PLANTING DESIGN OF PARKS 



consciously often, to achieve real composition as the result of tradition 

 and instinct. American gardeners, without disrespect to their ability, 

 are usually exactly what the name signifies, and are therefore unfitted 

 to handle planting design problems that involve even the most ele- 

 mentary principles of mass and line composition. 



It is obvious and arrant absurdity when planting design is at- 

 tempted or controlled by park engineers or superintendents untrained 

 either in horticulture, gardening or landscape design.* 



TRAINING MORE RELIABLE THAN INTUITION 



It has already become the practice in recent years for park organisa- 

 tions of large cities to include on their permanent staff a landscape 

 designer, one of whose duties is the design and control of park plant- 

 ing. In small cities and towns where it has been impossible for reasons 

 of expense to employ such a man annually, it has been found of great 

 value to retain him for consultation on proposed projects. The land- 

 scape expert, when intermittently employed, often assumes a " prophy- 

 lactic " relation to the work, and in later years when the projects are 

 developed more extensively, no waste is involved in correcting early 

 mistakes. In cities where the park planting is in charge of a head 

 gardener who has not had professional training in design, it becomes 

 the duty of that official either to explain to the proper authorities 

 the value of calling in a landscape expert from time to time, or for 

 him to acquire such knowledge of design as is possible by his own 

 efforts. 



He should, as best he can, familiarise himself with the principles of 

 composition, pictorial and architectural, and should cultivate an in- 

 terest in painting and other forms of art. All of this will gradually 

 give him an appreciation of design. With a thorough basic knowledge 

 of plants and gardening already his, he will find that his very lack of 



* See following chapter. 



224 



