Practical Plans for the Home Grounds 



VII. A Hillside Garden— By Ruth Dean, 



[Landscape 

 Architect, N. Y. 



A HILL with a gentle slope which 

 drops abruptly ten feet, to re- 

 sume its slope and stretch on 

 again in leisurely fashion into a 

 wood, suggests either a garden on two levels, 

 or a house on one level and a garden on the 

 other. This latter scheme is the one which 

 the plan shows. For a distance of two 

 hundred feet the land slopes back from the 

 road, and at the end of this comparatively 

 gentle slope, the house is set, with the en- 

 trance side toward the road, and the back 

 toward the garden. When house and gar- 

 den are planned at once in this way, the 

 result is much happier than when the two 

 are done separately. Kitchen quarters, 

 garage, and service court are all together, 

 and none of them unpleasantly near the 

 living rooms of the house; but when the 



house is set with no thought for the nec- 

 essary accessories, a condition which often 

 occurs, the road must go in where best it 

 may, and the garden be but a makeshift. 



Moreover, the design of the garden itself 

 should be suggested somewhat by the form 

 of the land, for observing the characteristics 

 of each piece of land and developing them, 

 is what gives individuality to a garden, 

 and makes it pleasantly different from its 

 neighbor. Here, instead of excavating the 

 land or filling it in to make the house and 

 garden all on one level, the drop of ten feet 

 has served as an excuse for a flight of steps 

 which leads from a terrace to a flower garden 

 below. The five-foot contour lines repre- 

 sent the land as it was before any grading 

 was done. The steep slope about the 

 steps was concealed with trees and tall 



growing shrubs, and the garden itself al- 

 lowed to slope evenly about five feet in the 

 total length of 1 10 feet. Although this is a 

 perceptible grade, it is not enough to be 

 objectionable, and it reduced the amount 

 of fill which would have been necessary to 

 bring the lower end of the garden up to the 

 level of the upper. 



The two big trees, with the opening be- 

 tween them and the wood, more or less 

 dictated the width of the garden, and sug- 

 gested its fan-shaped spread. From this it 

 was a natural step to bring out the border 

 planting of the wood and extend it right up 

 to the base of the terrace, making it appear 

 as if the garden had been opened through 

 the woods. Cedars and white birch, witch- 

 hazel, sumach, and other wood and border 

 shrubs make up this planting. 



WMMm 



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