Planting a Suburban Lot — By e. Rehmann, ?™ y 



SIMPLIFYING A SEEMINGLY DIFFICULT PROPOSITION BY A PROPER SELECTION OF MATERIALS THAT LEND THEM- 

 SELVES TO THE SPIRIT OF THE HOME — WHAT TREES AND SHRUBS TO PLANT FOR ALL THE YEAR ROUND EFFECT 



A SHRUBBERY-BOUNDED lawn, 

 a flower garden, a woods with a 

 curving drive in it are some of the 

 understood requisites of a large 

 estate, but to have all three of them in the 

 suburbs on a steeply sloping lot of only a 

 ioo-foot frontage and 275-foot depth hardly 

 seems possible until we see a concrete ex- 

 ample. Such a one is here presented, which 

 goes to show that size has very little to do 

 with the making of beautiful gardens. 



Not often is a landscape architect asked to 

 plan a place of so small dimensions, for it is 

 not often realized that a good design is as 

 necessary on a small place as on a large one. 

 This particular lot is fortunate in having 

 some tall old trees with a mass of under- 

 growth characteristic of deciduous woods. 

 The house is well placed, back from the 

 street, and has a fine suburban spirit, it 

 is low and rambling, with quaint windows 



and quaint roof lines that make it nestle 

 among the trees. It is this quality that 

 makes it the nucleus around which the 

 garden is built. 



Mr. Warren H. Manning, who was asked 

 to visit the place and make the owner a 

 plan, saw the fine possibilities that the old 

 trees and the picturesque house offered. 



The plan as here produced is of the place 

 at the present time and not wholly as it was 

 originally planned. That plan was left 

 in the hands of the owner to carry out. 

 Certain things have been changed, by the 

 owner's own confession not always to his 

 advantage, certain things have not yet 

 been developed in accordance to the 

 original intent, but the touch of the land- 

 scape architect's hand is on it and its 

 simplicity, dignity and naturalness dis- 

 tinguishes it from all the thoughtless and 

 unfinished planting of neighboring lots. 



In the making of the garden picture 

 there are two duties to be performed, a duty 

 to outsiders and a duty to yourself. The 

 planting, like the exterior of the house, ought 

 to be an asset to the street; but the grounds, 

 like the interior of the house, ought to be 

 primarily for your own comfort and enjoy- 

 ment — a place as private as tall trees and 

 tall shrubbery can make it, so that it can 

 be in reality the out-of-door room. 



From the opposite side of the street a 

 picture would show the two maples that 

 flank at equal distances the main entrance. 

 A barberry hedge has an informality of 

 habit that suits the house better than the 

 stiff dignity of the privet, and a simple 

 break in the hedge at the entrance steps, 

 with their edging of evergreen rose climber, 

 is more appropriate than if gate posts or 

 any other form of emphasis had been tried. 

 The barberry hedge has more advantages 



The shrubbery about the base of the house shows diversity in texture, but each kind is used in a broad mass 



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