LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



increay«i the prominence of the points — not 

 to fir up the bays. In selecting plants, the 

 g-rf-atest care must be taken not to select too 

 large growing kinds for the places they are 

 to occupy. A border plantation should be 

 -an irregular mass of foliage rather than a 

 series of distinct individuals. To produce 

 such an effect, thick planting is usually best, 

 for a quicker result is secured; also a more 

 natural and graceful outline, and less care 

 and cultivation are required. The plants 

 will thin themselves naturally, but it is, of 

 course, better to do a little thinning and 

 training every year to encourage the develop- 

 ment of interesting details, but it should be 

 done with a definite object in view. Unless 

 this can be done in an intelligent manner 

 under the close direction of some one who 

 comprehends and is in sympathy with the 

 design, it would be safer not to have it done 

 at all. There is no good reason for trimming 

 shrubs, as it is ordinarily done. Surely 

 nothing could be more ugly than the broom- 

 headed shrubbery which is seen on many 

 lawns, both public and private. A decora- 

 tion of fagot street brooms would be about 

 as handsome as much of it. It is neither 

 natural nor formal. If a place is adapted to 

 a formal treatment, and is so treated, the 

 selection of plants to be trimmed formally 

 would not include an indiscriminate assort- 

 ment of garden shrubs, but would be made 

 up only of those that were adapted to this 

 treatment. Too often men who call them- 

 selves gardeners are responsible for the 

 almost universal mutilation and misplacing 

 of shrubs, and I believe I am safe in saying 

 that many who are gardeners are often 

 guilty. It would seem that the gardener's 

 training is directed toward making success- 

 ful growers of greenhouse and garden flow- 

 ers and vegetables, and that there is seldom 

 acquired anything more than a very super- 

 ficial knowledge of the commonest hardy 

 woody plants and their treatment. 



If the ground has been thoroughly pre- 

 pared in the beginning and a good top- 



dressing is given every winter, but little 

 further cultivation will be required after the 

 plants have become established and have 

 grown sufficiently to cover the ground. 

 There is no more occasion to tear up the 

 surface, and with it the surface roots every 

 spring with spade or fork, than there would 

 be to tear up the surface of a beautiful road- 

 side thicket to keep it in good condition. 



Shrubs and small trees should predominate 

 in a small place. That v^ry large trees 

 cannot be used to advantage should be evi- 

 dent to any one giving thought to the sub- 

 ject, yet you will see in the majority of 

 places large growing deciduous and ever- 

 green trees placed so near the walks or 

 buildings that they will in a very few years 

 become obstructions. Broad-leafed ever- 

 greens, while more expensive, are as a rule 

 better and more permanent for a winter 

 eff"ect on a small place than coniferous trees. 

 The best plants are those which are nursery 

 grown. Wild plants of certain varieties, it 

 properly handled, will transplant Avell, and 

 produce a good eff"ect, but without experi- 

 ence in handling such plants the result is 

 likely to be unsatisfactory. It is very diffi- 

 cult to get native plants of many kinds in 

 large quantities from the nurseries, and it is 

 in this that the landscape architect can often 

 help to good advantage, as it is usually part 

 of his practice to keep informed as to where 

 such plants can be obtained. 



The employment of a trained gardener on 

 a small or medium sized place is not practic- 

 able. Men off"ering themselves as gardeners 

 at day laborers' wages are more likely to 

 bring discredit than credit to a profession 

 that requires for success, intelligence, en- 

 thusiasm, and a true love of the work. A 

 good gardener loves his flowers and plants 

 next to his family, and is as impatient of 

 neglect and bad treatment of the one as of 

 the other. Such a man soon finds and stays 

 in a good position with fair pay, — not as 

 much as his skill and intelligence deserve 

 perhaps, but in many ways preferable to 



