10 



enough apart to insure their being seen separately and to the best advantage 

 against an ample background. 



Naturally, it is desirable to have some reciprocity of views about the entire 

 area of the private grounds. Not only from the house to the lawns or gardens, 

 but also from the lawns back to the house, . and particularly about the steps 

 marking the access to the lawn, should the vista be pleasing. If there is a summer- 

 house or paved area for chairs out in the garden, an interesting glimpse of the 

 lawn should be provided therefrom. Thus, in order to organize these lines of 

 view, it is well to indicate them on the general plan by means of lines and especially 

 to mark their termini with arrows. The lines of view may intersect, but usually 

 the termini may be kept well apart and even entirely segregated. This may be 

 accomplished by a clever manipulation of the curves in the border outline, or 

 at times by the use of outstanding individuals or grouped shrubs. Frequently 

 the same point may serve as a focus for more than one view, or the plants which 

 from one point of view are a part of one composition may be made to combine 

 effectively also with those seen primarily from another viewpoint. From any 

 place about the house, in the gardens, or on the lawns where one is likely to sit 

 down or loiter, and thus to take particular notice of that which is about him, 

 the scenery should be of special interest. The planting of the yard should be 

 devised with this in mind. However, in any one direction, but one picture 

 should appear. While each bit of artificial scenery should be somewhat different, 

 it should not be markedly unlike the rest. The planting schemes of a yard need 

 not be intricate to be attractive; and whether or not there are many studied 

 views, a yard will always be more interesting, if from one point of view, there is 

 a vista which is unquestionably more attractive than any of the rest. A view 

 across the longest stretch of greensward is the most characteristic of lawn scenery 

 and is usually the most impressive. 



Detailed methods of planning pictures in the borders involve many of the 

 suggestions already given in the discussion of plant characteristics and in the 

 explanations of the kinds and degrees of accent produced by individual plants 

 and by combinations of plants. In mass planting, however, the characteristics 

 which are most evident are those which are seen silhouetted against the sky, — 

 in other words, that part of any plant which rises above the tops of the flanking 

 masses. The suggestion for studying these border effects in outline has already 

 been made. Perhaps by now it is evident that if, between focuses, the skyline 

 of the border follows an undulating and somewhat indefinite line, and that if, 

 at these focuses, the skyline rises in rounded, columnar, conical, or pointed forms, 

 then, the forms employed, together with their degrees of definiteness, their size, 

 their difference in height and their contrasting characteristics in varied combi- 

 nations will determine the degree of accent they produce in the silhouette of the 

 border. On the contrary, any marked depression in the skyline of a border will 

 also produce an accent, especially if beyond it the adjoining area is comparatively 

 open. Larger openings in the borders, for the enjoyment of distant views, should 

 be flanked by indefinite foliage, preferably that of trees. In small yards it is 

 undesirable thus to open the borders on the lines of the longest views from the 

 interior, as, by comparison with the distance, these views are thereby made to 

 appear shorter, and the apparent size of the yard is also reduced. 



