THE COUNTRY PLACE 23 



which an attempt has been made to let "nature" work unmolested. This 

 style is usually out of scale and not based on axis lines. 



A personal preference for informal or natural arrangement over 

 formal or designed landscape does not enter into the organization of 

 the problem as to direction of approach. The fundamental organiza- 

 tion of our problem, then, is what gives to country places arrangement, 

 order and selection; and makes the whole place a unit rather than hap- 

 hazard collection of unrelated things or a slice of unassimilated 

 nature. 



From the enclosed, or 1865, type of decorative planting we have 

 the open center, or open lawn, and boundary planting with the accent 

 plant brought in a relation to the bays and promontories of the plant- 

 ing. The over-accentuation of the boundary brought about the use of 

 more naturalistic plant material, but lacked the basic principle of 

 design in that the big lawn was made the controlling feature of the 

 place. Gardens now became very much restricted or abandoned alto- 

 gether, the service cramped, and in many cases the house located at 

 a disadvantage for convenience. "Sunken" drives and paths were 

 utilized so as not to break up the lawn. The principal view from 

 the house became also the "show" view from the road or entrance 

 drive. The "natural" or informal type of gardening was used and 

 the familiar irregular curves that were drawn around the planting lines 

 were formal in that they were planned. 



The "open lawn" type of planting at its worst, with the "founda- 

 tion" screen about the house, and the irregular curved boundary plant- 

 ing and garden of bean shaped or informal planted areas was. taken 

 out into the open country as a means of harmonization of the home 

 grounds. 



The lack of organization of the plan at the start and its failure in 

 bringing in of the open country was a fault of this type of design. The 

 aim of the landscape plan was to screen out the house or to break up 

 its architectural lines. The lack of sympathy between the architecture, 

 landscape plan, and the open country all combined to produce a coun- 

 try place that defeated the aim of the owner, while in the immediate 

 suburbs of a town or in a village this type of landscape did not 

 appear incongruous, if the organization of the plan was such as to pro- 



