®{{e ^, '^, PUI pkarg NORTH TAPOI INA TTATr UNIVrR'.ITV ( IRRAt'l iri'! "" S00533487 U This BOOK may be kept out TWO WEEKS ONLY, and is subject to a fine of liS^ CENTS a day thereafter. It is due on the day indicated below: ' \ V Oi ^ 14Jul'36 M ' 3 t98' LI COME INTO THE GARDEN THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NKW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO * ■>*'■■ Inviting an.i ».umii,i; aKain.^L iiiUusioii at uiie and the same time the arched gateway finds its proper place wherever there is a (k'finite change in garden motif — and cannot he consistently introduced elsewhere in a design Come Into the Garden BY GRACE TABOR AUTHOR OF "OLD FASHIONED GARDENS, "THB GARDEN PRIMER, 'WONDERDAYS AND W0NDERWAY8 THROUGH rLOWERLAND," "THB LANDSCAPE GARDENING BOOK," ETC. Illustrated With Photographs Nfut Qork THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1921 All righta reaerved COPTRIQHT, 1921, By the MACMILLAN COMPANY Set up and electrotyped. Published May, 1921 Printed in tlie United States of America FOREWORD It is appropriate to explain that in a book of this character there may be an appearance of inconsistency to the layman in the spelling of plant names. The nomenclature of Bailey's Encyclopoedia of Horticulture has been followed, however, with the exception of the capitaliza- tion of the names when they appear apart from their botanical components. Personally, the author believes a page presents a more agree- able appearance to the eye when the names of such plants as may be referred to thereon are not treated as proper names; and that it may be read with greater facility and a less disturbed sense of values as a consequence. For those desiring to pursue further reading or study along the lines of any particular chapter, a bibliog- raphy of standard works dealing with each chap- ter subject will be found at the back of the book, just before the Index. 40990 CONTENTS Part I CONCERNED WITH MAN'S CONTRIBUTION Foreword I. The Garden's Place in Civilization II. Position and Plan of the House . III. Designing a Garden IV. Grades, Levels and Contours . . V. Boundaries and Boundary Treatment VI. Walks, Paths and Garden Entrances VII. Garden Accessories and Ornaments . VHI. The Place That Is Already Started . IX. Planting and Maintenance . . . . PAOS ix 3 10 27 45 60 76 89 101 118 Part II CONCERNED WITH NATURE'S CONTRIBUTION X. Trees and Their Purpose 145 XI. The Use and Abuse of Evergreens . . . . 156 XII. Shrubbery and Shrubs 164 XIII. Flowers of All Climes and Seasons . ... 181 XIV. Vines, Decorative and Useful 201 XV. Roses and Their Special Culture 212 XVI. Wat^ Features and Water Flowers . . . 232 XVII. Rock Gardens and Their Plants ^ 253 XVIII. Wild Gardens and Wild Flowers 2B7 XIX. Fruits for the Small Garden 282 XX. The Vegetable Garden 295 Bibliography 313 Index 317 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Arched Gateway An Arbored Alcove A Boundary Wall of Simple Design . Informal Garden Climbing Roses on House The Tree — a Decorative Garden Feature Arborvit^ Enclosing a Water-flower Garden Dwarf Apple Tree as a Shrubbery Ornament Mixed Border with a Wall Background Grape Vine and Arbor Employed for Decorative Purposes Climbing Roses Over Archway . . • . Pool in Garden A Rock Garden Garden Flowers Planted in Naturalistic Fashion Fruit Tree Trained Against Wall . . Decorative Value of Cabbage . . . . Frontispiece Facing p. 32 60 92 116 150 158 170 186 210 222 232 256 272 286 296 Come Into the Garden PART I CoNCERNia) WITH Man's CONTRIBUTION 1—2 COME INTO THE GARDEN "There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners." — Hamlet, CHAPTER I The Garden's Place in Civilization RECOGNIZING the natural — and proper — ten- dency of those who practice any art to re- gard that art as peculiarly important, and as a consequence to exalt its service to the human race until it alone seems responsible for human progress, I am nevertheless obliged to assert that here is the one art without which the afore- said race could never have emerged at all from primitive conditions! Moreover, it is also true that without it — I am speaking to the broadest concept of it — mankind would speedily lose everything held dear, and would slip back into a condition very much more difficult and more dangerous to survival, as well as very much less worthy, than that occupied prior to the more or less well-known dawn of civilization. 3 Library N. C. State College 4 COME INTO THE GARDEN For what, after all, was that dawn? Where did it break? And what were the first faint streaks in the sky? That man's first differ- entiation from the animal came with the fashioning of tools is sufficiently apparent not to be open to argument, of course; but neither this nor his subsequent rude architecture, nor even the discovery and use of fire can be said to have carried him very far forward on the long road he has traveled, since savages to-day employ as much. No, it was none of these. It was with the first deliberate planting of a seed and cultivation of a plant that the darkness of the racial night began really to lift. And it is to the degree of his loyalty to this first great science-art that man is a success or failure in the world to-day! Perhaps this seems the usual exaggeration of the devotee; but need I do more than point out the complete dependence of all creation upon a rehable and regular food supply, to prove my case? We have had too recent example of world food shortage to forget altogether how real a menace to every human being individually such shortage may become within an alarmingly short space of time, once production is aban- doned. Wherefore we have writ large before us PLACE IN CIVILIZATION 5 so that he who runs may read, the great and universal obHgation of stewardship, wherein each one of us shares, to promote and foster this art in all its branches. The strongest of all instincts presumably is the instinct of self-preservation — which is the reason that the instinct to grow things lies so deep in the human heart; for the