1790 LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



goldfishes from their enemies. It floats a boat, sur- 

 rounded with duckweeds or water-nuts. On its edges, 

 there grow iris or reeds. (Fig. 2085.) 



The laws of linear and of aerial perspective are 

 carefully observed, no matter how large or small the 

 garden may be. The relative stature of things, both 

 near and distant, lightness and darkness, openness and 

 density of foliage, the splendor or delicacy of their 

 flowers, whether in size or in color, the season of bloom- 

 ing, the contour of the grounds, all these points must 

 be taken into account in determining where objects 

 are to stand and how they shall be grouped. The char- 

 acter of the trees or shrubs controls the main part of the 

 garden. Foreigners often feel the aspect to be rather 

 gloomy, and to untaught eyes the best garden may be 

 nothing but a patch of a grove. 



In Japan, a greenhouse or nursery plot is never 

 shown in the garden itself. The flowers have no 

 recognized status or existence. They are usually hidden, 

 and brought into sight only when in bloom. The 



metropolis where the houses are thickly built. Some 

 walks are so small that they are hopeless to set a foot 

 in, although they may be a good imitation of some 

 famous piece of scenery, with hills, valleys, cascades, 

 streamlet, lakes, islets with trees; looking at the garden 

 from the house, one may enjoy it as a sort of living 

 picture. So, a little box of a foot square brings forth a 

 landscape similar to a park of many acres. 



There are so-called natural and formal gardens. 

 The right choice between these two aspects of the art 

 depends on the space, and on the features of its sur- 

 roundings. While the spectator desires the innumerable 

 delights of artistic work, he is loath to lose the hint of 

 nature in a tiny dwarfed tree. The mountains farther 

 back should be small and low, without trees, whereas 

 those in the near distance must have much yegeta- 

 tation. The bed of the pond or river at a distance 

 should be made high, and the nearer ones low. If one 

 would show a pond larger, or cataract higher than in 

 reality, one must exhibit only their parts, not an entire 



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2081. Suggested arrangement of a small lot in which the desirable outdoor compartments of the grounds are properly associated 

 with the indoor apartments of the house, and in which there is a minimum amount of road and walk surface to connect the different 

 compartments. Each of the fruit-trees may be grafted or or budded to early, medium and late varieties. The small-fruit hedges may 

 be made of such things as gooseberries, currants and juneberries, with the trimming to develop the fruit and to give also a uniform 

 outline. The border planting is designed primarily to give seclusion and to screen objectionable views or to frame in attractive views; 

 incidently, it may give an abundance of attractive flowers. 



roses, the lilies, the saffron, the balsams, the sunflowers, 

 the chestnut trees, and many other things are not con- 

 sidered to be garden plants, whereas the bamboos, 

 the oaks, the pines, the plums, the iris, the wistaria, 

 the azalea, the lotus, the camellia, and others, are 

 important. The maples are popular, but never the 

 weeping willow. Some think it is an unlucky omen 

 to the family that plants the crape-myrtle, grape, and 

 other fruit trees. The different ways to place the trees 

 or rocks indicate the degree of happiness of those who 

 use the garden. 



Yet the prime test is the proportion of the whole, 

 and the arrangement of the walks in their prescribed 

 order. The soil is bare or sometimes covered with 

 mosses, not lawns, and it is cloven by a series of 

 stepping-stones, leading to a little pavilion, sufficient to 

 celebrate an old-school tea-party, or to a moon-viewing 

 hillock, or to a place where one may secure a cool 

 breeze on a summer evening or take a free sun-bath on 

 a winter morning. It is a real revelation to have these 

 privileges on one's territory, especially to those in the 



pond or river. The view should be appropriate through- 

 out the year, and the sight acceptable on any occasion, 

 either at the time of a little gathering or of a feast; 

 it should be untiring to the eyes of daily admirers, and 

 should discover something new to the frequent visitor. 

 One man sometimes devotes half his life to a single 

 garden, as a garden could not have been completed with 

 a single kind of stone unsuitable to the place. Each 

 leaf and each twig has its direction as well as propor- 

 tion, regulated by the most rigid and immemorial prin- 

 ciples. The gardeners in Japan seem to have the knack 

 of turning the plants into almost anything they like, 

 thereby representing beasts, fishes, and even human 

 figures. Even a supporting post for an old leaning tree, 

 a straw-cover to protect the shrubs from frost, and a 

 board or fence which is a reminder of shipwreck, enter 

 into the place as part of its attraction. Of course, the 

 hedges or fences are not the frame of the picture, but 

 the important part of the garden. In one of the noted 

 public gardens in the middle west of the main island of 

 Japan, one would see a purple precipice of enormous 



