The Livable House 



a balustrade or railing or planting, for some form of coping 

 is desirable to give a finish to the terrace and prevent the "falling- 

 off' feeling one has in the absence of such a boundary. Unfor- 

 tunately walls are costly of construction and must often for this 

 reason be supplanted bv grass terraces. But wherever It is pos- 

 sible, walls should be given the preference and welcomed as 

 opportunities for adding interest to the garden. The picture of 

 "Huntland" would be stupid indeed if the series of dry walls were 

 to be replaced bv grass banks, and a slope of turf would make but 

 a poor background to Mr. Piatt's garden in place of the walled 

 terrace with its pleasing iron rail. 



Good use is made of retaining walls in connection with the 

 houses designed bv Mr. Grosvenor Atterbury at Forest Hills, 

 Long Island. Here each house has but a small door-yard, three 

 or four feet above the level of the sidewalk. Instead of terracing 

 this down to the sidewalk — the usual treatment for such yards — a 

 wall built back, a foot or two from the edge of the walk in order 

 to leave space for planting at its base, takes care of the difference 

 in levels, increases by a few feet the size of the front yard, and 

 adds immeasurably to its attractiveness both inside and outside the 

 wall. 



A choice of materials for the retaining wall would inevitably 

 be influenced by the two factors: appropriateness, both to the style 

 of house and the kind of garden, and availability, which is bound 

 up with the circumstances of cost. It goes without saying that 

 a wall of fine cut ashlar work would be out of place in a small, 

 unpretentious garden, and that, on the other hand, rough field 



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