WHAT CALIFORNIA HAS IN GARDEN DESIGN. 45 



artist cannot look at long? It is the absence of pretentious "plan" 

 which lets the flowers tell their tale direct, the simple walks going 

 where they are wanted; flowers not set in patterns; the walls and 

 porch alive with flowers. 



"Can the gentleman's garden, then, too, be a picture? Certainly; 

 the greater the breadth and means the better the picture should be. 

 But never if our formal 'decorative' style of design is kept to. Reform 

 must come by letting Nature take her just place in the garden. 



"After we have settled the essential approaches, levels and en- 

 closures for shelter, privacy, or dividing lines around a house, the 

 natural form or lines of the earth herself are in nearly all cases the 

 best to follow. 



"In the true Italian garden on the hills we have to alter the natural 

 line of the earth or 'terrace' it, because we cannot otherwise cultivate 

 the ground or move with ease upon it. The strictly formal in such 

 ground is as right in its way as the lawn in a garden in the valley. 



"I hold that it is possible to get every charm of a garden and every 

 use of a country-seat without sacrifice of the picturesque or beautiful; 

 that there is no reason why, either in the working or design of 

 gardens, there should be a single false line in them. By this I mean 

 hard lines, such as the earth never follows. 



"The landscape gardener of the present day is not always what we 

 admire, his work often looking more like that of an engineer. His 

 gardening near the house is usually a repetition of the decorative 

 work of the house, of which I hope many artistic people are tired. 



"The soul of true gardening it to show, on a small scale it may be, 

 some of the precious and inexhaustible loveliness of vegetation on 

 plain, wood and mountain. This is the necessary and absolutely only 

 true, just and fair use of a garden!" 



The California Way. These few sentences will serve our present 

 purpose, which is to incline those who are pondering garden design toward 

 a little deeper thinking than is usually given the matter. In California we 

 are doing some very creditable work, and are also occasionally perpetrating 

 something outrageous as well. So far as our observation goes, our country 

 places are, as a rule, more praiseworthy than the suburban creations. In 

 the suburbs the homemakers play all sorts of pranks with earth and 

 plants. Having a moderate area of ground they can torture it in many 

 ways without too great expenditure. In the country, at least in those parts 

 of the State where the surface is broken and there is a natural growth of 

 tree and shrub, some very satisfactory work has been accomplished in 

 adding to the charms of a place while not sacrificing its natural beauties. 

 If we have not advanced as far in instances of good garden design as 

 perhaps might be expected of a people upon whom such wealth 

 has been poured, we have fortunately not made many serious mistakes. 

 There seems to be quite a general leaning toward correct taste and 

 appreciation of that which is fitting and beautiful. 



For this reason one will see in California very few trees tortured into 

 grotesque figures from zoology or from solid geometry, nor will one see 



