September, 19] 2 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



51 



have a rose garden or an old-fashioned 

 garden of perennial flowers in box-edged 

 beds. Then comes the rude shock of dis- 

 covery that gardening is costly — so costly 

 that there is usually no appropriation left 

 for outdoor operations after building. 

 "The only thing we can afford is a lawn," 

 sigh the people. Alas! they do not realize 

 that a first-class lawn often costs more 

 even than flowers and always more than 

 shrubbery. So they skimp on the funda- 

 mentals — preparation of the soil, fer- 

 tilizers, and the best seed — and the result 

 is a bare place and a miserable lawn full of 

 weeds. 



The best way of financing home grounds 

 is to provide in the original plan a certain 

 percentage for outdoor features. From 

 ten to thirty-three per cent, of the cost of 

 house and lot should be reserved for grad- 

 ing, manuring, garden design, plants and 

 labor. Considering the health and happi- 

 ness of the family is this too much to spend 

 on your outdoor living room? Yet there 

 are congressmen in Washington to whom $5 

 for shrubs or lawn looks bigger than $50 

 for theatre tickets or $500 for wine. And 

 a senator who owns a home costing $100,000 

 will send to the Department of Agriculture 

 for free seeds to plant in his front yard. 

 The first thing in planning home grounds 

 is to get some sense of proportion. On this 

 place about seven per cent, has been spent 

 on outdoor features, or $300. This in- 

 cluded removing an unsightly old shop, 

 trenching and manuring the land, a re- 

 taining wall, a fence, trees and shrubs, and 

 planting. The garden design, if obtained 

 from professional sources, would cost $30 

 to $100 or more, according to the reputa- 

 tion of the landscape gardener. 



The first principle of landscape art is to 

 hide unsightly objects. In this case, as 

 the plan shows, there are buildings on every 

 side of the R home. Such circum- 

 stances make a place seem cramped, 

 hemmed in. Bare buildings make a lot 

 look smaller than it is. Vines will hide 

 more brick than trees and they have the 

 power of transmuting ugliness into beauty, 

 but in this case it was not practical to use 

 them on wooden buil d- 

 ings belonging- to the 

 neighbors. Therefore, 

 six Lombardy poplars 

 were planted at the 

 points indicated in the 

 plan, on the principle 

 that tall, narrow trees 

 will distract attention m 

 from what they can- g 

 not hide. And a bor- § 

 der containing other w 

 trees and shrubs was % 

 put along the side and g ^ 

 back of the lot to ^ 

 screen the buildings 

 as much as possible 

 and to give plenty of 

 foliage. For greenery 

 is more effective than 

 flowers in giving a 

 feeling of freedom and 



coolness, and it costs less to maintain. 

 The photograph shows how successful 

 these efforts have been. Some of the 

 neighboring buildings are almost hidden. 

 The lot looks larger. There is a suggestion 

 of the country. 



Another principle of landscape art is to 

 secure privacy. It is as bad to expose the 

 whole yard to view as it is to put all one's 

 goods in the show window. If a yard is 

 not shut in, children will be on the street 

 too much. The ideal is an outdoor play- 

 ground away from street sights but within 

 the hearing of the mother. In this case 

 we have a high fence along the front of the 

 lot, and a playhouse and sand pile in the 

 rear. Whenever there are several little 

 children it is best to have much grass and 

 few flower beds. As the children grow 

 older and become interested in gardening, 

 this ratio will change. Is this not better 

 than having the children play in a yard 

 that can be swept by the eye of every 

 passing gamin? 



A third principle of landscape art is to 

 introduce some charm into the common- 

 place. Privacy is essential to charm, and 

 one way of obtaining it is by means of the 

 "disappearing curve." To illustrate, as 

 you stand at the gate, you see the path 

 leading to the front door and past it until 

 it is lost behind some lilacs. If that path 

 ran straight back without obstruction to 

 the garbage pail, as many do, there would 

 be no privacy, no charm. The spirit of 

 show makes millions of yards commonplace 

 because everything is revealed at a glance; 

 nothing is left to the imagination. A dis- 

 appearing walk or drive makes you wonder 

 where it goes to. In this case you wonder 

 what is behind the lilac bush, and on 

 investigation you find it is a children's 

 playground. The plan shows how the 

 playground comes as a bit of surprise as 

 you round the corner of the big bushes of 

 lilac. 



Every proposition has its limitations, 

 and one obvious criticism of the present 

 plan is that poplars and willows are short- 

 lived. Red cedars are longer-lived than 

 Lombardy poplars and more effective as 



Plan of Mr. R. — 's 50 x 121 ft. lot at Salem. Mass. 



screens, since they are evergreen. Every 

 one who can afford permanent trees, like 

 oak and beech, should plant them in 

 preference to temporary trees like box 

 elder, silver maple, etc. But in smoky 

 cities evergreens will not thrive, and they 

 cost so much more than deciduous trees 

 that they are often impractical, especially 

 for renters. In this case, the designer 

 knew well how soon poplars become ragged, 

 brittle, thin, and messy, but after con- 

 sidering all the factors he thought this 

 solution the most practical. It is a 

 question that everyone must decide for 

 himself. But do not be led by blind 

 impulse — by mere love of particular trees 

 or their speed of growth. For the faster 

 trees grow, the sooner they are likely to 

 lose their beauty, and the best trees are 

 not the ones we love most for their own 

 sakes but the ones that come nearest to 

 answering all the requirements of health, 

 comfort, and beauty. 



Again, many of my readers will be dis- 

 appointed because the place is not full of 

 flowers, or because there are no box-edged 

 beds. I do not wish to discourage any one 

 from having a garden, for a person will 

 not be happy until he has had a chance to 

 express his own personality in this way. 

 Most people, undoubtedly, are keenest 

 to begin with the famous flowers of history, 

 e. g., roses, lilies, violets, pinks, pansies, 

 daffodils, peonies, geraniums, etc. That 

 is all right. But you will find that they 

 require more care and cost more in the 

 long run than trees and shrubs. And, 

 therefore, trees and shrubs may be more 

 artistic for you, because the best art grows 

 out of the cheapest solution that is reason- 

 ably permanent. Every year our stand- 

 ards of beauty rise, and finally we perceive 

 that greenery may be more important for 

 us than flowers. And even by the greenery 

 system one gets a fair quantity of flowers. 

 In this case, for example, would you not be 

 satisfied with rambler roses, lilacs, honey- 

 suckle, spireas, hawthorns, forsythia, wis- 

 taria, hollyhocks, viburnum, horse-chestnut 

 and a bed of annuals? 

 Those who must consider practical de- 

 tails will be interested 

 in the following notes 

 by the designer. 



"The house was 

 built about 1830. It 

 is plain throughout, 

 and has a gambrel 

 roof with dormer win- 

 dows lightinlg the 

 third story chambers. 

 On land immediately 

 in the rear was a large 

 workshop and two- 

 decked staging where 

 carriage's were re- 

 paired and painted. 

 The front yard was 

 practically given over 

 to the passageway to 

 the carriage shop. 

 Thils was bordered 

 with coarse grass and 



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