THB GRBBNING' PICTORIAL SYSTEM OP LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



A SUNKEN ITALIAN GARDEN 



This view exemplifies a kind of garden that is the farthest 

 remove possible from a natural garden. It is, in fact, a form of 

 vegetable sculpture where every plant is sheared to perfect sym- 

 metry. The fancy bed in the middle ground, surrounding the 

 urn, is made of Coleus in different colors and is never permitted 

 to become disheveled by long growth. The gardeners swing 

 their ladders across it and each plant is barbered with a fidelity 

 that would do credit to a professional tonsorialist. 



Many people of refined tastes like this kind of garden, but 

 personally I do not like them, especially for the North, where 

 our season for enjoying them is very short. Moreover, the floral 

 decorations are of a character that requires the constant atten- 

 tion of a gardener, and it is not yet a common practice to employ 

 professional gardeners. 



In connection with this kind of a garden it is in good taste 

 to use some formal trees in tubs, like Bay Trees, and certain 

 pyramidal Evergreens, such as Thuya Occidentalis and Thuya 

 Pyramidalis. The last two make pretty subjects for bordering 

 avenues, and many of them were distributed along the line of 

 march during the Custer celebration in Monroe in June of this 

 year. 



Plate 10". A Sunken Italian Garden 



NATURAL POND 



This is not a water garden because a garden implies prep- 

 aration and cultivation. The above is a natural pond or small 

 lake on a large estate, the borders being planted with Iris, Crim- 

 son Eye, Cardinal Lobelia, and such shrubs as Canadian Elder, 

 Tamarix, Forsythia and Pussy Willow. The trees are Pin Oaks; 

 the others are American White Elm, Maples, Linden and Beech. 



A scene of this kind is adorned the most when adorned the 

 least. There are many such scenes throughout the Middle West, 

 Michigan having about 5,000 lakes and Minnesota 7,000. Most 

 of them are unappreciated by the people who own them, which 

 goes to prove the great truth that what we don't know we are 

 not aware of. It is a dangerous thing to meddle with this kind 

 of natural landscape, for it is almost beyond the power of man 

 to conceal his tracks. Any effort at improvement generally ends 

 in disclosing some stupid artifice that spoils it all. 



I'late 108. Naliiiiil I'onti 



