12 



MANUAL OF GARDENING 



wants to do with the property; and therefore we may devote 

 the remainder of this chapter to developing the idea in the lay- 

 out of the premises rather than to the details of map-making 

 and planting. 



Because I speak of the free treatment of garden spaces in this 

 book it must not be inferred that any reflection is intended on 

 the ^'formal " garden. There are many places in which the for- 

 mal or architect's garden" is much to be desired; but each 

 of these cases should be treated wholly by itself and be made a 

 part of the architectural setting of the place. These ques- 

 tions are outside the sphere of this book. All formal gardens 

 are properly individual studies. 



All very special types of garden design are naturally excluded 

 from a book of this kind, such types, for example, as Japanese 

 gardening. Persons who desire to develop these specialties will 

 secure the services of persons who are skilled in them; and 

 there are also books and magazine articles to which they 

 may go. 



The picture in the landscape. 



The deficiency in most home grounds is not so much that 

 there is too little planting of trees and shrubs as that this plant- 

 ing is meaningless. Every yard should be a picture. That is, 

 the area should be set off from other areas, and it should have 

 such a character that the observer catches its entire effect and 

 purpose without stopping to analyze its parts. The yard should 

 be one thing, one area, with every feature contributing its part 

 to one strong and homogeneous effect. 



These remarks will become concrete if the reader turns his eye 

 to Figs. 5 and 6. The former represents a common type of 

 planting of front yards. The bushes and trees are scattered 

 promiscuously over the area. Such a yard has no purpose, no 

 central idea. It shows plainly that the planter had no con- 

 structive conception, no grasp of any design, and no apprecia- 



