THE GARDEN AND LAWN 



mentation of grounds. Every tree and 

 bush is an individual, alone, unattended, 

 disconnected from its environments, 

 and therefore meaningless. And, if a 

 landscape is a picture, it must have a 

 canvas. This canvas is the green-sward. 

 Upon this, the artist paints with tree 

 and bush and flower, the same as the 

 painter does upon the canvas with brush 

 and pigments. The opportunity for 

 artistic composition, and structure is 

 nowhere so great as in the landscape 

 garden, because no other art has such 

 a limitless field for the expression of its 

 emotions. It is not strange, if this be 

 true, that there have been few great 

 landscape gardeners, and that, falling 

 short of art, the landscape gardener too 

 often works in the sphere of the artisan. 

 There can be no rules for landscape 

 gardening, any more than there can be 

 for painting or sculpture. The operator 

 may be taught how to hold the brush, 

 or strike the chisel, or plant the tree, 

 but he remains an operator ; the art is 

 intellectual and emotional and will not 

 confine itself in precepts. 



The making of a good and spacious 

 lawn, then is the very first practical 

 consideration of a landscape garden. 

 This provided, the gardener conceives 

 what is the dominant and central 

 feature in the place, and then throws 

 the entire premises into subordination 

 with this feature. In home grounds 

 this central feature is the house. To 

 scatter trees and bushes over the area 

 defeats the fundamental purpose of the 

 place, the purpose to make every part 

 of the grounds lead up to the home and 

 to accentuate its homelikeness. Keep 

 the centre of the place open. Plant 

 the borders. Avoid all disconnected, 

 cheap, patchy and curious effects. 



Planting to increase the apparent size 

 of a lawn is also a worthy object. This 

 may be done in several ways. The 



trees and shrubs should be so placed so 

 to hide the boundary fences and un- 

 sightly buildings, and at the same time 

 leave in full view any interesting object, 

 especially such as a lake or mountain, 

 a park or distant landscape. Then 

 trees should not be out of harmony 

 with the surroundings. An immense 

 Norway spruce, beautiful as it may be, 

 is out of keeping when it almost fills a 

 small lawn. A heavy belt of dark hued 

 evergreens makes a small lawn look 

 shut-in and contracted, when, if lighted 

 up with a quantity of light green de- 

 ciduous trees and shrubs, the effect 

 would be quite different. 



I am not a lover of the old geo- 

 metrical square and rule gardens, where 

 all lines are at straight lines, and all is 

 stiff conventionality. I believe we can 

 find harmony in variety, and teauty 

 in artful disarrangement. I dislike 

 the straight walk from the gate to the 

 front door, and prefer to come in at a 

 corner and approach the door along a 

 path half screened by trees. I do not 

 like to see a yard like a grocer's balance, 

 where, if the owner has a cut-leaved 

 weeping birch on one side, he must 

 always plant another opposite to balance 

 up ; nor a front yard like one I once 

 saw where all the trees and shrubs in 

 the front lawn were disposed in four 

 straight rows like an apple orchard. 

 I like to see groups of such shrubs as 

 will harmonize placed here and there, 

 and thickets planted near the gates, and 

 along the boundaries. For this purpose 

 both trees and shrubs must be employed, 

 the former to give height and breadth 

 to the mass, and the latter to fill in and 

 give completeness to the base and 

 nearer portions. 



The frequent practice of shearing 

 shrubbery and trees is, as a rule, to be 

 condemned. Hamilton shows quite a 

 number of remarkable instances of these 



491 



