5 ° 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
February, 1910 
A screen wall of brick, wood and windows between the stone piers, 
sheltered by the overhang suggests the Dutch plaster wall simi¬ 
larly protected. Another of Mr. Embury’s houses 
virility and sturdiness which makes it most suitable for modern 
work. English half-timber is frankly an importation, often 
charming, it is true, but as unsuitable to the United States as are 
thatched roofs. Colonial was the last cry of an age when polite- 
Where a piazza was introduced the overhang was extended and 
supported by slender wooden columns, square, octagonal or round. 
The Westervelt homestead, Creskill, 1807 
ness was made a god, and is mannered and conscious. The 
Dutch was sincere, expressive and vital; strong and pleasing 
in mass, refined in detail and beautifully fit, in both form and 
color, to the American landscape. 
Boundary Lines and Boundary Plantings 
THE REASON WHY EVEN THE SMALLEST HOME PLOT OF GROUND SHOULD HAVE 
ITS FENCE OR HEDGE—PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS FOR PLANTING THIS BOUNDARY 
by Grace Tabor 
Photographs by Eldred Bates and others 
[The fifth of a senes of aiticles by Miss Tabor on the subject of landscape gardening as applied to the American home of modeiate size, preceding 
titles being Utilizing Natural Features,” “ Getting Into a Place “ Formal or Informal Gardens,” and “ Screening, Revealing and Emphasizing 
Objects or Views.” Any questions relating to further details and planting information will gladly be answeied.] 
A BOUNDARY is “a visible mark indicating the limit” — 
those are the exact words — hence there can be no greater 
anomaly than an “invisible boundary.” And happily we are 
outgrowing the affectation that led us, a decade or so ago, to 
such violation of good sense as the total elimination of hedges, 
fences and all other “visible” evidences of limits. 
It must have been affectation pure and simple, for there is 
absolutely nothing in human experience nor human instinct which 
prompts such action. Rather indeed, do these urge an opposite 
course. A little bit of the earth with a fence around it is the 
honest demand of human nature, common to all but the anarchists. 
These want the fences down to be sure—or they say they do — 
A bit of ground with a hedge or fence around it is but the rational 
honest demand of human nature 
but is it so the other fellow may walk in, or because they them¬ 
selves want to walk out? 
The sacrifice of boundaries in suburban communities has 
usually been made, I think, under a doubly mistaken idea — the 
idea that an effect of spaciousness is thus gained, and that this 
particular effect is the great desideratum to which all else should 
be willingly sacrificed. 
As a matter of fact spaciousness is of small consequence, 
alone and by itself. When it results naturally from conditions 
which have been carefully taken advantage of in the layout of a 
garden, when the greatest attention to economy of space has 
produced it or emphasized it, well and good. In other words, 
when it actually exists, where there actually is “space” to take 
advantage of and to emphasize, then and only then is it suitably 
made the motif of a place. Efforts to produce it under other 
circumstances are misguided, none more so than the unhappy 
obliteration of boundaries to that end. 
fhe position of a dwelling and its relation to those about it 
show plainly where the boundaries of the land with which it is 
furnished lie, and the observer is never deceived by lack of definite 
markings. All the lovely seclusion and privacy which good taste 
demands for the home, and which may be the attribute of the 
tiniest scrap of a dooryard if it is well planned, are thus sacrificed 
in vain; only garish publicity and barrenness, or vulgar ostenta¬ 
tion result — never the delusion of space fondly and commonly 
hoped for. 
Boundaries should therefore be marked — always; not simply 
defined as property limits but marked defensively—aggressively 
if you will — as a beginning to the gradual process of home-building 
which is to go on within them. They separate the home from 