latter is actu- ally merely an extension of the former. Some will say that they lack it altogether, I know; and I grant at once that they seem to. But of these — and to them — let me add that it has never been my experience to find anyone lack- ing it wholly, once they are given a chance to know what a garden really can be, and can do for them and to them as well as to the world in which they live and have their being. It is the pressure of other things that makes them im- patient of Nature's slow processes, or total un- f amiliarity with the work, or misconception gen- erally that accounts for indifference. Interest never resists the appeal of the miracles of every- day in the garden, when this has an opportunity to assert itself. The stewardship of which I have spoken de- mands that it be given this opportunity; and the active exercise of stewardship begins with the establishment of every home, whether it is 6 COME INTO THE GARDEN large or small. This is the truth that we ought everyone to realize and be governed by. Yet it is not enough that we act upon an in- stinct of self-preservation alone, since this would induce each household to be merely food pro- ducers — which is neither practicable nor desir- able at this late day. The analogy holds, here as elsewhere, between gardening and architec- ture; since we go a great deal farther now than to provide ourselves just with shelter — the bare necessity — in our exercise of the art of building, so we have arrived at a time when the finer as- pects of the art of gardening must prevail. Our one great difficulty in this connection, however, is our tendency to disregard the early, real pur- pose of it and to devote ourselves to the finer aspects altogether; which is as if we built our houses without roofs because roofs are less in- teresting and decorative and generally appeal- ing than side walls and doors and fenestration. The suggestion made by Bacon in his essay on gardens has been quoted so often and univer- sally that I long since foreswore its literal tran- scription, yet it sums up so much of all that there is to say introductory to the subject that it is almost impossible to do without it! He was so wholly right, and it is so true that, of the twin arts of building and gardening, the latter PLACE IN CIVILIZATION 7 represents — and requires — the greater perfec- tion. But we have been building stately for long enough now to begin to garden finely; and we are moreover as a nation coming to that self- consciousness which inspires real effort in the arts, in the desire to express itself. Hence we are ready to produce something worthy in gar- dens — and when I say worthy I mean just that, in every sense and all senses of the word. We are ready not only to assume the obligations of our stewardship of such land as we acquire, but we are ready to spare no pains to embellish and make beautiful as well as to make productive. We are ready at last to justify possession of our bit of earth, inasmuch as we are ready to make the most of it in the fullest sense. Distinct from its aspect as a civilizing factor, therefore, is the garden's aspect as an evidence of the progress of civilization. It established it in the first place; and now it is the measure by which it may be gauged. Crude people garden crudely — this is as true of individuals as it is of races — while people of high culture and highly evolved discrimination and sense of harmony, garden finely. By their gardens indeed shall we know them; for a garden is surely the fruit of its creator's mind and will reveal the inner man as nothing else he can make. Which is an- 8 COME INTO THE GARDEN other striking thing about them — they will not deceive nor give out a false impression. Hence if it is desired to produce a certain impression through the home and its gardens, it is neces- sary to start in the very heart of things and be- come what that impression signifies. In no other way will it be possible to convince; we must be, in other words, what we want our gar- den to make us seem. Happily this works both ways; for the garden itself is the best means of becoming genuine — of getting right oneself. Just why this is so does not always appear on the surface of things — but I suspect it is because everything dealt with in the garden is so genuine, and because it is in it- self such an elemental occupation. There is vir- tue in earth contact and there is inspiration in the observation of plant unfoldment, whether we are mystical, empirical, or rationalistic in our temperament — whether we believe it or not, in short. And what is more, it works, whether we believe it or not. So we have only to give it the chance; the rest will come. In its application to the individual and the in- dividual garden all that I have just said re- solves itself into one sound maxim for a starting point, namely : — the garden is at once the oppor- tunity and the achievement, the cause and the PLACE m CIVILIZATION result. If this is understood nothing more need be said in urgence of its claims; the rest will come along in due season and order — helped per- haps a little bit by the further content of this volume. At least I hope so! "A garden ought to lie to the best parts of the house, or to those of the master's commonest use, so as to be but like one of the rooms out of which you step into another." OJ Gardening. — Sir Wm. Temple. CHAPTER II Position and Plan of the House THERE are three points under which the loca- tion and the layout of a dwelling should be considered. These are its exposure for summer and winter comfort; its place on the ground with regard to the greatest economy and con- servation of the same; and the distribution of the space thus saved and conserved for the greatest degree of efficiency and beauty. All these three are almost, if not quite, equally important. If there is any difference between them, it is indicated by the order in which they are named — but do not let this minimize the importance of the last nor magnify the im- portance of the first. To each should be