Gardening in California 



connecting the house-site with the sites of the stables and other 

 outbuildings must be marked and staked in similar way as for the 

 main approach. It is strongly urged that care should be taken 

 to have these walks in reasonably direct lines, for unless they are 

 direct, they will not be followed, and those who are compelled 

 to go to these outbuildings many times a day will be sure to make 

 short cuts, trampling down grass and perhaps fine shrubbery, such 

 foot-paths and trails always giving an uncared-for effect and 

 being blemishes in any property. 



Before beginning the planting of the trees and shrubs for 

 sheltering and ornamenting the grounds, (this subject being fully 

 considered in other chapters) the grounds should be carefully sur- 

 veyed and platted, the house-site, the sites of the outbuildings, the 

 approach and roads of all kinds being marked on the plat. 



When the grades and positions of the different buildings have 

 been established and marked, and the approach and other roads 

 staked off, all the building-sites should be roughly graded, and 

 the fills, if any, on the roadways and walks leveled up. 



But first, before beginning this rough grading, careful pro- 

 vision must be made for saving all of the good top-soil which may 

 be found on the sites of the buildings, the roads and the walks. 

 The importance of this will be realized when the work of plant- 

 ing the ground is taken up and when this good top-soil will be 

 of the greatest value. How often do we find that this exceedingly 

 valuable natural soil has been carelessly used for making fills or 

 road-beds and embankments, instead of having been saved for 

 improving the many pieces of poor soil for which this natural 

 top-soil would have been the covering. Every yard of such good 

 soil saved from grading operations can be used at some point of 

 the grounds where trees, shrubs and plants are to be set out. 



After the survey of the grounds has been platted, (as sug- 

 gested above, the sites of the main building and outhouses as 

 well as the lines of the roads and walks being marked on that 

 plat), the next important work will be preparing the plan of 



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