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T II E G A K I) E N MACAZIX E 



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house rather damp, especially on the north 

 and west sides, because shrubbery holds 

 moisture after a rain longer than bare, well 

 drained soil and sometimes prevents ade- 

 quate ventilation of basements. For the 

 health of patients it is important that 

 hospitals should be dry and airy about 

 the foundations — not damp and close. 

 Again, wood tends to decay, when subject 

 to freezing and thawing, especially when 

 wet. Shrubs planted next to a wall catch 

 the drip and hold their wetness directly 

 against the wood. 



The snow problem becomes more im- 

 portant the farther north one goes, and 

 even in the Middle States, it is sometimes 

 necessar> r to pitch heavy loads off the roof. 

 Under the old arrangement, the snowfalls on 

 the sidewalk and has to be handled again, 

 or it falls on the shrubbery and breaks the 

 bushes. By the new arrangement, the snow 

 falls on a grassy space, where it may usually 

 be left without rehandling or without flood- 

 ing the cellar when it melts. 



Xow, let us consider beauty. The ob- 

 ject of planting shrubbery against a wall 

 is to make a transition between architec- 

 ture and nature. The essence of the prob- 

 lem is to hide the right angle made by wall 

 and lawn. This angle and the straight 

 foundation line are, somehow, two of the 

 ugliest facts with which a landscape de- 

 signer has to deal. Xow, if you plant your 

 shrubbery ten feet away from the wall, it 

 serves to connect architecture and nature 

 quite as well as by the old method, as you 

 can see by Fig. 3, which shows the effect 

 from the sidewalk. Xotice how the shrub- 

 bery blends with the vines. The new idea 

 does not do away with vines on the wall, 

 for they are often more important than 

 trees in hiding ugliness and connecting the 

 building with the landscape. 



Indeed, the new arrangement looks bet- 

 ter than the old, because the shrubbery 

 beds seem wider than they did before. 

 Look at the shrubbery masses and you 

 get the impression of a border twelve to 

 sixteen feet wide, yet the border may be 



only six feet wide. Here again is a saving 

 of plants, top soil, manure and labor if 

 you can get the depth and richness of a 

 sixteen-foot border by planting only six 

 feet. 



Moreover, the new arrangement adds 

 a garden to the grounds without additional 

 cost. For example, consider the row of 

 lilacs in Fig. 1. Teachers and scholars 

 now have a lilac walk, which is far prettier 

 than if the same number of lilacs were 

 crowded against the wall. Both sides of 

 the bushes can now be seen, instead of one. 

 And, instead of a hard, narrow, artificial 

 path, there is a broad, pleasant, nature- 

 like strip of lawn to walk upon. Imagine, 

 how beautiful it must be when the lilacs 

 are in bloom! 



Fig. 1. The new way of beautifying large build- 

 ings by planting shrubbery away from the wall 

 instead of against it. Lilacs at right. Ampelopsis 

 Engclmanni on walls. Forsythia intermedia at left. 

 From the street these lilacs look as if they were 

 planted against the wall 



Important as these improvements are 

 tluy suggest something else far more 

 important, viz., every large building 

 ought to have a comprehensive plan of 

 its outdoor surroundings made by a first- 

 class landscape architect. It is the 

 only way to provide for every conve- 

 nience and to harmonize every outdoor 

 feature. 



For example, the biggest fact about a 

 big building, as a rule, is that it makes a 

 frightful discord with the landscape. Take 

 this school building in Salem for example. 

 I dare say it is all that a school should be 

 as to architecture and management, and 

 probably the people of Salem swell with 

 honest pride whenever they see its huge 

 bulk, but to me it is a big yellow blotch on 

 the landscape. The reason why big new 

 buildings look painfully crude and raw is 

 that they make a violent contrast with 

 their environment. The first thing to do 

 is plant vines, because vines will grow high 

 more quickly than trees. Moreover, even 

 mature trees can only hide ugliness, while 

 vines have the power of transmuting ugli- 

 ness into beauty. The chief vine on this 

 building is Englemann's creeper (Ampelop- 

 sis Engelmanni), which was introduced to 

 cultivation by Mr. Kelsey. This grows more 

 quickly than the common Virginia creeper 

 (A. quinquefolia) and is showier in autumn 

 because the foliage turns scarlet instead 

 of claret. And notice particularly that it 

 is a perfect "dinger" to smooth brick, 

 stone or concrete surfaces while its proto- 

 type the Virginia creeper has undeveloped 

 discs which are too weak to support the 

 vine in this manner. 



The truth is that the only right way to 

 finance a large building is to allow about ten 

 per cent, of the total cost for outdoor 

 features. Then, before you choose the 

 architect or buy your land, call in your 

 landscape architect because his judgment 

 on sites and finances is invaluable. Then 

 you may have ground enough to give a 

 building dignity; convenient drives and 

 walks, instead of meaningless serpentine 



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Fig. 2. Before planting, showing what violence every large new building, no 

 matter how good, does to the landscape until trees, vines and shrubs are 

 planted in such a way as to connect architecture and nature 



Fig. 3. View from the street, showing how the shrubbery seems to be planted 

 against the wall. In reality there is a wide, grassy passageway which admits light 

 and air to the basement windows and gives the children a pleasant garden walk 



