2660 



PLANTING 



PLANTING 



plans are, however, always indispensable, (c) It then 

 requires a considerable amount of time to carry out 

 important improvement projects. It has been esti- 

 mated that from six to ten years are always necessary in 

 order to bring a community around to a proper under- 

 standing of its problems, and to secure sufficient unity 

 of opinion to accomplish valuable results, (d) Money is 



2997. Planting without composition. 



very important, but not one-half so important as per- 

 sons usually suppose. As a rule the money can be 

 raised whenever the community is convinced, as a 

 whole, that the proposed improvement is worth while. 

 It is best under all circumstances to have public prop- 

 erty paid for and improved from public funds. This 

 means that the money should be voted by the people 

 themselves from the public treasury. The ordinary way 

 of raising money for village improvement, by raffles, 

 fairs, and other voluntary means, is 

 wholly unsatisfactory. It can accom- 

 plish only trivial results. 



FRANK A. WATTGH. 



Shrubbery in the landscape. 



Shrubs and bushes have two values: 

 an intrinsic value as individual or 

 single specimens; a value as part of 

 the structure or design of an orna- 

 mented place. As individual speci- 

 mens, they are grown for the beauty 

 of the species itself; as parts of the 

 landscape, they are usually grown in 

 masses, constituting a shrubbery. It 

 is often advisable to plant shrubs as 

 single specimens, in order to produce 

 the characteristic beauty of the spe- 

 cies; but the temptation is to plant 

 exclusively as isolated specimens, and 

 the emphasis needs, therefore, to be 

 placed on mass-planting. 



Plants scattered over a lawn destroy 

 all appearance of unity and purpose in 

 the place (Fig. 2997). Every part of 

 the place is equally accented. The 

 area has no meaning or individuality. 

 The plants are in the way. They spoil 

 the lawn. The place is random. If 

 the shrubs are sheared, the spotted 

 and scattered effect is intensified. 

 Rarely does a sheared shrub have any 

 excuse for existence, unless as a part in 

 an artistically designed formal garden. 



A mass or group of planting em- 

 phasizes particular parts of the place. 

 It allows of bold and broad contrasts. 

 It may give the place a feeling of 

 strength and purposiveness. The shrub- 

 bery-mass usually should have an 



irregular outline and it often contains more than one 

 species. Thereby are variety and interest increased. 

 Fig. 2998 suggests the interest in a good shrubbery- 

 mass. The shrubbery-masses should be placed on the 

 boundaries; for it is a concept of landscape gardening 

 that the center of the place shall be open. (Fig. 2999; 

 also Figs. 2076, 2077, and others in Vol. IV.) The 

 boundaries are the lines between properties, the foun- 

 dations of buildings, the borders along walks and drives. 

 Judicious planting may relieve the angularity of foun- 

 dations and round off the corners of the yard. (Fig. 3000.) 

 Individual specimens may be used freely, but only 

 rarely should they be wholly isolated or scattered. 

 They should be planted somewhere near the borders, 

 that they may not interfere with the continuity of the 

 place and that they may have background to set them 

 off. The background may be a building, a bank, or a 

 mass of foliage. In most places, the mass or border- 

 planting should be the rule and the isolated specimen 

 the exception; but, unfortunately, this rule is frequently 

 reversed. It is not to be understood, however, that 

 boundaries are always to be planted or that foundations 

 are always to be covered. L jj B. 



The chief value of shrubbery comes from its use in 

 an artistic way, although some shrubs have edible 

 fruits. Many shrubs, such as lilacs, some of the spireas, 

 gooseberries, and currants, produce leaves very early 

 in the season and some, like forsythia, daphne, and 

 the juneberry are covered with a profusion of blossoms 

 at this time. From early spring until November in 

 temperate latitudes leaves and flowers are to be found 

 on deciduous shrubs, and from June until the following 

 spring ornamental fruits can be seen on their branches, 

 the red berries of the elder beginning and barberries 

 ending the list. Some of these 

 fruits are so richly colored and so 

 abundant that they can be seen 

 from a long distance. Many shrubs, 

 like some of the viburnums and 

 dogwoods, attain a height of 10 to 

 15 feet, while others, like bunch- 

 berry and Daphne Cneorum, 

 grow to a height of only a few 

 inches. The leaves of some, 





2998. A composition of shrub and tree forms. 



