i68 



LANDSCAPE DESIGN 



Outline,' 

 Modeling, and 

 Treatment of 

 Informal 

 Inclosing 

 Plantations 



When an open area is surrounded by plantations of trees and shrubs, 

 two compositions are brought into being, from almost any place from 

 which the scene may be regarded : the floor of the open area, taking its 

 shape from the boundaries set for it by the planting, and the portion 

 of the planting facing the observer, with its own subordinate composition 

 and decoration, seen across the foreground of the open floor. Open 

 meadows, lawns, and glades in parks, and similar areas on private 

 estates, are very likely to be naturalistic, or at least informal, for such 

 reasons as economy of ground, relation to topography, suggestion of the 

 freedom of the country, and harmony with such outside landscape, 

 usually informal, as is included in views from the open space. The 

 shape of the inclosed area therefore will usually be irregular. It will be 

 desirable to obtain both the maximum effect of extent and, consistently 

 with this, the maximum intricacy and interest. 



Usually, therefore, the inclosing plantation will be modeled into 

 bays, promontories, and perhaps islands, which create a series of 

 minor compositions both of the open floor and of the inclosing foliage 

 wall. It is commonly well to arrange some of the bays so that a por- 

 tion of their nearest side is invisible to the spectator enjoying the par- 

 ticularly designed composition. This adds an element of mystery 

 and uncertainty, and if rightly done need not destroy the unity 

 of the main open space. When the spectator is looking directly into a 

 bay, the composition normally becomes one with a mass on each side, 

 directing the attention to an area of interest in the middle. The natural 

 treatment, therefore, under these circumstances is to make the enframing 

 promontories heavy, strong, large, perhaps interesting in shape, and to 

 make the planting of the inclosed bay interesting in color and in texture, 

 but not dominant in height for fear of upsetting the unity of the form 

 composition of the whole bay. This is the reason why flower borders 

 around a lawn are commonly more effective in the bays and not on the 

 points of the planting. It may be that in a composition seen from 

 some other point of view the projecting promontory or a free-standing 

 island is designed to be the important object. In this case the composi- 

 tion from this point of view must be defined, probably enframed either 

 by objects near the observer such as overarching trees which restrain 

 the vision to right and left, or by similar objects, such as larger points or 



