Gardening in Californi 



study the plan (of planting and grouping the trees and shrubs) 

 is from the house-site, the effect being judged from the points on 

 the house-site where the principal windows and doors and veran- 

 das will be. When the grounds are large enough, the main lawns 

 or grass plots will, of course, be located immediately about the 

 house, and the groups of trees with their undergrowth of shrubs 

 can be massed round and about the lawns, these forming the out- 

 lines for the grassy surface. These outlines should be made as 

 informal as the nature and size of the grounds will permit. Bold 

 points of trees and shrubbery should project into the lawn space, 

 and again the grassy surface should be allowed to run deep into, 

 as if getting lost among, the tree groups, the plan always avoid- 

 ing anything formal either in the shape of the grassy inlets or 

 of the shrubbery groups. 



In this connection it is suggested that some consideration be 

 given to what may be termed the happy accidents of Nature's 

 planting, for in some of the untouched virgin spots in Nature's 

 garden there are scenes more soft and more beautiful than any- 

 thing our gardening has yet produced. Those who have under- 

 taken to do what we are now considering that is, to plant a 

 pleasure-garden and lawns and are in doubt as to how to estab- 

 lish the lines of the lawns or the groups of trees, shrubs and 

 flowers, may get invaluable suggestions as to how to arrange 

 them in harmonious composition if they will do as our best 

 painters do, namely, go into the natural forests of our hills and 

 hillsides, or the meadows and haughs of our valleys, and select, 

 from the innumerable beautiful scenes, the one whose beauty most 

 appeals to them and which seems to best fit the general outline 

 of the site for which the plans are being prepared. Then let the 

 measurements of this part of Nature's garden be carefully taken, 

 figuring what are its length, and its breadth ; what are the depth 

 and width of the grassy bays which seem to meander through the 

 Forest; also the form and shape which these bays assume. It 

 will be found that Nature seldom runs straight lines and 



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