MIRAVISTA 
AT MONTECITO, SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA 
By ISABELLA G. OAKLEY 
T HE garden as a child of Art, a link 
between a beautiful house and the sur¬ 
rounding wildness of nature, is still in its 
infancy in California. While on the con¬ 
trary natural gardens of peculiar beauty are 
frequent; these are developed out of the 
groves of low live-oaks which are usually 
that exist are yet too new to be really har¬ 
monious and captivating. At best it will 
be a heavy task to keep gardens within 
formal limits, where there is no frost, and 
yet a highly stimulating soil. The problem 
of selection of plants is full of interest. 
The garden here pictured has been planted 
found in the valleys of the south. Several 
acres of natural park, with sparse under¬ 
growth, are thus at no great expense planted 
with exotic shrubs, palms, and bamboos, which 
are green and flowery all the year. Not a 
little of this imported flora has already been 
naturalized, and now reproduces itself from 
season to season. 
But the pioneer stage of building is fast 
being outgrown ; as the era of the preat 
ranches disappears, beautiful homes increase 
in number and elaborateness. In the vicinity 
of Santa Barbara the few artificial gardens 
but ten months. It is in Montecito, near 
Santa Barbara. Upon rebuilding and en¬ 
larging an old house, the owner put the 
garden into the hands of a lady—an artist in 
more fields than one—Mrs. Elizabeth E. 
Burton, who drew the plans and directed 
much of the work. Out of the fifty acres of 
live-oak and lemon trees which previously 
covered the place, fifteen were treated 
formally as an adjunct of the new buildings. 
Let me expend a few lines upon the 
general situation which is one of singular 
beauty. Lying on the lower slope of foot- 
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