1780 LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



scape Architects, American Association of Park Super- 

 intendents. Other societies are also related to landscape 

 art, as the American Civic Association. American Scenic 

 and Historic Preservation Society, and the horticultural 

 bodies. The subject is also taught in colleges in its 

 amateur aspects and in a few places professionally. The 

 discussion of city-planning has now taken hold of the 

 public imagination, although little has yet been done 

 to visualize the necessity of country-planning. 



The kinds of landscape gardens. 



The improved landscape, we have said, may be 

 large or small. It may also represent any condition of 

 residence or of public use. The illustrations herewith 

 indicate, better than words, some of the merits and 

 some of the possibilities in landscape. (Many of the 

 illustrations have appeared in "Garden and Forest.") 

 The improved or designed landscape area should appro- 

 priate the good views and scenes beyond itself or 

 adjacent to it. The distant view in Fig. 2069 should not 

 be missed from any landscape garden if one is so for- 

 tunate as to be in the region of such an offscape. Even 

 familiar objects, as a spire, a distant residence, a well- 

 proportioned bridge. (Fig. 2070), a noble tree, may add 

 much interest if brought into the home landscape by 

 means of vistas. It would be a special good fortune if 

 the landscape garden could lead into any kind of a wood 

 or forest, particularly into anything so distinctive as the 

 Jersey pines shown in Fig. 2071. In many places, the 

 grounds may lead off naturally into an informal country 

 road (Fig. 2072), which is always interesting with its 

 irregular lines, variety of life, and stimulating sugges- 

 tions. A stream is always an entertaining boundary, 

 particularly when a walk may follow it, as in Fig. 2073. 



America excels in landscape art applied to the rural 

 and garden cemetery. The first distinct movement 

 toward a rural cemetery was made in 1825 by Jacob 

 Bigelow, of Boston, whose work was soon taken up by 

 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. As a result 

 of the agitation by this admirable organization, Mt. 

 Auburn Cemetery, at Cambridge, was established and 

 incorporated in 1831. The consummation of this 

 enterprise gave to the world a cemetery distinct from 

 churchyards, removed from the city, and softened by the 

 gracious touch of nature; and thereby, also, the young 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society set an example to 

 all similar organizations and achieved for itself enduring 

 fame. The work of Repton and Loudon had not then 



enlivened and broadened the conceptions of landscape 

 gardening, and Mt. Auburn, whilst an excellent work 

 of its kind, is not a landscape-garden cemetery. The 

 modern art of garden-cemetery making in which, as in 

 the park, the continuous expanse of greensward is the 

 fundamental conception of the fabric originated with 



2067. Plan of the Leasowes, the seat of Shenstone. 

 The residence is near the center. Page 1778. 



2068. Glimpse in Shenstone's Leasowes. Page 1778. 



Adolph Strauch, who, in 1854, became superintendent 

 of Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati. Strauch's 

 work at Spring Grove Cemetery has justly given him 

 lasting fame, and his book describing the place must be 

 consulted by anyone who traces the evolution of the 

 garden-cemetery. The Board of Directors of the ceme- 

 tery said, at the time of his death, that "he had filled 

 the measure of his ambition by the consent of his pro- 

 fession, which ranked him as the equal of Repton and 

 Puckler-Muskau as a master of art in landscape crea- 

 tion, which had been finally proved by him to be pos- 

 sible to be successfully applied in adorning and making 

 attractive the last resting-places of humanity." At 

 present, about one hundred or more burial-places in 

 various parts of North America can be said to be land- 

 scape-garden cemeteries. 



The successful practice of landscape gardening 

 depends, first, on an artistic temperament and an inher- 

 ent love of nature; second, on an intimate knowledge of 

 plants; and third, on familiarity with various arts and 

 handicrafts, as the making of roads, grading, draining, 

 enriching the land, and the like. Landscape gardening 

 must be sharply distinguished from gardening: the 

 former is the making of pictures with plants; the latter 

 is the growing of plants without reference to the pic- 

 ture. In one, the interest centers in art : in the other it 

 centers in plants. Since landscape gardening is prima- 

 rily a matter of taste, it is impossible that it be domi- 

 nated by arbitrary rules. However, a few general pre- 

 cepts and suggestions may be useful. 



The motive of a true landscape garden, as already 

 explained, is to make a picture. The picture should have 

 a landscape or nature-like effect. The place should be 

 one thing: it should emphasize some thought or feeling. 

 It should have one central or emphatic object, and 

 avoid scattered effects. In general, the advice is to 

 bunch or mass the planting. One must distinguish 

 sharply between the fundamentals and the incidentals, 

 those conceptions that are to give the character or 

 tone to the place, and those that are embellishments or 

 ornaments. In usual practice it is essential to keep one 

 or more spaces open, and to plant the sides or bound- 

 aries with masses. The use of single or individual plants 

 is only to emphasize or to heighten an effect, not to 

 give it character: they are incidentals. Ornament should 

 be an incident. Foliage and verdure is a fundamental 

 requisite. In natural sod regions, greensward is the 

 canvas on which the picture is spread. Plants are more 



