaries of 

 the land with which it is furnished, lie. Hence the observer is 

 never deceived by lack of definite markings. And all the lovely 

 seclusion and privacy which good taste demands for the home, 

 and which may be the attributes of the tiniest scrap of a door- 

 yard if it is well planned, are after all sacrificed in vain. Only 

 barrenness, or garish publicity, or vulgar ostentation result — 

 never the delusion of space fondly and commonly hoped for. 



Boimdaries should therefore be marked — always. By this I 

 do not mean simply defined as property limits, but marked 

 defensively — aggressively if you will — as a beginning to the 

 gradual process of home building which is to go on within them. 

 They separate the home from the outside world and suggest its 

 aspect of refuge and snug retreat, of safe and pleasant harbor. 

 And the smaller the place and more thickly settled the neighbor- 

 hood, the more imperative the need for this defensive setting 

 apart ; the greater the gain from this resolute planting out of the 

 big world and planting in of the little, individual one. 



Suburban plots are usually small and cramped, to be sure — 

 obviously too small for a marginal planting of trees and shrubs ; 

 but no matter how tiny the place may be there is some suitable 

 enclosure for it. It is simply a question of finding out what that 



