Practical Plans for the Home Grounds 



VI. A Naturalistic Garden— By Ruth Dean, aJ&5?y. 



[Editors' Note. — One article in this series appears each month. Planting plans will be found in the issues for February and April.] 



FORMALITY and informality in 

 gardens each have their partisans; 

 the word "formal" is sufficient 

 in the minds of some people to 

 condemn a garden, and to others of more 

 architectural tastes, an informal plan con- 

 tains nothing of interest. It is always a 

 temptation to the designer to draw a 

 balanced, formal layout, made up of 

 straight lines and regular curves, for the 

 simple reason that it looks so much more 

 finished and workmanlike on paper than 

 does a naturalistic scheme. I find that nine 

 times out of ten, if a client is given two 

 schemes for the same piece of property, one 

 squared and neat looking, the other ragged 

 and naturalistic, he will choose the former. 

 This is plainly because its orderliness ap- 

 peals to his eye, and, unable to form any 

 very definite picture of either one, he favors 

 that which looks better on paper. Clearly 



naturalistic pool down on Long Island 

 do not import rocks and boulders to put 

 along the edge of your pond. Make it true 

 to the type of pool which occurs in the 

 neighborhood. Plant cedars behind it, 

 and sumach and viburnum and dogwood, 

 with such flowers as Joe Pye weed, cardinal 

 flower, iris and the purple iron weed. 



But if the streams and pools near your 

 house are rocky, then stones jutting out 

 into the water are quite in order. Be care- 

 ful to have the majority of them big stones 

 or the water's edge will look cluttered and 

 restless. There is a variety of manufac- 

 tured stone called "Tuft Stone," which is 

 very satisfactory for gardens of this sort, 

 and works well into the landscape. 



The garden in the plan is on a place of 

 about an acre and a half, where natural- 

 istic planting has been used on all parts of 

 the grounds. No hedges or trellis screen 



the drying green, but tall, irregular-growing 

 shrubs, with a few trees to vary the height 

 line, take their place. Borders of the same 

 sort shut off the house from the road and 

 the garage from both. Flowers, instead of 

 being planted in beds, are massed in bays 

 of the shrubbery, and no gravel paths cut 

 up the green. Stepping stones lead one 

 through crabapple and cedars, dogwood, 

 and cherry to a pool lying in the midst of 

 the thicket. And here, shut off by tall 

 shrubs and trees, one may sit with a feeling 

 of being quite remote from a world of busy 

 people. This is probably the main point in 

 favor of "landscape gardens" so-called; if 

 they are well done they give one the atmos- 

 phere of woods and fields which formal gar- 

 dens are less able to do. That sort of gar- 

 den may have other charms of art, however, 

 and to illustrate them will be the purpose of 

 next month's plan of this same property. 



the 



plan 



informal 

 is at a 

 d i s a dvantage, 

 for there is no 

 way of represent- 

 ing graphically the 

 charm of ragged, 

 iris-fringed pools, of 

 stepping stones that 

 wind in among feath- 

 ery grasses and gay 

 marsh mallows, of a seat 

 under a clump of haw 

 thorns, or of fiery spikes 

 of cardinal flower rising up 

 against dark cedars. And 

 yet all this may be set forth 

 in plan, with the most skilful 

 kind of draughtmanship, and 

 against its formal brother whose 

 charms of design are all apparent, 

 cut no figure at all. 



Moreover it is much the more 

 difficult garden to execute success- 

 fully. It must not be artificial in 

 feeling, nor forced, nor exaggerated. 

 The best way to prevent its being any 

 one of these things is to study the 

 countryside round about a given locality, 

 and to use very largely native trees, 

 shrubs, and plants. If you are making a 



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