given such a measure of consideration and careful thought that when a plan is finally adopted and 10 POSITION AND PLAN 11 the work begun, it may be with the certainty that the very best is about to be accomplished under all three heads. Every plot of ground, however great or small it may be — excepting the city lot which, leaving no room whatsoever for choice, is of course not now under consideration — affords just one "best" place for the house which is to take shape upon it. And the location of this any- where but in or upon this best place, is a mis- fortune which no amoimt of ingenuity can ever really overcome. But the owner of the average building plot never suspects it of possibilities of even the tamest sort; consequently such a plot is never treated expectantly, as it were. What it has been, it is — and apparently is to go on being, time without end. It faces north, south, east, or west according to the direction of the street whereon it fronts; hence the dwelling which eventually occupies it also faces north, south, east, or west accordingly. It fronts with the front, has a kitchen at the back and a porch displayed. Thus, limited by custom and con- vention and the lack of a single degree of in- dependent, individual thought, each average house is practically like its neighbor and is located on its plot of ground in practically the 12 COME INTO THE GARDEN same wasteful way; and each average door- yard has the same features — or lack of them. Of course there are restrictions imposed upon the purchaser of so-called improved property, for his protection as well as his guidance, and it is right that there should be. But all of this, be it noted, is quite apart from these restrictions and regulations. Beyond the building line and the character and minimum cost of the buildings to be erected, there is usually little that is arbitrarily fixed in either the opulent or humble colony. And this little offers no insurmountable obstacle to doing what is really best in disposing both house and grounds — although the building line comes very near doing so, without doubt. The elimination of this fixed line, however, is not of course possible or even desirable perhaps under our present system of regulated building; but the system itself is wasteful, vulgarly frank and os- tentatious, and utterly destructive of garden opportunities as well as of the fine instinct of home reserve and privacy that is such a price- less human asset. We have not grown old enough as a nation, however, to shrink from personal publicity; we still cherish the infantile instinct to cry "hello!" to the passer-by, to lift up our possessions to his POSITION AND PLAN 13 gaze — which will be flatteringly covetous if these are striking enough — and shake them trium- phantly before him with an exultant "see!" So we have the veranda-stage whereon our little dramas are to be played before this audience; and we plan all the settings around about to capture the admiration of the street. Consequently the suburbs of American cities are said to be the most beautiful in the world — to drive through. Could there be a more elo- quent qualification of praise than that final clause? I think not, when it is remembered that these are colonies of homes, not public parks. They are not for the man who drives through. They are for the man who stays there, and for his wife and his sons and his daughters. Yet the streets are the most attrac- tive part of them! There are few at the present time, I grant, who would have the courage to break away from what has come to be a traditional style or plan here, even if convinced of its advan- tages, both ethical and material; yet I am going to suggest what a colony which adopted the other older and better ways might gain, and the very real beauties which would remain in its streets even though they were deprived of their domestic panoramas. 14 CO]\IE INTO THE GARDEN In the first place, every foot of his ground is available to the man whose house forms a part of his boundary walls and whose boundary is ivalled. If he buys forty by one hundred feet, he has forty by one hundred feet to use — not forty by one hundred less forty by twenty- five, or one quarter of the whole, which restric- tions bind him to turn over to the street, to put it as actual unvarnished truth. He has space for flowers, fruits, and vegetables to an unbe- lievable amount — unbelievable at least to those who have never thought about it or figured it out or tried it — and within his own garden beauty and interest and recreation and diver- sion, instead of in the street. It is a reversal that is very complete, for in- stead of a front porch overlooking the throng and the dust and invaded by both, figuratively in the first instance, actually in the second, this outdoor room will open at the rear — or side, de- pending upon the proper weather exposure, which must always be the determining factor — and looks over the fruits growing upon the wall, the green things everywhere, flowers in their trim borders, a tennis court, perhaps, or a bowling green, a pool in the sunlight where water lilies bloom and gold fish rest in the shadows, a hammock in the distance under POSITION AND PLAN 15 the trees with table and chairs, and al fresco breakfasts on fine mornings — where grocers' carts and dehvery wagons cannot adventure, where all the privacy and lounging indolence of indoors is possible, out under the blue in the fragrant sweetness of a true garden. Yet in the street there is the same cool shade that there has always been, from trees along the curb; the same refreshing strips of emerald turf beneath them; a flicker of light and shadow in the vines growing on garden walls and house fagades; gleams of color from blossoms in win- dow boxes; and glimpses beyond into delight- ful garden retreats — glimpses that are infinitely more alluring than the endless bits of lawn that stretch monotonously back from the sidewalk to the inevitable clotheslines of present day back yards. And finally there is restful unity of purpose taking