TREATMENT AND PLANTING OF LOW GROUND. 



It oftens happens that the builder of a home has a piece of 

 lowland, too wet for gardening or ordinary cultivation, which is 

 really an eyesore. Now it is quite possible to work every foot 

 of such land into the general scheme of landscaping and to make 

 it as beautiful as any part of the grounds. This is true of brack- 

 ish as well as fresh water swamp. Wherever the land is so low 

 that it is generally under water it may easily be made into a 

 pool, pond or lake with a moderate amount of labor, and the 

 mud which is removed can either be filled into adjoining low 

 land or used as muck for high land. I have elsewhere in this 

 work written about the construction of pools, so that it will not 

 be necessary here to treat at length on the subject. In some 

 cases there will be a considerable growth of scrub or even timber 

 on low land which is to be treated and there may be open spaces 

 here and there upon it. Such open spaces would seem to be 

 natural locations for artificial bodies of water. 



In laying out walks in low land it will, perhaps, be found best 

 to carry them in a general way on the higher, firmer ground. If 

 the land is partly timbered they may be so laid out that very 

 little cutting will need to be done. If one has rock it may be 

 broken finely and two or three inches laid over the mud where the 

 walk is to be, an inch of sand being put on over all for a cover. 

 I have made such walks throughout several acres of swamp, 

 some of it being so soft that one would mire down in it, but with 

 the amount of material I have mentioned, a walk has been made 

 that bears up with any amount of foot travel, though the whole 

 trembles when it is walked over. If rock cannot be had marl 

 and sand or even sand mixed with a little muck will answer, 

 though a considerable depth must be put on in order to make it 

 bear up. 



Rustic seats can be built in low land if a sufficient amount of 

 rock or sand is placed around them to make it dry under foot. 

 Such seats may often be so placed that a fine view can be had 

 from them over artificial bodies of water. I have constructed 



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