20 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
September, 1915 
Between the rear of the house and the south lawn, the giant 
hickory tree stands as sentry, providing generous shade 
on a warm afternoon 
landscape architect's services were solicited, 
the drive was to have swung around the back 
of the house and ended in a turn-around and 
garage at the west side of the property. This 
was certainly an entirely incorrect and 
thoughtless proposition. It would have 
brought very near the living side of the house 
all the disturbances incident to the backing 
and turning of autos and trade wagons, and 
put within sight of the living-room windows 
auto cleaning and the many daily duties con¬ 
nected with a garage. A hard gravel strip 
would have divided the house from the en¬ 
tire back of the property and the garage and 
turn-around enclosure would have hidden it 
away from view. 
It was to have been a sorry, prosaic place, 
full of the cares of a household. It needed 
a bigger vision to relegate all the service to 
the kitchen side of the house and in that way 
preserve an unbroken lawn, which could be 
enclosed by quiet foliage, enlivened by the 
color of flowers and made pleasant by the 
play of shadows on the grass. It needed an 
imagination to create this lawn, which was 
to foster, through a diminutive and freely 
rendered replica of natural scenes, a delight 
in the wide out-of-doors by putting it where 
it could be seen directly from the windows 
of the living-rooms, by making it an easy 
matter to step right out on the grass and by 
tempting one through interesting plant mate¬ 
rial to explore all the nooks and corners of 
lawn and garden. 
The emphasis of the planting of the south 
lawn is laid on the west boundary. Such 
boundary screens are generally considered 
lightly by the layman as a collection of 
heterogeneous shrub and tree material planted 
close together without much thought as to its 
arrangement. This unfortunate and erro¬ 
neous idea may be dispelled by a careful 
analysis of this screen plantation. It will 
show that the assemblage of trees, shrubs 
and flowers into such a border required, not 
merely a horticultural understand¬ 
ing of individual plants, but an 
artistic perception of how they 
will look when united into a 
border. 
It is a composition of contrasts. 
Big masses of large trees and tall 
shrubbery curve boldly out into 
the lawn, making strong promon¬ 
tories and leaving in between 
bays bordered by a shallow plant¬ 
ing of small trees and low 7 shrub¬ 
bery. There are four such pro¬ 
montories. The first, beside the 
house, is made of hemlocks and 
white pines with an undergrowth 
of native and hybrid rhododen¬ 
dron. This is a strong group of 
more than fifty plants. There are 
wonderful contrasts between the 
large, glossy foliage of the rhodo¬ 
dendron and the fine leafage of 
the pine and the delicate structure 
of hemlock branches. The second 
promontory is composed of Pinus 
sylvestris, the Scotch pine and a 
group of twenty flowering dog¬ 
wood trees. This provides a fine 
contrast, not only in the spring, 
when the woncterful white bracts 
of the dogwmod flowers find a 
splendid foil in the green of the 
pine, but also in autumn the ever¬ 
greens make a background for 
the dogwood's striking red foliage 
and bright fruit. The third pro¬ 
montory is a slight one, but 
marked by three Abies concolor. 
These White Firs, which, like 
their relative the Blue Spruce, 
have been very greatly misused as 
lawn decorations, have gained a 
charming place for themselves 
here. Their silvery blue foliage 
makes a bright spot of color amid 
the duller foliage of surrounding 
plants. 
The fourth promontory is the 
strongest part of the boundary, 
for it marks the end of the south 
lawn and furnishes a background 
for the little rustic shelter. The 
columnar cedars and arbor vitae 
in the foreground make striking 
contrasts with the sturdy, bushy, 
young white pines back of them. 
A feathery larch tree is planted 
in this group, a few r Juniperus 
glauca with interesting greyish 
foliage are placed with the arbor 
vitae and spring flowering spi¬ 
raeas (6'. van Houttei, S. Reevesii 
and S. rotundifolia), which make 
interesting contrasts of white flowf- 
ers against the cedars. 
(Continued on page 46) 
