Sherman Nursery Company, Charles City, Iowa 
11 
Landscape Designing 
Landscape designing is the art of laying out grounds and arranging trees and shrubbery of 
suitable kinds so that when they have developed, the whole effect will be pleasing and attractive. 
It is a highly developed art and only those who have given the subject considerable study are 
qualified to practice it successfully. 
A person who can take a set of buildings on a bare lot and by judicious setting of trees, 
shrubs and vines, make the whole into a beautiful home, is just as much an artist as one who 
paints a beautiful picture. 
A house may be complete so far as the builder is concerned when it is ready to move into. 
It may have every modern convenience of heat, light, water and gas, but until the furniture and 
furnishings are in place inside, and the lawn and shrubbery properly planted outside, it is far 
from being complete. 
Certain of our salesmen are skilled landscape designers, having been trained in that field. 
In addition to a number of skilled designers in the field, we have a landscape department at 
the office where complete landscape plans are made for our customers. 
We warn our salesmen against inventing landscape plans on their own account until they 
have had considerable field experience and an opportunity to observe and study landscapes 
planned by skilled designers. 
To assist those of our salesmen who at this time lack landscape design knowledge and ex¬ 
perience we submit on the following pages several designs prepared by our landscape depart¬ 
ment. The artistic value of these plans has been proved in actual plantings; they are reasonable 
in cost and in the majority of cases one of the plans as drawn will exactly fit your problem—if 
they do not fit some slight change such as the removal or addition of a shrub or a shifting in 
location will generally be sufficient to make the plan satisfactory. 
However, if you desire a more complete landscape plan than these suggestions cover, such 
as having the entire premises planned, or where there are already some parts planted and you 
want the remainder of the grounds arranged to match, our landscape department is ready to 
help with drawings and suggestions, upon submission by you of a rough sketch as outlined in 
our Free Landscape Service Plan. 
Free Landscape Service Plan 
Our Landscape Department will furnish a 
pen and ink sketch or a colored drawing of 
your premises, showing the location of all 
buildings, walks, drives, etc., and the proposed 
location of every tree, shrub and plant to be 
used and also the estimate of cost, following 
as closely as possible every suggestion made 
by you. 
For this we make a minimum charge of 
$2.00, which must be sent in with the “rough 
sketch.” See illustrations which follow as to 
how to make a rough sketch. This charge is 
made to discourage curiosity seekers, for the 
$2.00 is credited on the purchase price of the 
order if it amounts to $25.00 or more, so the 
service in reality costs nothing. 
In the case of large estates, parks, cemeter¬ 
ies, etc., our landscape department charges a 
reasonable amount, and should the customer 
wish our landscape superintendent to visit the 
premises for the purpose of going over the 
grounds in consultation, a charge will be made 
to cover his time and expense while away from 
the office. 
THE ROUGH SKETCH 
In order to furnish you with a blue print or 
a pen and ink sketch of your premises we need 
first a “rough sketch” like the model on this 
page. Make one like it on any plain paper. 
Make the sketch large enough so it can be 
read easily. 
Whenever an “X” appears in the sample 
sketch shown here, measurements should be 
taken of the premises and filled in on your 
sketch so that the following information is 
shown: 
Size of the lot; 
Size of the house on all sides; 
Distance of every building from one end and 
one side of the lot line. 
Location of all doors, windows on ground 
floor, coal chutes, etc. 
Location of every tree now on grounds, their 
size and kind. 
XD 
Sample Rough Sketch 