the place of what is to-day, at best, lack of harmony and uncertainty — an un- certainty that is inevitable when the appearance and general effect of each place from the ground up is so dependent upon the general effect of its neighbors, and of all the others in its block, standing as they do in the open and all together. I am inclined to think that we have departed so far from the sensible, reasonable arrange- ment practiced by older peoples — by our own IG COME INTO THE GARDEN ancestors here, indeed, in early times, as old villages in many parts of the country still bear witness — through a fundamental misconception of the town, village, or suburban home, its pos- sibilities and its limitations. We have not re- cognized that it is definitely a type, alone and by itself; as distinct as the city home; widely different from the country home. Right here, in- deed, is just where the most serious error has slipped in, for all the effort has been to treat the suburban grounds along the same lines which the large estate admits, to build the suburban house according to the same plans from which the house in the midst of acreage rises. So a kind of landscape gardening has been attempted, in a loose fashion, to which boundary fences and walls and many other rational fea- tures have been sacrificed in the vain hope of creating an illusion of the spaciousness and splendor which the town or suburban place can- not, in the very nature of things, possibly enjoy. For it has its very definite limitations, fixed and unalterable, of which it cannot be rid. Not until these are recognized and, being recognized, are turned to account in the distribution and orna- mentation of its grounds, will its highest pos- sibilities, both esthetic and practical, be realized. But in the colony established upon the pre- POSITION AND PLAN 17 vailing system of the present, the builder must of course conform to colony restrictions and re- quirements; which means that twenty -five feet or thereabouts must be given up in front of the dwelling — more perhaps, if the building units are deeper and wider than fifty by one hundred feet. This size, however, is a fair average, and I have chosen it as the most typical plot for con- sideration throughout. All that applies to it ap- plies equally to the larger areas, up to and in- cluding the quarter-acre unit, but with proper- ties larger than this I have not considered it proper here to deal, for they are in a class apart. Of course a farm may be, and often is, as truly suburban as any tiny cottage plot, but in its special significance the suburban or village home consists of from two to four selling units or lots, each probably twenty-five by one hun- dred feet in size. It takes seventeen of such lots to make an acre, approximately, the exact size of the latter being 43,560 square feet — or, reduced to "real estate" measurements, a tract one hundred feet deep by four hundred and thirty -five feet and a fraction over seven inches long. One hundred feet by one hundred, or four lots, is thus not quite a quarter acre. There are two kinds of houses to choose be- tween for the typical fifty by one hundred foot 18 COME INTO THE GARDEN plot, which will leave the balance of the land in the most advantageous shape. One is the very narrow, long house extending far back; the other is the wide and shallow house that covers practically the entire breadth of the land. Of these two the latter is preferable in one way, as it leaves a fairly good sized rectangle intact be- tween itself and the rear boundary. But here the exposure must enter into the calculations — for the long side of a dwelling ought always to meet the sun and the prevailing summer breeze. In the street running east and west the broad, shallow house will do this, but on north and south streets the long and narrow form, which leaves the open space at one side, will usually have to be adopted in order to secure the nec- essary southern exposure. I assume that southern exposure is univer- sally necessary to secure breeze as well as sun, inasmuch as it is so very generally so. There are instances, of course, where this is not the case, but they are usually owing to purely local conditions, topographical or otherwise, and are too uncommon to be reckoned with here. Suf- fice to say that where such local difference exists, it is only necessary to know from which direction the prevailing summer winds are to be expected and plan for these as well as for the sun. POSITION AND PLAN 19 The essential thing is never to adopt any plan, however convenient and interesting it may be, that has not been developed with this thought of exposure jor your own particular location particularly in mind; and the right exposure for both comfort and health insured in its working out. Which makes the ready- made plan about as useful in most instances, however meritorious it may be in itself, as noth- ing at all. Only for what they may suggest to the prospective builder are such designs worth the effort or money spent on them; however, as they are frequently thus a source of real in- spiration, we must allow that they have their value and a place in the world's economy. The entire design and the final effect of the ground or garden treatment of any place will depend, then, upon fixing the situation of the house to the best advantage. Of course there is no universal rule to govern this initial step, but there are two fairly safe guides which might be called near-rules. Here is the first: If the long and narrow house be chosen — or demanded by conditions — place it at the extreme side limit of the lot and keep its width to twenty -five feet or under. When I say at the extreme side limit of the lot, I mean just that; cut off even the eaves by choosing a design that permits such 20 COME INTO THE GARDEN treatment, and put its wall exactly on the line. Plan a basement service entrance on that side, with all passages, storage spaces, and presses on each floor likewise along its blind expanse. It need not be a blind wall in the building of it