Practical Plans for the Home Grounds 
IV. A Seven-Acre Country Place— By Ruth Dean, Land N%T Y D o e r r cr ' 
(Editors’ Note — One article in this series of layout plans appears each month, and each one approaches a problem totally different 
from the others. Complete planting plans are not given here, as the object is to discuss the layout in general. Several planting plans 
will be found in the issues for February and April from which the garden maker may adopt details to fit his own case.) 
A solution of the difficult problem of making a comfortable home in a wide flat expanse 
2(51 
A PERFECTLY blank 
meadow would seem 
to offer the simplest 
kind of a situation 
in which to place a house 
and garden; yet a stretch 
of open, flat country offers 
about the dullest, the least 
inspiring problem, with which 
the gardener has to deal. To 
set house and garden down 
in the midst of emptiness, so 
to speak, to pull them to- 
gether, and then make the 
whole composition fit into 
the surrounding country, and 
appear to have some natural 
boundary, is, in most cases, 
considerably difficult. 
An open stretch of meadow 
fringed on one side by wood- 
land and bounded on the op- 
posite by country road, are 
the seven acres represented 
on this plan. Here the shape 
of the garden, its fan-like 
spread, is suggested by the 
low, long-armed house. The 
garden itself is tied to the 
house by means of tall hedges 
and the whole thing is made 
a part of its surroundings by 
bigger planting, which fol- 
lows the character of the na- 
tive woodland borders. 
A gentle up-slope to the 
house is the only variation 
from a level gradient, and 
this slope the drive follows 
until it forks, just before 
reaching the house, to lead 
one side of tall-growing 
shrubs to the service wing of 
the house; the other side, to 
the main entrance. Here, 
immediately upon stepping 
into the house, one catches 
the flash of garden beyond, at 
the end of which is the iris- 
planted pool, backed by dark 
cedars. This hallway fur- 
nishes the main axis of the 
garden, from which it spreads 
out between the two green 
ways, one of which leads 
through a gate to the tennis 
court, the other to the or- 
chard. 
Two big masses of color, 
marked off from the middle 
green by low hedges, are the 
flower gardens on either side. 
All the living rooms of the 
house open on the garden 
side, making possible a con- 
venient and separate group- 
ing of the service wing, etc.. 
