12 ORNAMENTAL GARDENING 



Plans may often be changed so as to leave what is wrongly placed 

 to grow and form part of a perfect whole. 



Don't plant trees in rows unless they are put along a straight 

 road or path and never under any circumstances alternate one 

 species with another in a row along a road or anywhere else. It 

 is the fashion in places to put out a California fan palm and a 

 Chinese Hibiscus or a Coconut and some low growing shrub 

 alternating in rows, and it seems to me that no greater atrocity 

 in planting can be perpetrated. I can not conceive how the idea 

 ever originated in the brain of any human being. 



In laying out and planting a place of any considerable size it 

 is often possible to make a vista, a view of some pleasing object 

 at a distance such as a group of trees, a fine building, or water. 

 This vista may be cut out through a forest or made by judicious 

 planting of trees and shrubbery. Its borders should be irregu- 

 lar and of varied forms and foliage. Such views may open out 

 upon a landscape that stretches for miles away or it may only 

 extend for a few rods, and if they are managed right they will 

 always be surprising and charming. 



Notwithstanding the fact that one encounters many draw- 

 backs and discouragements in laying out and developing a home 

 in Florida the whole process is a delightful one. What can be 

 pleasanter than daily contriving and making plans for buildings, 

 walks and roads, for the disposal of one's trees and plants so 

 that they shall produce the best effects? What a pleasure it is 

 to put a rustic seat here, to open out for, or so to plant trees that 

 he may have a lovely view there. Even one's mistakes are not 

 so bad after all for they help to teach him useful lessons. What 

 a joy it is to watch the plants grow and develop under one's lov- 

 ing care, to realize, that, as the years roll by his home is becom- 

 ing more and more beautiful, more and more a part and parcel 

 of his very life. 