unless the next door dwelling makes this de- sirable; but think out the plan so carefully that the necessity for closing up whatever win- dows it may contain, should it arise, will work no real disadvantage to the interior. For even the narrow strip of land which would be sac- rificed on the other side if the house were set only a few feet from the line, is precious, mean- ing as it does an absolute waste of anywhere from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty square feet — according to the length of the house — which should and might just as well be conserved in one with the ground on its sunny, living side. And here is the second: If the other sort of house is to be built, carry it all the way across the lot, right up to one or both boundaries; and make it as shallow as convenience and ex- pediency will permit, keeping both its side walls blind. There are two reasons for this very radical obscuring of side walls and eliminating of passage space at the sides, beside the reason already mentioned in connection with the long POSITION AND PLAN 21 and narrow type of house. One of them is the very much greater degree of privacy exist- ing when an actual wall of wood or masonry, instead of a transparent wall of fluidic ether, separates two households, albeit the one is only a foot in width while the other may be five or six. The rooms whose windows open upon such a space as this are neither light nor well ventilated, while they labor under the additional disadvantage of acoustic properties that make conversation in them in tones above a whisper decidedly indiscreet, except the top- ics discussed be of the most general character. The other reason is the doing away with one of the most unpleasant and hopeless spots around the suburban house — the gloomy, re- stricted, chilly, and more or less damp space at the sides, where under the most favorable conditions only a little sunlight ever reaches the ground, where nothing will grow, where ice lingers when the grass is green everywhere else, and where no one ever goes for anything — except perhaps the children to play, when raw winds sweep through and it is too cold for them there. So much for practical considerations within the limits of the lot and concerning the imme- diate family whose home it is to be. And then 22 COME INTO THE GARDEN there are the neighbors. Not what they think — be emancipated from that, in connection with home building at least — but how they and their grounds and houses are actually to be affected. Neighborliness is an old-fashioned quality to be sure, almost lost to the city dweller, but it is a very worthy one, nevertheless. Doubtless the folks next door are queer — I think none have ever been heard of who were not, indeed, al- most suspiciously queer — but even this consti- tutional eccentricity of theirs should not and need not inhibit the true measure of neighborly courtesy and consideration. They are not of necessity hereditary enemies, suspicions to the contrary notwithstanding; and an actual application of the golden rule is pos- sible in all ordinary cases, as well as a most satisfactory standard of measurement. City neighbors, living on either side of their party walls or piled one above the other's head, tier on tier, may be less than nothing to each other, but suburban neighbors are bound to play each a very definite part in the other's life. And well begun is a great deal more than half ac- complished in this complex relationship. So, if the neighbors are there first, plan not to impair their beginnings if it is possible. Avoid an arrangement which will bring kitchen POSITION AND PLAN 23 doors under living-room windows — here the blind side walls again prove their advantage by making such a catastrophe impossible — and take care that trees or shrubs or arbors do not cut off what is obviously a cherished view, even if this embraces nothing more worthy than the distant corner of a busy street. If that sort of thing is what these neighbors like, that is the thing they enjoy looking at; do not de- prive them of it if it is possible to do the best by your own place without doing so. But on the other hand, never let a neighbor's misconceptions and bad taste be an obstacle to doing the very best that it is possible to do with the home that you are building. Put your house where it ought to go, making it the form and size and style that you require; screen what may need screening; fence, wall, or hedge the entire property — invariably — and never plan any part or feature so that it is in any way dependent upon the property adjacent. This is not to say that two places may not be delightfully developed through mutual conces- sions and by means of a unified plan that em- braces both; but even in doing this, they should be kept distinct. For, however amicable the relations between two families may be, there is always the possibility of a change in one or 24 COME INTO THE GARDEN both households that may change all the cir- cumstances absolutely. Be courteous, be con- siderate, make as generous concessions as friend- ship may prompt — but be independent. Of the division and use of the ground space left after building there are only a few general things to be said here, this being a subject for more special discussion in subsequent chapters. It is well for us to remember, however, that the most delightful small gardens that have ever been made have never been devoted wholly to flowers and flowering shrubs. These are the humble cottage gardens of the old world, which, though ablaze with flowers, furnish their quota of salads and greens, too, and of pungent herbs and fruits. And there is no doubt that greater thrift in gardening practice here would produce gardens of much greater interest and beauty. We are and always have been a nation of wasters; nowhere is this more apparent than in our handling of these small home plots. If we could reform ourselves in this respect it would be a great accomplishment from the esthetic as well as the practical point of view. For it is not so much