Canadian Forestry Journal, September, 1918 



1863 



Planting the Home Grounds 



By E. B. Luke, Montreal 



How to Organize Trees and Shrubs to Pro- 

 duce Maximum Beauty Without Large Outlay. 



The art of ornamenting the home 

 grounds, known as Ornamental Gar- 

 dening, Landscape Gardening, etc., 

 while undoubtedly one of the most 

 important of the Arts, is nevertheless, 

 in Canada, very far behind such of 

 its brother Arts, as for instance, 

 Architecture or Inside Decoration. 

 Nor is this to be wondered at, for 

 our efforts have been expended more 

 along the lines of necessity and 

 utility than adornment. As a con- 

 sequence, we compare very unfavor- 

 ably with the older European coun- 

 tries and it has apparently become 

 a settled fact in the minds of many 

 that we may never hope to attain the 

 place they hold to-day in the world 

 beautiful. On the other hand, if the 

 matter be thought over carefully, 

 not one of us will be willing to dispute 

 the fact that there is not a single 

 reason why Canada, if she receives 

 that full development which it is our 

 duty to see that she gets, should not, 

 in years to come, be as beautiful a 

 spot as there is on this earth and 

 become in reality, as one of our 

 leaders put it, "the brightest star in 

 the British constellation." 



Feared as a "Luxury'' 



It has been perhaps only during 

 the past quarter of a century that 

 any real advancement has been made 

 in Ornamental Gardening and during 

 that time and even now, the work has 

 largely been done by professionals 

 for either municipalities, corpora- 

 tions, or wealthy individuals. We 

 should, I think, first disabuse our 

 minds of the impression that the 

 luxury of landscape gardening can 

 only be indulged in by the rich or by 

 those owning large estates, for there 

 is no lot or plot of ground, no matter 

 how small, that is not susceptible 

 to vast improvement by proper and 



intelligent planting, and there is no 

 Intelligent person who loves and 

 knows flowers, has some artistic 

 taste and will study the fundamental 

 principles of Ornamental Garden- 

 ing, who cannot, at least, tastefully 

 landscape his own home grounds. 



It would seem, moreover, that this 

 is a particularly opportune time for a 

 wider educative propaganda on this 

 subject, so that the many thousands 

 of Canadians who are now gardening 

 of necessity, many of whom will 

 hereafter garden for the pure love of 

 growing things, to say nothing of the 

 satisfaction and saving in doing so, 

 and who will be contented with 

 nothing short of a home garden of 

 their own, should be assisted along 

 the right lines to the end that their 

 home grounds may be a credit to 

 themselves, a credit to their town or 

 city, and an added asset to our coun- 

 try. 



The study of Art and Nature has a 

 most refining, elevating and recreat- 

 ing effect upon those who pursue it. 

 Worries that cannot be forgotten in 

 other pursuits for happiness, even in 

 sleep, completely disappear in this 

 intensely absorbing, and wholesome- 

 ly delightful occupation. 



Organized Beauty 



Landscape Gardening is the art 

 of creating organized beauty: of 

 making one harmonious whole of 

 many dissimilar parts. There are 

 two styles most commonly in vogue, 

 the Natural and the Formal or 

 Architectural. The former is some- 

 times called the English style, and 

 the latter the Italian. The natural 

 style is undoubtedly the favorite in 

 England, Canada and the United 

 States, 



In Canada I would like to see a 

 distinct Canadian style of natural 

 landscape gardening, and one which 



