The Livable House 



things where there are — will take the raw new look away from a 

 house and tie it down adequately to the lawn's green carpet. 



The first requirement for the right sort of foundation planting, 

 and, for the matter of that, the last too, is appropriateness. All 

 the other requirements, namely strength, permanence, and proper 

 scale, are included in this one term. 



Probably the most common of the inappropriate sorts of 

 foundation planting is that which appears to consist of one each 

 of all the different kinds of evergreens contained in the nursery- 

 man's catalogue. Eyery suburb and real-estate development 

 abounds in houses whose foundations are surrounded with a lot 

 of little yellow and green and blue balls, cones, and pyramids, 

 which present a bristling, unnatural look and contribute nothing 

 of repose or dignity to the house. What could be less appro- 

 priate, less calculated to make the house look as if it belonged to 

 its particular bit of country, than this collection of "specimen" 

 evergreens? "Specimens" is the term which most truly describes 

 them, and as such they should be placed in arboretums. An e.x- 

 clusively evergreen planting is always bad because the trees are 

 too decided and definite in form; they need the more graceful, 

 branching, deciduous things to tie them together. 



The chief quality on which evergreens rely for their popularity 

 — the (juality which endears them to most people — is their ever- 

 greenness. And, indeed, their color in the winter landscape is 

 very desirable, but other colors than green contribute cheer to 

 winter's dullness — and shrubs with colored berries and branches 

 may be combined with the evergreens into a much more pleasing- 



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