a matter of money — although it counts decidedly, in real cash — but a matter of sound judgment; of good habits of order and eflBciency and usefulness; of quickening the fac- iei brary N. C. State Colle^ire POSITION AND PLAN 25 ulty of appreciation. Moreover, although we have not needed to husband the natural re- sources of this fine and fat land wherein we are the fortunate dwellers, to any appreciable de- gree, the time is not so far distant when we shall be obliged to do so. Gardening is arduous work, of that there can be no question, nor to it a denial from any hon- est person of actual experience. But gardening among vegetables and flowers is no more ardu- ous than among flowers alone — and I think that no one who has tried it will deny that it is a deal more gratifying and satisfying. There should be flowers of course, quantities of them; but they ought never to crowd out the eatable plants. Even the tiny garden of the suburban home has room for several of the choicest of these; and, with its house on the north so that sunlight and protection are assured, and the largest area possible is available for cultivation, there is not a single reason for failure to round out a useful as well as a beautiful garden. Abandoning once and for all then the wrong ideal which sees in the small-town home a coun- try home in miniature, as well as the wrong idea which regards it as impossible of improvement from its barrenness; and taking all the points which have been covered into consideration. 26 COME INTO THE GARDEN balancing one against the other, it seems to me that we may almost declare it as an axiom that its highest beauty will certainly be achieved only when a sane utilitarian spirit is suffered to guide; when efficiency leads and beauty follows after to adorn. Neither need be sacrificed in the least degree, if their relationship is understood and kept true. "Many things difficult to design prove easy to per- formance." — Samuel Johnson. CHAPTER III Designing a Garden GARDENS as we commonly know them are not exalted to the dignity of being designed, for garden is a term that is usually applied only to that portion of the ground whereon vegetables grow. But as a matter of fact it should not be so limited, for rightly a garden is an inclosed space planted with trees, fruits, flowers, or vege- tables, or all four. So really the entire grounds about a dwelling constitute its garden or gar- dens; so it is as a garden that I am going to ask you to think of them. It is these in their en- tirety that are to be furnished with a design — that is, that are to be planned and made orderly and beautiful. And they must be considered as a unit in order to accomplish this with the best results. There must be no slipshod treatment any- 27 28 COME INTO THE GARDEN where, no ignoring of any portion, and no sep- aration of one part from another. All together the plot of ground must be considered, the front yard, back yard, and sides, if there are sides. Before a bush or tree or flower is planted, a plan which holds all these somewhat separated parts together into a well-balanced and consistent whole should be adopted. This is necessary not only from the sesthetic point of view, but from the practical as well, for only the most careful planning will insure the needed space for the various garden features; only such planning is economical in the true sense of the word. It is the arrangement of these features in accord with the ideals of harmony and beauty — and economy — that constitutes garden design. A vast amount of theory has been promul- gated with regard to this art, and hundreds of years of controversy have illuminated or ob- scured the subject, according to the nature of the controversialists. But all the discussion has left us very little indeed that is suggestive when it comes to dealing with the most modern prob- lem of all in gardening, the problem which is now before us. It really seems that we must solve it independently, just as we are solving the problem of the suburban house. Present conditions must evolve something to meet DESIGNING A GARDEN 29 their need. That a desire to do something more definite than has been done is manifest- ing itself proves this evolutionary process to be in action, shows that we are making pro- gress. Having at last learned something about building, so that our houses are improving, we are beginning to be ready to learn some- thing about the finer art of gardening — as man has ever done. Already I have said that radical departures are necessary in order to arrive at the most that may be done with the small-town home. Until this fact is recognized and acted upon, the end- less lawns of these places will remain — fresh and green and much better than some less agreeable treatment might be, to be sure — yet tamely un- interesting. That they are uninteresting, when all is said and done, is most certainly demon- strated by the refreshment which even the most phlegmatic experience when, of a sudden, a real garden comes into view in place of the few shrubs and greensward so common. However unsuccessful such a garden may be from the artistic standpoint, it has interest, hence it pro- motes real enthusiasm. It is to such treatment, therefore, rather than to the conventional scat- tered planting of a few trees and shrubs, that I am going to direct attention, and with it I am 30 I. Scheme for plot fifty by one hundred feet in size, with a narrow house which leaves garden space at one side. The house plan and garden plan are treated as a unit. The garage is placed next the street, avoiding a long drive and its consequent waste and disfigurement. The hall lies between garage and house proper. The transverse axis of the Living Room furnishes the first feature of the garden — a broad terrace carrying the porch level to the side bound- ary, and there screened from outside observation by a series of rose-garland columns from which chains are suspended. On these chains the roses are trained. The terrace is re- tained by a dry, stone wall. The entrance from the