Landscape Gardening.
Landscape gardening has oftentimes likened to the painting of a picture. Your art-work instructor has undoubtedly told you that a good picture should have a point of important interest, & theremaining points just go to make more beautiful the central idea, or to form a fine setting for it. So in landscape horticulture there must be in the nurseryman’s mind a picture of what he desires the whole to be when he finishes his work.
From this study we shall be competent to work out a little theory of landscape gardening.
Let us go to the lawn. A good extent of open lawn space is always beautiful. It is relaxing. It brings a feeling of space to even small grounds. So we might generalize & say that it is better to keep open lawn spaces. If one covers his lawn space with many trees, with little flower beds here and there, the common outcome is choppy & fussy. It is a bit like an over-dressed person. One’s grounds lose all individuality hence treated. A single tree or a small group is not a bad arrangement on the lawn. Do not centre the tree or trees. Let them expend a bit into the background. Make a admirable side feature of them. In choosing trees one must keep in mind a number of things. You should not select an overpowering tree; the tree should be one of good shape, with something fascinating about its bark, leaves, flowers or fruit. While the poplar tree is a rapid grower, it drops its leaves early and so is left standing, bare and black, before the fall is old. Remember, there are places where a row or double row of Lombardy poplars is very effective. But I think you’ll agree with me that one lone poplar is not. The catalpa is quite beautiful by itself. Its leaves are broad, its flowers attractive, the seed pods which cling to the tree until away into the winter, add a bit of picture squeness. The bright berries of the ash, the superb leaf of the sugar maple, the blossoms of the tulip tree, the bark of the white birch, and the leaves of the copper beech all these are beauty items to consider.
Place makes a difference in the survival of a tree. Suppose the lower part of the grounds is a bit low and muddy, then the spot is perfect for a willow tree. Don’t group trees together which look awkward. A long-looking poplar does not go with a nice rather rounded little tulip tree. A juniper, so neat and prim, would look ridiculous beside a spreading chestnut. One must keep proportion & suitability in mind.
I’d never advise the planting of a group of evergreens close to a house, & in the front yard. The effect is very gloomy indeed. Houses thus surrounded are overcapped by such trees & are not only dark to live in, but truly unhealthy. The essential requirement in the a house is sunlight and plenty of it.
As trees are selected because of certain good points, so bushes should be. In a clump I should wish some which flowered early, some which blossomed late, some for the beauty of their fall foliage, some for the colour of their bark and others for the fruit. Some spireas & the forsythia blossom early. The red bark of the dogwood makes a bit of color all winter, & the red berries of the barberry stick to the bush well into the winter.
Particular shrubs are good to use for hedge purposes. A hedge is rather better normally than a fence. The Californian privet is excellent for this purpose. Osage orange, Japan barberry, buckthorn, Japan quince, & Van Houtte’s spirea are some other shrubs which make good hedges.
I forgot to say that in tree and shrub selection it is usually better to choose those of the locality one lives in. Rare & foreign plants do less well, and often harmonize but badly with their new setting.
Landscape gardening may follow along very formal lines or along informal lines. The first would have right ways, straight rows in stiff beds, everything, as the name tells, perfectly conventional. The other method is, of course, the exact opposite. There are danger points in each.
The formal arrangement is likely to look too stiff; the common, too fussy, too wiggly. As far as paths go, keep this in mind, that a path should always lead someplace. That is its business to direct one to a distinct place. Now, straight, even ways are not churlish if the result is to be that of a formal garden. The danger in the curved path is an abrupt curve, a whirligig consequence. It is far better for you to stick to straight ways unless you can make a really beautiful curve. No one can tell you how to do this.
Garden ways may be of gravel, of dirt, or of grass. One sees grass paths in some very beautiful gardens. I doubt, nevertheless, if they would help as well in your small gardens. Your garden surface areas are so specific that they should be re-spaded each season, and the grass ways are a great bother in this work. Of course, a gravel path makes a fine appearance, but again you may not have gravel at your command. It is achievable for any of you to dig out the path for two feet. Then put in six inches of stone or clinker. Over this, pack in the dirt, rounding it slightly toward the centre of the path. There should never be depressions through the central part of ways, since these form favorable places for water to stand. The under layer of stone makes a natural drainage system.
A building often needs the help of vines or flowers or both to tie it to the grounds in such a way as to form a stable whole. Vines lend themselves well to this work. It is better to plant a perennial vine, & so let it form a enduring part of your landscape scheme. The Virginia creeper, wistaria, honeysuckle, a climbing rose, the clematis and trumpet vine are all most adequate.
Close your eyes & project a house of natural colour, that mellow gray of the weathered shingles. Now add to this old house a purple wistaria. Can you see the beauty of it? I shall not forget soon a rather ugly corner of my childhood home, where the dining room and kitchen met. Just there climbing over, and falling over a trellis was a trumpet vine. It made beautiful an awkward angle, an ugly bit of carpenter work.
Of course, the morning-glory is an annual vine, as is the moon-vine & wild cucumber. Now, these have their special function. For often, it is needed to cover an ugly thing for just a time, until the better things and better times come. The annual is ‘the chap’ for this work.
Along an old fence a hop vine is a thing of beauty. One might try to rival the woods’ landscape work. For often one sees festooned from one rotted tree to another the ampelopsis vine.
Flowers may well go along the side of the building, or surrounding a walk. In general, though, keep the front lawn space open & unbroken by beds. What more loveable in early spring than a bed of daffodils close to the house? Hyacinths and tulips, too, form a blaze of glory. These are little or no bother, & start the spring aright. One may make of some bulbs an exception to the rule of unbroken front lawn. Snowdrops and crocuses planted through the lawn are beautiful. They do not disturb the general outcome, but just blend with the whole. One expert bulb gardener says to take a basketful of bulbs in the fall, walk about your grounds, & just drop bulbs out here and there. Wherever the bulbs drop, plant them. Such small bulbs as those we plant in lawns should be in groups of four to six. Daffodils may be thus planted, too. You all remember the grape hyacinths that grow all through Katharine’s side yard.
The place for a flower garden is generally at the side or rear of the house. The backyard garden is a beautiful idea, is it not? Who wishes to leave a beautiful looking front yard, turn the corner of a house, and find a dump heap? Not I. The flower garden may be laid out formally in neat little beds, or it may be more of a careless, hit-or-miss sort. Both have their good points. Great masses of bloom are attractive.
You should have in mind some notion of the blending of colour. Nature appears not to consider this at all, and still gets wonderful effects. This is because of the wonderful amount of her perfect background of green, and the boundlessness of her space, while we are confined at the best to relatively small areas. So we should try not to blind people’s eyes with brushes of colours which do not at close range blend well. In order to break up extremes of colours you can always use masses of white flowers, or something like mignonette, which is in outcome green.
Ultimately, let us sum up our landscape lesson. The grounds are a setting for the house or buildings. Open, free lawn spaces, a tree or a proper group well placed, flowers which do not jumble up the front yard, groups of shrubbery these are points to be remembered. The paths should lead somewhere, & be either straight or well curved. If one begins with a conventional garden, one should not mix the informal with it before the work is done.
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