details to generalities. An inexperienced person with no training in design had 

 better deal with his problem step by step. 



The front yards of suburban homes should be planned with regard to much the 

 same principles as are recommended for the corresponding areas in small city 

 properties. The chief function of the front yard of most residences is to furnish 

 a suitable foreground for the house front. Since, admittedly, the house front 

 is the most important part of a property that is seen from the street, to this all 

 else becomes subsidiary walks and roads, lawns, vegetation, and the like 

 and all these should therefore be so selected and so arranged as to make for the 

 best appearance of the house. Nor should its appearance during the spring and 

 summer seasons only be considered, but during all seasons; and special effort 

 should be made to obtain an effect that will be at least similar, if not the same, 

 during the whole year. 



If the need of space in the rear has necessitated an unusually small front yard, 

 there will be no difficulty in arranging for its satisfactory treatment. There may 

 be but little need for planting, the walks may appear best straight or laid to 

 some conventional plan, and a very simple and trim effect may seem more fitting ; 

 but the appearence of the whole will be none the less pleasing than if it were more 

 elaborate. The space in the front may well be small rather than large, as, by 

 comparison with it, the house front is thus emphasized rather than subordinated t 

 and, furthermore, the width of the front is thus apparently increased. 



Similarity of front yards on any street is much to be desired, and one should at 

 least consider the customs of the street or block, whether or not he follows them. 

 Slight variations from adjoining yards are permissible and frequently necessary, 

 as most yards are not well done; but ill appearances are less likely to result if 

 front yards are very simple and plain. Hedges or fences on the street line seem to 

 be coming more and more into favor, but if a single lot of meager frontage is the 

 only one in the block that is hedged or fenced, it may mar the appearance of the 

 whole street; and, furthermore, the lot so fenced seldom looks as well as was ex- 

 pected. As a rule, small front yards appear larger and to better advantage if the 

 center is open, for unbroken lawns alway appear larger. The front yard is an 

 entrance to the house as well as a foreground for the house; and while there is no 

 reason to desire a great expanse of lawn there, for one who desires all possible ap- 

 pearance of space this simple scheme is best. Indeed, from whatever angle one 

 may view the problem of this area, restrained rather than complex or elaborate 

 treatments of it are best. As was mentioned in connection with narrow city lots, 

 the simplicity and breadth of scale suitable for the foreground of the house front 

 are also more likely to be in scale with the larger scenery of a street. 



Vegetation in front yards should be but sparingly used, should be of similar 

 tones of green, and should be arranged about the edges of the lawn rather than 

 in its center. Usually, with the judicious use of a few shrubs at the steps and at 

 the house corners and, in some cases, with shrubs or trees grouped on the boundary 

 lines near the house, and with an open lawn, the general requirements of the 

 scene are satisfied. 



The amount of planting will depend somewhat upon the size of the area; but 

 a front always looks better bare of vegetation than crowded with planting. Sin- 

 gle plants that are large and shapely are no more expensive than a number of 

 small plants, but one had better plant but one, or a very few, small shrubs, and 

 wait for them to grow, than to plant thickly with the intention of thinning out 