street to the house is on the axis of the porch (A-B), which axis furnishes the further union with the rest of the grounds by a path extending to a Wall Fountain at the rear. This main entrance passes into a small flower garden under a rose arch, which spans the opening in the evergreen hedge — kept low — surrounding this little garden. A sundial is set in the middle; the form of the flower border is governed by the form of the steps approaching the front door of the house. It is to be noted that all this portion is on a lower level than the terrace and porch, and that tall flowers planted before these effectually screen them. Disposed around the boundaries of the front portion are eight dv/arf fruit trees. Behind the terrace there is space for a rose garden if desired, or for strawberries and salad plants. A mass of small fruits behind this space divides it from the section across the back of the plot, all of which may be devoted to a little kitchen garden if desired. The service entrance to the house is through the base- ment by means of stairs at the side of the garage, screened by a lattice. The second story of the house extends over the garage and overhangs above these stairs, thus virtually closing them in. A lift leads into the kitchen from the cellar for the delivery of groceries, etc., and stairs lead up to a grade door, giving access to the rear. 31 32 COME INTO THE GARDEN going to deal; for the conventional planting is so well known that time spent in advice con- cerning it would be wasted. First, let us take the attitude that the ground plot, or plot of ground, right up to its bound- aries, is a plane or flat surface whereon some interesting motif is to be executed. Regard it in the same way that the cover of a book or the top of a box or any other sharply defined object would be regarded, if it fell to your lot to orna- ment such; disregard entirely at first the fact that it is ground, that it is your suburban lot. It is not necessary to be an artist, nor even a student of design, in order to observe one or two things concerning it which are fundamentals. One of these is the presence of a border in all de- signs of definite limitation. All-over patterns lack the border, but other designs, if they are good ones, do not. It may be only a broad line or a series of parallel lines, but it is invariably present when the design is made to conform to a certain place and space and form, framing the figures of it, holding them strongly together. So a border must confine the design that is to be executed upon the ground. What this border is to be made of need not be considered just yet; that there is to be an inclosure of one kind or an- other, a definite and defensive barrier between To see in this composition the whole of a httle garden in place of the arbored alcove, with grass where now are tiles and flowers growing against its walls, is to look with the imaginative eye which garden making should develop DESIGNING A GARDEN 33 the garden and the rest of the world, is enough for a beginning. Right here let me say that I cannot express too earnestly the belief that nothing worth while will ever be done with suburban or any other gardens until we restore the fences and walls so ruthlessly torn down and abandoned around the latter quarter of the last century. Neither will it be possible to accomplish much while our highest inspiration is the work undertaken by real-estate development companies. They were responsible for this destruction of boundary markings in the first place, in their endeavors to make streets "catchy" by reason of their nov- elty to persons passing through them, every such person being of course a potential sale. And because it is still the streets that the com- mercial designer wishes to dangle as bait before the undiscriminating, he will fight every effort to restore privacy to private grounds and the thrusting out from them of the public highway. There is absolutely no incentive to really fine garden work under the conditions which are to him ideal, however, and as long as these are tol- erated, the art will languish. Be sure of that. Not until all places, without exception, are in- closed completely — and have gates, too, at their entrances, not merely unprotected openings — m \ ^. 84 II. Scheme for plot fifty by one hundred feet in size, using a house that extends across the land from boundary to boundary, leaving garden space at the rear. This house is Colonial in style, with garage and kitchen gables on either end, facing the street. It is centered on the land and the one axis serves to unite the entire scheme. A fence surrounds this property, and from the house back this is high enough to be a complete screen. Around the front it is lower, allowing free view of the lawn, circled by the entrance walk, which joins the short drive on its side. Passing through the house onto the broad porch the simple flower border opposite the house, backed by a low ever- green hedge, conceals the sunken kitchen garden which oc- cupies the rest of the space. A long but shallow arbor, open on the inner side, with seats beneath it, encloses the rear. At the end of the porch, back of the garage, is a bird sanctuary, consisting of a tangle of berried shrubs with some cedars, a bird-feeding station atop a high post, and a bird-bathing basin. Opposite this feature, at the other end of the porch, and screening the path from the basement to the kitchen gar- den, is a mass of small fruits, supplementing the six dwarf fruit trees which line the walk at the front. Before the garage is a shade tree. S5 86 COME INTO THE GARDEN will the instinct really to make garden awaken and really beautiful gardens appear. With the border allowed for — mark off a space at least one foot wide all around for such allow- ance, wider if you purpose planting a hedge — the plan of the space inclosed by it is immedi- ately before us. And here the personal equation enters at once, large and influential. People are divided, I find, into what I have secretly called orderly and disorderly