December, 1910 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



485 



GARDEN NOTES 



CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DOWNING LAY 



THE GARDEN COMPETITION 



FTER some study of the three gardens 

 which were awarded prizes in the Amer- 

 ican Homes and Gardens Garden 

 Competition, they arranged themselves in 

 the minds of the judges in their present 

 order, though at first they did not do so. 

 It was curious to note, after the gardens 

 were arranged first, second and third, how perfectly the ac- 

 companying descriptions deserved this order. 



It is a question whether Dr. Miyaki's place should be 

 called a garden; whether such a fantastic arrangement of 

 stones, water and plants ever could be a garden. But the 

 same question arises with equal force when we look at the 

 other photographs and see not flower gardens, but in one 

 case a pseudo-naturalesque treatment of a back yard and in 

 the other a very rigid and formal treatment of the same 

 uninteresting problem. 



A garden in our opinion is not only a place for flowers, 

 to grow well in, but it is also a place to arrange them beauti- 

 fully just as a room in a house is not an exhibition hall but 

 is a place for the convenient and happy placing of furniture 

 and works of art. 



Convenience is a prime requisite in any garden and con- 

 venience usually means a regular and formal arrangement. 

 We must feel when in a garden that the work required to 

 make or to maintain it is not out of proportion to the result 

 attained. It must be in accord with the lot and with the 

 house and with the owner's apparent means. 



The first prize garden does not seem to fill these re- 

 quirements as well as the second prize, yet on the whole it 

 is more deserving. 



It is difficult to judge of a garden's merits from a photo- 

 graph, because the color is lacking and because the camera 

 gives a false impression of perspective and of distance. A 

 Japanese garden is particularly difficult to judge, because it 

 is so personal and so at variance with western ideas of good 

 taste and of beauty. We shall be discouraged when "Every 

 Man is his own Japanese Gardener." The results of his 

 labors would be so much worse than the atrocious "rock 

 blossom throne" shown in the photographs. We have seen 

 rare bits of garden architecture made of clam shells, horse- 

 shoe tiles, and, of course, rustic work of wood, but such 

 things belong in the age of what-nots decorated with 

 pine cones. 



We cannot agree with Dr. Miyaki's harsh words about 

 lawns without .a qualifying statement that the trouble with 

 our lawns is not that they are grassy, but that our ideal is too 

 often the green baize billiard table. Certainly the undula- 

 tions of a really picturesque lawn are very beautiful and 

 more in harmony with our spirit than the toy lakes and hills 

 and caverns of Dr. Miyaki's garden. We are an unimagin- 

 ative people and see in a lawn little more than the simple 

 (but exquisite), beauty of softly modeled surfaces, the 

 wonderful brilliancy and variety of color as the shadows flit 

 over it, and its satisfying air of neatness and good cultiva- 

 tion. We do not see in a Japanese garden the likeness to 

 Fuji in a little mound of earth, nor do we get the delight 

 which we should from a stone shaped like a toad or a tree 

 trained to resemble the fantastic tentacles of a devil fish. 

 It is difficult to think of a sublime alpine scene reduced in 



scale to fit a forty by sixty lot and impossible to think that 

 any of its beauty would remain after such a reduction in 

 scale. 



In a Japanese garden the beauty of it's details depends 

 on their resemblance to something else as much as in what- 

 ever inherent charm they may have. 



The second prize garden is a delightful bit of planting 

 and a very excellent use of a difficult space — a long narrow 

 lot with a service path which it is desired to hide. The view 

 from the house with the lawn in perspective is very good 

 and must be full of variety. On a similar space we might 

 be tempted to curve the service path close to an irregular 

 border, with no planting between it and the lawn, and thus 

 get the full width of the lot in the scene. The garden seats 

 are, of course, unfortunate and we should like to have the 

 rock edging less conspicuous. 



Such a place as this is pleasing to look at and it is more- 

 over a good place to grow flowers. In this garden the use 

 of the space is secondary; the flowers are the important 

 thing, whereas in the Japanese garden the flowers are 

 secondary and the use of the space most important. 



The third garden illustrates the extreme development of 

 a garden (or rather ornamental lawn), planted with what 

 we call soft stuff; tender annuals which the first frost 

 destroys. 



It is a queer mingling of the supposedly picturesque (the 

 apple tree with flower pots), and of the intensely formal 

 (the beds of clipped Kochia). 



No layout could be devised more perfectly adapted to 

 showing off the brilliant colors of cannas and caladiums, nor 

 could a more striking use for Kochia be found. 



The scheme as a whole is entirely lacking in any sense of 

 design, in scale, composition or proportion. It's luxuriancy 

 and neatness are its only commendable features. It is a 

 pity that such a beautifully smooth and well kept lawn 

 could not be used as a background for better stuff than 

 Kochia. A flowering apple tree, a pair of magnolias and a 

 few good climbing roses would be much more lovely. 



There are innumerable flowering shrubs which could be 

 planted as specimens along the path. They need little care 

 and increase in beauty every year. 



Evergreen trees, too, could be used and the Kochia 

 might be replaced by arbor vitae or hemlock or spruce. 



What all these gardens lack is breadth of treatment and 

 simplicity in design. It is a common fault with amateurs 

 in every art to attempt too much, and thus miss the greatest 

 effectiveness of their work. 



With less stonework, fewer paths, and larger water sur- 

 faces, the first prize garden would probably be more strik- 

 ing and it even might be convincing. 



In the second prize garden there are too many kinds of 

 plants; all are lovely, no doubt, but the garden itself would 

 be better if there were only a few in large masses to strike 

 the eye with a blaze of one color at a time, instead of the 

 mosaic which it must be now. 



It is well to try as many plants as one can, but I think it 

 will be found after a time that most of one's pleasure comes 

 from a half a dozen favorites. 



The third garden is overdone in a similar way. The 

 lawn in this case would be more satisfying if there were 

 nothing in the middle of it, not even the path. 



