i8 



for ample lawns or landscape planting where the frontage is but thirty or forty 

 feet. Save the gardenlike features for the garden in the rear. 



These front-yard grass plots look best with the simplest treatments; walks tO' 

 one side rather than in the center (except for houses with symmetrical fronts and 

 center doors) and always straight; good grass; and very little, but very good, 

 planting — in brief, simple, straightforward treatment to the extent of seventy 

 makes for the best appearance of the street and also for the best foreground for 

 a house-. Shrubs should be used most carefully, and selected not alone for their 

 flowers or for one's fondness for particular varieties, but for their fitness in the 

 whole picture of the house front. Individual shrubs whose form or appearance, 

 all the year around, may give emphasis to the entrance or soften the angles of the 

 house comer or porch are acceptable; and of these two or three, or possibly more 

 when closely grouped so as to have the effect of single plants, will be an abundance. 

 The less shrubbery one can use with satisfactory effect, the better will be the 

 result. There should be nothing displeasing in the appearance of the masonry 

 foundations of buildings; and in fact the so-called "foundation planting" or 

 "base planting," which produces the absurd effect of their standing upon bushes, 

 is in no sense desirable and only detracts from their appearance of stability. 

 It is true that many houses have been built too high above the ground, and con- 

 cealment of this awkwardness is attempted by means of continuous planting. 

 But one evil seldom cures another. If the grade line is too low, raise it. One 

 should rely upon vegetation merely to soften, to give the appearance of a little 

 age, and to add a touch of decoration. Too much planting clatters a small 

 yard. An area given over largely to planting looks like a garden, and the plac? 

 for a garden is not in the small front yard of a city lot. The front yard as a whole 

 should be planned as an appropriate foreground for the house front, which it 

 should set off without attracting the main interest to itself. Simple treat- 

 ments are therefore best. 



Houses directly on the sidewalk, with the "stoop" and high flight of steps 

 which afford a good basement entrance, are not within the scope of this discussion. ^ 

 Vith any appreciable turf area, it is best to avoid high flights of steps ascend- 

 ing directly to the front door. Steps at the sidewalk, or several flights as one 

 approaches, are a better arrangement. While as a rule low doorsteps and at least 

 the effect of a low first-floor elevation look best, yet, unless grades are compara- 

 tively fiat in these small front lawns, it is impossible to make even the merest 

 suggestion of a rule for their treatment. When a house is planned, that line of 

 grade across the front should be determined which is good and proper in relation 

 to the design of its front. Then, if there is space for plants, which should like- 

 wise be considered when the front is being designed, these will not have to serve 

 as curtains, but rather will they be a part of the design. 



Usually the most important plants in the front yard are those on either side of 

 the front door. At times these are all that will be needed. Needless to say, 

 they should be carefully selected with a view to being as refined as possible and of 

 a kind which will thrive and look well all the year round. Also should it be 

 remembered that these plants are intended as a decoration for the front door. 

 Avoid extremes in color and other distracting objects and, so far as possible, 

 choose plants of dark, rich, green foliage and rounded forms, rather than those 

 of conspicuous or striking appearance. In city situations, gaudy colors and 



