90 WALL GARDENING 



The stupid thing to do is to make steep banks of grass with 

 sharpy formal edges. These terraces are difficult to mow and 

 costly to maintain in perfect condition. At best they are dull, 

 compared with a real lawn or with the beauty that may be had by 

 retaining natural contours and planting the banks with flowering 

 shrubs and vines. For these have longer roots than grass and are 

 therefore better adapted for holding the soil and preventing wash- 

 outs. And a border of shrubbery makes a lawn more beautiful, 

 because it acts like the frame of a picture. 



The ostentatious way to treat sloping land is to build a fancy 

 stone wall and leave all its surface exposed so that people may be 

 impressed by the amount of money spent thereon. If mortar is nec- 

 essary it is better to build strongly but simply and partially cover 

 the wall with a variety of climbers and trailers. Even when we do 

 this how little imagination and taste we commonly employ! We 

 use miles of Japanese ivy as if it were the only vine in the world! 

 Yet if the wall is beautiful it is a great mistake to hide it altogether 

 because wall and vine could each set off the other's beauty. More- 

 over, Boston ivy (or ampelopsis) clings so tightly that it emphasizes 

 every artificial line instead of softening it. Again, it rarely occurs 

 to us to plant vines above a wall and let them hang down. Yet our 

 own Virginia creeper is far more beautiful as a trailer than as a 

 climber; witness the picture at plate 39. And every one who has 

 to build retaining walls can transform them into veritable hanging 

 gardens, simply by planting in the earth above them wild grapes, 

 Virginia creeper, wild clematis, multiflora roses, Hall's honey- 

 suckle, and bitter-sweet. A variety is better for the roadside than 

 a monotonous expanse, and the combination just mentioned will 

 give beauty the year round. 



Mind you, I do not advocate a high brick wall around the 



