34 ORNAMENTAL GARDENING 



landscape gardening I know little about it, and second, what 

 little I think I know is directly contrary to the modern teachings. 



I believe that nature is a pretty safe guide in the matter of 

 laying out and planting grounds ; at least she points out the way 

 for us. She plants forests, she leaves open glades which stand 

 for our lawns; she joins the forest to the glade by making an 

 irregular border of lower growth between them. Wild animals 

 make paths through the woods and along the open spaces, and 

 these are always made to be used ; they stand for our paths and 

 roads. They usually lead along the lines of least resistance, and 

 though they are not often made in straight lines they are usually 

 reasonably direct. They teach that curves and deviations are 

 not to be indulged in merely for ornament. Nature leaves bold 

 ledges and scoops out depressions and grottos, she lays out the 

 courses of rivers and streams, she makes pools and lakes. She 

 makes some mistakes but not many. It has always seemed to 

 me that she blundered when she developed the Australian Pine 

 in the tropics. 



Nearly all the art that is required in the natural style of land- 

 scape gardening is to show the best of nature and to show nature 

 at her best. Aside from the building of our dwellings and out- 

 buildings we need to do but little that nature doesn't do some- 

 where and in some way. As Downing has said, "Landscape 

 gardening is an union of natural expression and harmonious 

 cultivation." 



We hear a great deal about massing trees and shrubs for effect, 

 of matching colors in planting, of harmony and discord and of 

 many kinds of plants that should never be put near each other, 

 and it seems to me that those who are so insistent about these 

 things only use plants as a means to an end ; that to them these 

 beautiful things, which to me seem to have souls, are merely 

 what soldiers are to a commanding general on a battlefield. They 

 remind me of the society woman who must have a nurse whose 

 complexion harmonized with that of her baby. I love each tree, 

 shrub, vine and plant for its own sake; to cut one down or even 

 trim it seems almost cruel. I am interested in them all from the 

 time they are set out, as they build leaf after leaf and growth 

 after growth until they grow old and die. They are my friends 



