PART I 



THE GARDEN 



Definition and use of the word "garden" — Esthetic characteristics of a 

 GARDEN — Inclosure — Plants in the garden — Unity of effect of whole garden — 

 A garden recognizably a work of design — Formal and non-formal arrange- 

 ments — Ways of giving a garden distinctiveness — Choice of style — 

 Composition of the garden — Its compositional elements — Inclosure ma- 

 terials — Retaining walls and banks — High boundaries : their composition 

 and decoration — The house as part of the garden boundary — Garden 

 "floor" materials — Typical compositional arrangements of the garden floor 

 — Objects marking points of interest in the garden composition — 

 Suitability of different objects to this purpose. 



In literature, and in common use, "garden" has been a very much Definition and 

 overworked word. It has meant, to the horticulturist, any place good ^^ °J 

 for plants ; to the suburban land-owner, almost any area for outdoor ^^ Garden" 

 restful pleasure ; to the poet, a place for meditation, with certain associ- 

 ations with the past ; to the landscape architect, a unit of design which 

 has certain characteristic beauties and appropriate functions. The 

 word has acquired such different meanings, and such various associ- 

 ations, that it is impossible to speak of a garden in any general sense, 

 without suggesting a number of attributes that are not necessarily 

 characteristic of a garden. On this much, however, in a broad way, 

 almost every one is agreed : that a garden is a man-made, bounded, 

 outdoor area, containing plants. Now we are not interested in the 

 definition for itself, nor primarily are we interested in what different 

 objects have, in times past, been called gardens. We are discussing a 

 fairly definite landscape unit, which serves a purpose not served by 

 any other unit, which takes its place in the scheme of the suburban 

 country estate, large or small, which produces its own special effects, 

 and for which, in spite of the great ambiguity of the word, the best 

 general term is "garden." 



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