1798 LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



white pine and arbor-vitae, rhododendron and kalmia, 

 ferns and little naturalized shade-loving plants, would 

 be appropriate. (Fig. 2092.) Or it may be an open 

 sunny place and the feeling of the fence-line or road- 

 side wildness desired; then choose rhus, wild roses, 

 sambucus, crategus; or birch, wild cherry, sassa- 

 fras, nut trees; red cedar, Scotch pine; wild asters, 

 sunny asclepias and coreopsis. (Fig. 2094.) If more 



thought of having it both happily placed in the general 

 scheme of embellishment and thrifty in growth. Posi- 

 tion of plantations first, choice of material second, 

 preparation of ground and care always, this is a home- 

 grounds program. 



Gardening and architecture necessarily meet upon 

 very close terms in suburban-lot areas. Domestic 

 architecture needs the softening influence of foliage, 



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refined garden feeling is desired, then lilacs, syringa, the heightening effect of trees and backgrounds, land 



grading of an interesting and 

 artistic as well as simply practi- 

 cal kind. Hints at house design 

 should be drawn even from the 

 natural environment and exigen- 

 cies of site. Gardening requiies, 

 in small areas especially, close 

 sympathy with the architectural 

 style and a subservience in its 

 design to the practical require- 

 ments of the house and owner. 

 Its materials, structural or plant- 

 ing, should be appropriate to the 

 character of the house and to 

 the effects that logically accom- 

 pany its design. Both architec- 

 ture and landscape gardening 

 in small lots should be simple 

 and upon a scale determined 

 by the area at disposal, not 

 so far as design is concerned, 

 but dependent upon the pocket- 

 book of the owner. Richness of 

 material is the only proper way 

 of extravagance, not by quan- 

 tity or by mere showiness. As to 

 planting, it is to be observed that 

 very few places are over-planted 



2091. The formal flower-garden or herb-garden of colonial days. Page 1793. 



weigelas and deutzias, spireas, snowballs, may be used 

 with ginkgo, magnolia, Lombardy poplars, oaks and 

 maples; hollyhocks, larkspurs, iris and peonies. (Fig. 

 2093.) With rustic rockwork and stony ground one 

 should associate plant forms of the same prostrate 

 type, charming low matted junipers and yew; trailing 

 wichuraiana roses and shrubby celastrus; erect cedars, 

 cembra and mughus pines; larch, red birch, ash and 

 hickory; and a whole list of low alpine herbaceous 

 flowers. 



Uneven sites seem to demand the cultured wildness 

 of rhododendron foliage and flowering dogwood, an 



when shrubbery is the material. Trees and evergreens 

 more often defeat their purpose by being planted too 

 closely. 



Simplicity, then, is the third and always constant 

 principle underlying landscape gardening in small 

 grounds. By it is meant not elimination of interesting 

 subjects in grades, constructions or plants, or even 

 garden accessories, such as pools, arbors, and treillage, 

 but fitting and unobtrusive use of them. The flowing 

 outlines of wild copse, of modulated contour in meadow 

 land, of unmolested trees, are simplicity ideals. In 

 domestic gardening, such ideals should almost without 



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absence of close-cropped effect and a prevailing free- exception prevail. Even if drawn down to straightened 



dom and informality. This may be conditioned, how- 

 ever, upon the demands of the building, for there are 

 cases in which uneven ground may be better altered; 

 that is, when the desire is to derive the gardening lines 

 from the building lines. Uneven ground should then 

 become terraced and embellished with plants that are 

 more stiff and conventional in type, more man-made 

 to harmonize with the building. Privet and boxwood 

 hedges, and strong colors of foliage and flowers, Irish 

 juniper, globe-shaped arbor-vitse, Catalpa Bungei, 

 sciadopitys, and other plants of strong character would 

 be appropriate. 



Besides site and association, much depends upon the 

 personality of the designer and preferences of the 

 owner as to choice of plants. To the methodical mind, 

 the leaning is to rare species, individual plants, botanical 

 sequence in arrangement; to the flower enthusiast, all 

 niceties of color harmonies and combinations in mass; 

 to the tree-lover, generally too little room for his hobby. 

 To the iris, rose, peony, phlox and fern enthusiasts, 

 room and good position is given by the front edges of 

 the shrubbery border or at sides of paths in vegetable- 

 garden to further his ambition; and to the bird-lover, 

 chance for pleasure in providing shrubs which bear 

 berries for winter attraction and comfort to his friends. 

 But whatever is planted should be chosen with the 



lines of formal treatment, necessary sometimes when 

 the type of building demands architecturally treated 

 foliage nearby, the ideal of simplicity in both design and 

 plant material should govern the designer. Formal 

 garden designs are oftentimes very satisfying when 

 properly used in small areas farther from the house, 

 reached and pivoted upon an extended house line, as 

 straight walks from the house or terrace. (Fig. 2093.) 

 Full of interest as regards design, beauty in detail of 

 material, construction and accessories, and with a 

 certain charm in its very primness set amidst ample 

 soft flowing lines of shrubbery and trees, the small 

 formal back yard adds a logical and an interesting 

 feature. Sparsity of planting not the ideal of foliage 

 and growing things in a garden, too much furniture, 

 paths too wide and numerous, a lack of simplicity of 

 both architectural and plant-forms, are reasons why 

 formal grounds are not generally more pleasing. They 

 are not produced successfully by mere drawing of lines, 

 with T-square and triangle, and the amateur is safer 

 in informal gardening. However, formality exists in 

 each place here illustrated by house terrace and prim 

 planting or softened wall treatments, walks, steps and 

 walls, and even in the little geometrically arranged 

 gardens, but dependent almost altogether upon hardy 

 plant growth and simplicity of plan for their charm. 



