The Garden Magazine, April, 1922 



123 



preserved, although the treatment of the pergola and its terminal 

 features is far less formal than that of the house. 



THE original placing of the house on the property being un- 

 natural, the design of the garden was studied with utmost 

 care to conceal this fact and to give the house such a setting 

 that its location would appear not only natural but inevitable. 

 The house was an almost literal rendering of the owner's pre- 

 conceived ideas as to plan and elevation, and those ideas pre- 

 sented a number of points of extreme difficulty. 



One feels that under blending of time it may gather a peculiar 

 charm, and things which the architects perhaps regarded as re- 

 grettable necessities be changed into points of added interest. 

 The tastes of an owner and the demands of the location remain 

 after the architects have departed, and a place that grew con- 

 formingly about those tastes and demands, will have the ad- 

 vantage of their continued influence to aid the blending of 

 time. 



The public is indebted to Mr. Embury for several useful 

 volumes on American architecture. His "Early American 

 Churches" contains information on the history of certain New 

 England church spires, for instance, which I had long sought 

 for and found nowhere else. His "One Hundred Country 

 Houses" has an interesting chapter on "The House and the 

 Garden," in which he remarks that the Hollyhock is the best of 

 all flowers from the standpoint of the architect, and, from the 

 same standpoint, defines the garden as " the link which forms 

 the intermediate step between the purely artificial building and 

 its natural environment, and therefore of a dual character, 

 partly natural and partly conventional." 



There are standpoints and standpoints. There is the stand- 

 point of the rhetorician who remarks that a "link which forms 

 a step" is a mixed metaphor, and mixed metaphors are viola- 

 tions of the canon of unity; the standpoint of the more genial 

 critic who observes that the great poets do not object to mixed 

 metaphors as much as the rhetoricians; the standpoint of garden 

 lovers who will feel that Mr. Embury's definition does not wholly 



cover the subject of gardens; and the standpoint of the present 

 writer who observes that, taken with its context, the definition 

 is evidently not intended to do so; that every art indeed has 

 something of that same dual character; but that so far as it 

 goes the definition seems to be sound; and finally that the 

 Schieren garden illustrates its principle. 



It is a garden that seems in place between the house and the 

 sea. The open pergola lends to the wide waters its quiet touch 

 of humanity, and the sun-dial adds its comment on mortality. 



Like as the waves do hasten on the shore, 

 So do our minds hasten to their end. 



The virtue of dials is to present the motion of time as a gliding 

 without division — not staccato, as ticked off by the household 

 mechanism of a clock, but noiselessly flowing — like wind or 

 water, and without even their rustle or murmur. The dial or 

 hour-glass with its index shadow or gliding sand is more faith- 

 fully indicative of the nature of time than any clock or watch, 

 however minute the vibrations that govern the hands. And 

 because in gardens it is more important that time be measured 

 justly to its spirit than precisely to its letter, and that the 

 thought of time be enlarged and not lessened; because it matters 

 more that the roll of the whole earth be recorded in shadow and 

 silence than that its minute and artificial divisions be exactly 

 indicated by the pointing of a metal index, or the click and recoil 

 of a spring — so it is that dials are rightly placed in gardens. 



"The success of any garden," says Mr. Embury, "lies largely 

 in securing proper vistas, and in the successful handling of boun- 

 daries. The vista must be interesting in itself, and terminated 

 by a more or less important feature. . . . The question of 

 boundaries is always a difficult one. Their angles must usually 

 be strengthened." 



And these principles too are illustrated in the Schieren garden 

 in the interesting and well-terminated vista, the definite and 

 strong-angled boundary. Along any shore a structural garden 

 is a better intermediary than any green lawn between the house 

 and the sea. 



PLANTING FACTS FOR READY REFERENCE 



— A high, gravelly soil is ideal for fruit trees. 



— Planting trees too deep is a mistake. 



— Planting must never be performed while the orchard is wet 

 and sticky. 



• — When set out, young trees should be cut back at least one 

 half of the previous year's growth of wood. 



— The best tree to plant is a young whip about five feet high. 

 Such a tree is more apt to grow without a setback. It may be 

 trimmed to any height it is desired to have the head start. 



— It is claimed that trees set in holes blasted with dynamite 

 bear fruit earlier than when set in spade-dug holes. The use 

 of dynamite in tree planting, subsoiling and ditch digging is more 

 extensive every year. 



— In selecting large, stocky trees instead of small, well-devel- 

 oped ones, very little is gained. Small or medium-sized trees 

 are better than large, over-grown ones. They live better, grow 

 faster, and become more symmetrical. This holds as true with 

 shade as it does with fruit trees. 



— Fruit trees must have proper nourishment, as they are rank 

 feeders. 



— For wounds in trees there is nothing better than rosin and 

 tallow. 



— Suckers should be removed as fast as they appear. They 

 sap the vitality from the trees, causing too dense a growth. 



— A good wash to keep rabbits from gnawing fruit trees is a 

 mixture of lime, carbolic acid and copperas. 



— A dressing of wood ashes, or potash, around the base of 

 the tree assists considerably to improve the color of the fruit. It 

 is also necessary for the fruit to have plenty of light. 



— The proper distance for planting is 30 feet apart each way 

 for standard Apples; 20 feet for standard Pears and strong grow- 

 ing Cherries; 16 to 20 feet for Plums and Apricots; 10 to 12 feet 

 for dwarf Pears and dwarf Apples. 



— Should a tree die, remove all of the root possible, and leave 

 the hole in the ground just as the work left it. In about three 

 or four weeks a new tree can be planted, after the hole has been 

 filled with good soil. Tramp the ground firmly when planting. 



