8 LANDSCAPE GARDEN SERIES 



and by which you will be influenced will be correct, these principles of 

 good design and good taste are written. 



In planting your own place and watching the plants grow year by 

 year, there will develop on your own grounds features of attractiveness 

 and charm which will become as endeared to you as the rooms within 

 the home. An old bush or tree which is set out and tenderly cared for 

 often becomes in after-years a reminder of a thousand pleasant mem- 

 ories. Regardless of how much is attempted there are two ways of 

 regulating our action. One way, as with all other things, is to follow 

 the "hit or miss" path, taking the course of least resistance, building up 

 the grounds in a haphazard manner without particular thought or pur- 

 pose. The other way is to plan what is best to be done, using the 

 proper foresight as to the outcome. 



Certainly, there are many charming old places that just seem to 

 have happened. Not only do we enjoy and admire them to the utmost, 

 but we marvel at what are really chance results. But these cases are 

 the exception. 



Experience has proven that the reasonable course is the wiser, 

 safer, surer and least expensive. The different parts of the ground 

 all serve different purposes, and with them, as with anything else, the 

 first requirement of beauty is that they satisfy that requirement of use, 

 but in an artistic way. 



The old adage that "one never hits higher than his aim" is very 

 true in developing the grounds, for if there is not a high ideal in mind 

 the results are apt to be most; unhappy. "Aim high" would be a good 

 motto to follow, but "aim high and employ those methods which will 

 enable the realization of that aim," would be better. And so it is 

 necessary to consider these methods to enable us to get the best there is 

 out of our grounds. 



In dealing with the arrangement of the grounds the determination 

 of what should be done and how to do it is the first problem encoun- 

 tered. By making a landscape plan, one perforce chooses an accepta- 

 ble scheme and thus provides a program of development. And is 

 the landscape plan necessary? Decidedly, yes! A well studied 

 plan means that the effort in time and money put in will be done so 

 intelligently that the various requirements will be anticipated and satis- 

 fied to the best of the designer's ability. 



The question may come up as to what extent should the home 

 owner be his own designer. He should be observant enough to have 

 ideas, to know that which he would like to have, in order that he him- 

 self where attempting to carry out these ideas, assuming they are 

 good ones will realize that success depends upon the amount of 

 expenditure and the amount of skill and specialized knowledge re- 

 quired to successfully carry them out. Landscape Architects are 



