I 12 



Garden and I^'orest. 



[May 2, 1888. 



at the highest point on yl/Street — /'. e., tlie soutli-wcst corner; 

 then a quick turn will be taken to the right, in order to avoid 

 tlie ledge, then, after passing the ledge, another to the left. On 

 this course a grade of one in twelve and a half can be had. 

 (The grade on the shortest course would be one in seven.) 

 Opposite the entrance to the house there is to be a nearly 

 level space where carriages can I'est. 



The caving bank made by the cut for grade of HI Street re- 

 quires a retaining wall four feet high along the front of the lot. 

 This will allow a low ridge, nearly level along the top, to be 

 formed between the wheelway and the street, making the 

 wheelway safer and a less relatively important circumstance to 

 the eye. 



Even in the part of the lot chosen, as being the least steep, 

 for the house, a suitable plateau for it to stand upon can only 

 be obtained by an embankment on the south and an excavation 

 on the north. The embankment is to be kept from sliding 

 down hill by a wall ten feet in front of the wall of the house. 

 This retaining wall is to be built of stained and crannied, re- 

 fuse blocks of limestone which have been formerly thrown 

 out from the surface in opening quarries on the back of the 

 bluff. They are to be laid without mortar and with a spread- 

 ing base and irregular batter. Where the ledge can be exposed 

 they will rest upon it, and the undressed rock will form a part 

 of the face of the wall. A raiUng two and a half feet high is to be 

 carried on the top of the retainmg wall, and the space {b) be- 

 tween this and the wall of the house will be an open terrace 

 upon which will open half-glazed French windows on the south 

 of the library, parlor and dining-room. At c (figure 2) there is 

 to be a little room for plants in winter, the sashes of which are 

 to be removed in summer, when the space is to be shaded by a 

 sliding awning. At d a. roof covers a space large enough for a 

 tea table or work table, with a circle of chairs about it, out of the 

 liouse proper, forming a garden room. This roof is to be sus- 

 tained by slender columns and lattice-work, and lattice-work 

 is to be carried over it and the whole to be overgrown with 

 vines (Honeysuckle on one side. Wistaria on the other, the two 

 mingling above). The space ee is reserved for a tiny pleasure 

 garden, to be entered from the house and to be considered much 

 as if, in summer, it were a part of it carpeted with turf and em- 

 bellished with foliage and flowers. At/ there is to be a retired 

 seat for reading and intimate conversation, and east of this an 

 entrance to the service gardens, to be described later. The 

 laundry yard, h, and the kitchen yard, i, are to be screened by 

 liigh lattices covered by Virginia Creeper. The court yard, 77", is 

 to be smoothly paved with asphalt blocks or fire brick, which 

 it will be easy to thoroughly hose and swab every day. In 

 one corner of it is a brick ash house, kj in another a gang- 

 way to the cellar and a chute for coal, /y in another a dog 

 house, jii. The stable and carriage house are entered from 

 the court yard, but hay will be taken into the loft from a 

 wagon standing in the passage to the back lane. At n is the 

 stable yard. 



Landscape Gardc-iiing. — The soil to be stripped from the sites 

 of the house, terrace, stable, road and walks, will be sufficient, 

 «hen added to that on the ground elsewhere, to give full two 

 feet of soil wherever needed for turf or planting. 



Trenches, nowhere less than two feet deep, are to be made 

 on each side of the approach road south of the terrace and to be 

 filled with highly enriched soil, the surface of which is to slope 

 upward with a slight concavity as it recedes fronr the approach. 

 The base of the wall is to merge irregularly into this slope. 

