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For the front of a small suburban plot one expects closely cropped, neatly edged lawn, but for the country place incessant puttering is 
not only unnecessary—it does not give the most pleasing result. Set the house in a grove of trees and shrubbery, and let the grass grow 
A Setting for the Country Home 
HOW IT SHOULD DIFFER FROM THE SMOOTH SHAVEN LAWN OF THE SUBUR¬ 
BAN LOT —THE VALUE AND DESIRABILITY OF NATIVE TREES AND SHRUBS 
by E. P. Powell 
Photograph by C. H. Claudy 
N O matter how small your homestead may be, it can afford 
a beautiful setting. This does not mean an elaborate dis¬ 
play of trimmed evergreens and rare and costly trees, it means 
an inexpensive and generous supply of trees and shrubs, that will 
give shade, blossoms, grass and sometimes fruit. An American 
lawn can best be made of American trees — and it does not exclude 
fruit trees. The old aristocratic idea that fruit trees were out of 
place among ornamental trees has passed away, as it is recognized 
that they can be made ornamental as well as profitable features. 
Lawns are of three sorts: for shrubs, constituting what is 
called a shrubbery; for trees, whether a grove, or a botanic gar¬ 
den, or simply a frontage; and for playgrounds. When you have 
only an acre or two, it is best to classify your lawns as shrubbery 
and playgrounds united; with the house set in a grove. If econ¬ 
omy of space still cramps you, let the grove come down to a few 
commanding trees of perfect proportions ; while the shrubbery 
may flank the house, or partly surround it. 
But in all cases be careful about a muddle or medley of all 
sorts of trees and shrubs and flowers without any apparent rela¬ 
tion to each other. This is the chief trouble with our American 
homesteads; they have no distinctiveness of purpose as to detail, 
and no unity of the whole plan. Many of them convey no idea 
whatever, but are a succession of efforts to crowd in as much of 
the useful and beautiful as possible. The owner of half an acre 
crowds his stuff a little closer than the owmer of an acre, but 
he means to get just as much. Fancy or rare trees are planted 
pell-mell with our common oaks, maples and elms. If the ques¬ 
tion were asked of the owner, “What really are you trying to 
express by this plantation?” he would be surprised. He has 
never thought of anything except to get a lot of pretty things, 
and squeeze them in, anywhere and everywhere. Tree agents 
presuade him to buy, and whatever is bought must find room. As 
likely as not, he has three or four cut-leaved weeping birches in 
a row, or a line of evergreens. Not a tree, shrub, flower-bed or 
fountain bears a rational relation to anything else. 
After a unified and consistent plan for a country home, the 
next aim should be inexpensiveness. Our country homes have 
generally nothing but a little frontage of grass, run over with a 
lawn-mower once a week—a mean conception and a small achieve¬ 
ment. Such a lawn, utterly useless from the esthetic as well as 
from the useful standpoint, costs more in the course of the year 
than a noble grove and a quarter acre of most beautiful shrubs. 
But this preference of lawn to grove is not our worst failure. 
Many of our wealthy people have a notion that a country home 
consists in something that must incessantly be puttered over by 
half a dozen men. The owner only pays the bills. This is not 
really living in the country. The secret of success is to get a 
place in order; then hold it in order by personal superintendence. 
But do not undertake a lot of haberdashery, and mistake it for 
gardening. 
In selecting material for an average country lawn, we can, 
and should, confine ourselves largely to native shrubs and trees. 
These must not be despised because they are common. I have 
never seen any section of the United States where, within a few 
miles of his homestead, the resident could not secure a good col¬ 
lection of beautiful trees. Certainly this is true in most of th r 
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