February, 1908 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



49 



trees without the terrace, while by no means crowded, are 

 still sufficient to relieve the immediate proximity of the house 

 from all sense of barrenness. 



The scheme is fine, for it gives a house park immediately 

 around the dwelling, emphasizes and beautifies it, and adorns 

 it in a very gracious and refined manner. At the back, and 

 overlooking all the lands below the terrace, is a spacious 

 porch, furnished as an outdoor living-room. Its roof serves 

 as a balcony for the second story, where the hot summer sun 

 is screened by an awning that can be removed in winter or 

 rolled up on dull days. In the immediate foreground, below 



finite variety in leafage and in bloom. This scheme has 

 been carried out with fine success, and one wanders across 

 rich lawns to richer foliage and flower borders that line the 

 property in every direction. 



But even this was not sufficient. Every possible advantage 

 has been taken of the natural configuration of the land. 

 Where it sloped, the paths go down; a grotto is built be- 

 neath a hillside, built of stones, with a fountain below and 

 many growing plants, begonias and other damp-loving plants, 

 depending even from the roof. Further on a flight of rough 

 stone steps, almost overgrown with the vines that throng it 



The Porch on the^Terrace Is Completely Furnished as An Outdoor Living-room 



the terrace, is a great bed of cannas, salvias, abutilons and 

 low-growing plants. 



Of the beauty of the general planting scheme is it possible 

 to be too enthusiastic? Mr. Schmidt's place has been under 

 cultivation for a number of years, and it is, therefore, in a 

 fine state of maturity. The lawns, which meet the eye in 

 every direction, are of beautiful spaciousness and have an 

 ampleness that is quite as unusual as the richness of their 

 verdure. 



The general idea has been to keep the house as free as 

 may be from great old trees; to keep it, in short, in the midst 

 of splendid fields of grass, and then to plant and decorate 

 the borders in such a way that the inclosing growth is like a 

 festal garland, stretched around great sheets of green, a 

 planting alive with color and with beauty, affording an in- 



on either side, lead to the summit, where a pergola is abloom 

 with clematis, and a summer house is almost hidden in the 

 thicket. 



Still further down, the trees which have always grown here 

 hide a mimic brook. Beyond a rustic bridge this has been 

 swollen into a lily pond, with gaily flowered borders and 

 rich hedges of ornamental plants. A tree fern grows in the 

 shadow of the forest, and the plump-plump of frogs warns 

 the visitor he is not alone. 



At another spot one reaches a broad path called the center 

 walk. It is lined. on either side with standard catalpas and 

 evergreens. At the end, just where it dips downward, is an 

 arch; and here is the vegetable garden, gaily surrounded 

 with flowers, as interesting and as beautiful as any part of 

 the grounds. A beautiful weeping willow closes the vista. 