 The space between the terrace and the street is so divided by 

 the approach, and, in the main, is so steep and dry, that no 

 part of it can be well kept in turf, nor can trees be planted in 

 it, because they would soon grow to olsstruct the southward 

 view from the house and terrace. The steep dry ground and 

 the rock and rough wall of this space are to be "veiled with 

 vines rooting in the trenches. The best vine for the purpose 

 is the common old clear green Japan Honeysuckle {Lonicera 

 Halliana). hi this sheltered situation it will lie verdant most, if 

 not all, of the winter, and blooming, not too flauntingly, all of 

 the summer. It can be trained not only over the rough slop- 

 ing wall of the terrace, but also over the railing above it, and 

 here be kept closely trimmed, so as to appear almost hedge- 

 like. Also it may be trained up the columns of the shelter and 

 along its roof ; the odor from its bloom will he pleasing on 

 the terrace, and will be perceptible, not oppressively, at the 

 windows of the second story. Other vegetation is to be intro- 

 duced sparingly to mingle with it, the wfld Rose and Clematis 

 tif the neighborhood ; the Akebia vine, double flowering- 

 Brambles, and, in crevices of the wall, Rhus aromafica, dwarf 

 Brambles, Cotoneastcr microphylla, Indian Fig, Aster, and 

 Golden Rod, but none of these in conspicuous bodies, for the 

 space is not too large to be occupied predominatingly by a 



mass of foliage of a nearly uniforin character. Near the south- 

 west corner of the pleasure garden, Forsytliia suspensa is to 

 fall over the wall, and, also, as a drapery in the extreme corner 

 (because the odor to tliose near the bloom of it is not pleasant), 

 Matrimony vine {Lycium vulgare). Upon the walls of the 

 house east of the terrace, Japanese Ivy (^r/;///f/()/.fzV Veitchii) is 

 to be grown, and before it a bush of the fiery Thorn (Cr(?/<r?^?« 

 Pyracantlia). For the ground on the street side of the ap- 

 proach, //, smooth-leaved shrub evergreens would be chosen 

 were tliey likely to thrive. But both the limestone soil and 

 the situation is unfavorable to them. Next, a dark compact 

 mass of rovmd-headed Conifers would best serve the purpose 

 of a foreground to the distant view, but there are none that 

 can be depended on to thrive long in the situation that could 

 be kept within the required bounds except by giving them a 

 stubbed and clumsy form by the use of the knife. The best 

 available material for a strong, low mass, with such deep sha- 

 dows on the side toward the terrace as it is desirable to secure, 

 and which is most sure to thrive permanently in the ratherdry 

 and hot, situation, will be found in the more horizontally branch- 

 ing of the Thorn trees {CratcTgiis), which grow naturally in sev- 

 eral varieties on other parts of tlie hill. Their heads may be 

 easily kept 'ow enough, especially in thecaseof theCockspur(C. 

 Crus-galli), to leave the view open from the terrace without 

 taking lumpy forms. But as a thicket of these spreading thorn 

 bushes, fifty feet long, so near the eye, might be a little stiff 

 and monotonous, a few shrubs are to be blended with them, 

 some of which will send straggling sprays above the mass and 

 others give delicacy, grace and liveliness, both of color and tex- 

 ture, to its face. Common Privet, red-twigged Dogwood, com- 

 mon and purple Barberry, Dcuizia scabra, Spice-bush and 

 Snowberry may be used for the purpose. American Elms ha\-e 

 already been planted on the lot adjoining on the east. Tlie 

 Wahoo Elm [Uliiiiis alata) and the Nettle tree {Celtis occiden- 

 talis) are to be planted in the space between the approach and 

 the boundary. They will grow broodingly over the road, not 

 too high, and mass homogeneously with the larger growing 

 Elms beyond. Near the stable two Pecans {Gary a olivcefor- 

 iiu's) are to be planted. The three trees last named all grow 

 in the neighboring country and are particularly neat and free 

 from insect pests. A loose hedge of common Privet having 

 the effect of a natural thicket is to grow along the boundary. 

 No other shrub grows as well here under trees. 



As the pleasure garden is to be very small, to be closely asso- 

 ciated with the best rooms, and to be not only looked at but used, 

 it must be so prepared that no excessive labor will be needed 

 (as in watering, mowing, sweeping and rolling), to keep it in 

 superlatively neat, fresh and inviting condition. No large trees 

 are to be grown upon or near it by which it would be oversha- 

 dowed and its moisture and fertility drawn upon to the injury 

 of the finer plantings. It must be easy of use by ladies when 

 they are shod and dressed for the house and not for the street. 

 Its surface is to be studiously modeled with undulations such 

 as might be formed where a strong stream is turned aside 

 abruptly into a deep and narrow passage with considerable 

 descent. It will be hollowing near the house and the walk, 

 and will curl and swell, like heavy canvas slightly lifted by the 

 wind, in the outer parts. Wherever it is to be lett in turf the 

 undulations are to be so gentle that close mowing, rolling and 

 sweeping will be easily practicable. The upper and outer parts 

 are to be occupied by bushy foliage compassing about all the 

 turf; high growing shrulis next the fences and walls; lower 

 shrubs before them ; trailers and low herbaceous plants be- 

 fore all. But there must be exceptions enough to this order 

 to avoid formality, a few choice plants of each class standing- 

 out singly. The bushes are to be planted thickly, not simply 

 to obtain a good early effect, but because they will grow better 

 and with a more suitable character in tolerably close compan- 

 ionship. As the good sense of thelady -whois to be niistressof 

 this garden ranges niore widely than is common beyond in- 

 ,door matters of taste, it may be hoped that due thinnings 

 will be made from year to year and that the usual mutilation of 

 bushes under the name of pruning will be prevented. 



The following little trees and bushes may be used for the 

 higher range : The common, trustworthy sorts of Lilac, Bush- 

 honeysuckle, Mock-orange, Forsythia, Weigelia, the Buffalo- 

 berry (5//i?/(W77'/(r), common Barberry, the Cornelian Cherry and 

 the red twigged Dogwood. In the second tier, iVIissouri Cur- 

 rant, Clethra, Calycanthus, Jersey Tea, Japanese Quince, Japa- 

 nese Mahonia, Spirjeas, and the Mezereon Daphne. 



In the third tier, Deutzia gracilis, Oregon Grape, flowering 

 Almond (white and red), Spircca Thimbergii anA S. Japonica, 

 Waxberry, Daphne Cncorum, small-leaved Cotoneaster, and 

 the Goatsbeard Spirsea. The Virginia Creeper is to be planted 

 against the w^alls of the house, Chinese Wistarias near the 



