1796 LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



"Pares et Jardins." Platt, "Italian Gardens." Triggs, 

 "Italian Gardens." Loudon, "The Villa Gardener." 

 Ellgood, "Italian Gardens." Jane & Ross, "Florentine 

 Villas." Hamlin and others, "European and Japanese 

 Gardens." Kemp, "Landscape Gardening." Triggs, 

 "Formal Gardens in England and Scotland." Edith 

 Wharton, "Italian Villas and Their Gardens." Guy 

 Lowell, "American Gardens." "Gardens Old and New" 

 (Country Life Publishing Co.). Loudon, "Encyclo- 

 pedia of Gardening." Fouquier, "De 1'Art des Jardins." 

 'The Century Book of Gardening" (Country Life Lib.). 

 Andre, "I'Art des Jardins." FERRTJCCIO VITALE. 



The landscape treatment of small grounds. 



The art of landscape gardening is to many persons a 

 subject that belongs only to landed estates or to great 

 public parks. By them it is not expected to serve with 

 its principles or its practice their modest suburban or 

 city-lot-size home grounds, although in the same way, 

 if upon a smaller scale, they seek tasteful, practical, 

 interesting arrangement and embellishment. The 

 home grounds is a problem not unworthy the finest 

 art or the most expert landscape designer. Small 

 places everywhere are becoming more and more charm- 

 ing as architects meet a growing demand for better 

 houses, and their settings become more and more 

 appropriate and pleasing, as owners, gardeners, and 

 nurserymen apply the achievements of landscape gar- 

 dening which they have observed. Many small places 

 evince a beauty and effectiveness surpassed by larger 

 ones only in extent; but for the most part they fall short 

 of their possibilities and attain to a degree of artistic 

 value limited to the mere beauty of the plants set out. 

 That one place can surpass another of equal building- 

 lot proportions and comparative amount of planting 

 would lead to the conclusion that, for the designing of 

 small grounds, there may be underlying principles 

 practised in some cases, neglected in others. Achieve- 

 ments of good design are evident; methods, seldom. 



Spaciousness does not make, but may enhance, 

 beauty in grounds; but mere space suffices to- lend 

 independence, more or less seclusion and privacy, char- 

 acter and dignity. Hence the small place, more than 

 the large one, must depend for its individual effective- 

 ness and setting upon the general beauty of its neigh- 

 borhood, its environment; upon well-placed commu- 

 nity plantings, and upon the skilful management of a 

 principle of design called unity, the tying together 

 or harmonizing of all features of the scene in view at one 

 time. Realizing this, it should ever be the paramount 

 aim of a community or platters of real-estate subdivi- 

 sions to retain all of the natural features and land- 

 scape character possible by preserving old trees, ledges, 

 rivulets, good views and good building-sites unmolested, 



and also, so far as possible, to obliterate neighborhood 

 eyesores. When land is laid out and houses constructed 

 or at least restricted, by the same company, the great- 

 est opportunity is afforded to realize the utmost of 

 landscape and community attractiveness. To artistic 

 grouping of buildings, to directing courses and appear- 

 ance of streets, to preservation and adaptation of 

 natural scenery for common enjoyment, should land- 

 scape gardening, as well as engineering and architec- 

 ture, lend its best effort. Such development reflects 

 directly upon very limited lot areas and affords a 

 charm of environment impossible of attainment other- 

 wise, except by merest chance. Fortunate the dweller 

 in the modern garden suburb! 



Within the lot, in order to utilize to landscape 

 advantage every inch of space, ground study should 

 begin with house-planning and should be determined in 

 much the same way. This saves later regret and 

 expense and many times improves house designs as 

 well as preserves beauty in setting. In large estates 

 the landscape study usually precedes; in small lots, it is 

 oftenest the last matter thought of and generally left 

 largely to the local grader to work out. All of our 

 houses, as a result, become ranged in line, drilled face 

 to the front street, commonly designed, equally spaced, 

 uniformly graded flat, totally ignoring the hints offered 

 in native trees or uneven ground for individual charac- 

 ter, or of homelike seclusion possible in the back yard. 



In placing houses on uneven ground, great oppor- 

 tunity is presented to gain distinctive character and 

 interest or even practical advantages not offered by 

 the more popular level site. Close to the house differ- 

 ences in grades may properly be shown by terracing, 

 but it is not well that in every instance the natural 

 beauty of uneven site be sacrificed by cutting and filling 

 in order to create plane surfaces. In the grounds apart 

 from the house, especially, does uneven land prove a 

 fertile source of suggestion for landscape treatment. 

 A low spot may become readily enough a pool; banks, 

 rock or alpine gardens; elevations, place for planting 

 and seat; open hollows, flower- or vegetable-gardens. 

 How such hints may be adapted and worked together 

 into a harmonious and livable scheme, is a landscape- 

 gardening plan. Plans made from these hints to fit 

 the ground are not usually so attractive on paper as 

 those made quite regardless of site suggestions. For 

 pure individual charm in home grounds, one likes a 

 natural site and orderly design combined. To accom- 

 plish this is a problem. 



Solutions of such problems are illustrated by the home- 

 grounds plans here presented. Standing trees, uneven 

 land, a large house, a lot of 125 feet frontage were the 

 conditions met in the design of Fig. 2092. In order to 

 preserve a large oak to spread its high head above the 

 house roof, a retaining wall was required to hold back the 



2089. A pretentious formal design. Page 1793. 