in the matter of taste in gardens — secretly because disorderly seems generally to imply reproach, although I do not know that it does in this connection. In fact, the disorderly type commonly regard the orderly ones as offenders and apply the adjective to them almost in the tone of an epithet. So it all depends really onthe point of view; but after all, this is not pertinent to the question now and here involved. What matters here is the choice between regularity, symmetry, formality if you will, and Irregularity, complexity, asymmetry, disorder in one sense — not actual untidiness but lack of arrangement. Everyone of us will take sides here, one way or the other; this Is the big personal equation that will Influence all the gar- den's plan within the simple lines representing its boundary. With equally careful planning it might seem DESIGNING A GARDEN 87 at first that neither system would have an ad- vantage over the other, but there is a distinct advantage in practical accomplishment lying al- ways with the symmetrical arrangement. Walks that follow straight lines leave no useless corners and produce no wasted strips or crescents here and there. Every inch of space counts for its very fullest in the garden of mathematical pre- cision. Moreover it is well to bear in mind con- tinually the fact that whatever the natural taste may be, whether it demands a measure of care- less irregularity and repudiates positively the symmetry and order which are to another the highest form of beauty, or no, the limitations of the space and of the surroundings impose cor- responding limitations on individual garden development. In the interest of general harmony and seem- liness, therefore, order of one sort or another must distinguish even the irregular design. Wilderness treatment is as out of place in town environment as log-cabin architecture; and though there may be the most secluded nooks and idyllic retreats, there must be a certain all-pervading neat precision. In other words, limited grounds may show only to a very lim- ited degree that element which we commonly, though not very exactly, designate as infor- D.l /8x/4 lfilll'll"H'Hi''(n-Sal tJ 88 III. Scheme for a city plot measuring thirty by one hundred feet in size. (This is one and a half city lots.) Here a fireproof house has its garage and kitchen im- mediately on the street; the main entrance to the house itself is at the side of the garage and through iron gates that lead to a tiled porch. The living room opens onto the garden at its far end, while the dining room opens also at its rear upon a paved court, in which is set an outdoor aquarium. The house wall continues around the garden, with shrubbery at one side, an arbor at the rear, and vines. One ornamental tree is placed midway along the paved walk leading from the court to a piece of sculpture at the rear. In connection with city gardens it is to be noted that, in general, an arbor offers more secluded shade than a tree, since beneath an arbor and its mat of vines no eyes from upper windows may penetrate. Moreover, vines may al- ways be found that will grow and shortly cover an arbor, whereas trees will not always grow in the city — and even when they will they are a long time about it. 39 40 COME INTO THE GARDEN mality. They must conform to the general spirit of order. Rightly conceived, the garden is in the na- ture of an outdoor extension of the house. Every house requires a certain amount of gar- den treatment to make its presence on the face of the earth anything but an impertinence; for the hard and definite lines created with man's compass and square are antagonistic to every impulse of nature and the natural outdoors, and must be led up to gradually and insinuatingly, if harmony between man's work and nature's is ever to be attained. The charm of the an- cient house is largely owing to the loss of this acute and hard precision of line and form oc- casioned by its settling and yielding to Time — a very subtle and inappreciable loss in the case of well-preserved buildings, yet distinctly effec- tive in the bringing together of artificial and natural. Similarly, the thatch roof, either new or old, is a wonderful harmonizer, partly be- cause of its gracious lines and partly because of its crude natural material, topping and over- shadowing the walls that are so artificial. From the house, therefore, the garden is to work out in its several directions, to the outer limits or boundary of the plot. Hence it is from the house that the start must be made DESIGNING A GARDEN 41 with the design; in other words, the house it- self will furnish the first motif or form in the design. And the principal doors or porches or porch entrances or windows will furnish incep- tive points from which the secondary motifs will proceed. Just what form these shall take and just how they shall be unified in spite of their diversity, are things which each designer must decide for himself — and for the particular situation which he is at work upon. Now, there- fore, we come to considering the design as ap- plied to the ground, rather than to a flat ab- stract surface of the given form. Here we are at once quite beyond the realm of certainty or rule, and only by the aid of diagrams will it be possible for me to general- ize even, with any chance of being understood. Four designs, therefore, are shown; but in none of these are more than the main features given, it being my wish only to suggest here principles for guidance which may be applied universally, rather than actually to give detailed designs. Starting with the house, in detailed plan, located upon the ground, the successive steps in the working up of each design are explained. That this natural development of the design by logical steps requires the detailed house plan is obvious; let nothing induce you to © ©^ © "©M© 4-©^®© 42 Three Shrubbery Groups for Different Places Planting ICet If situated in full sunlight: 1 . Forsy thia Forsythia Fortunei 2. Spirea Spircea Van Houttei 3. Japanese barberry Berheris Thunghergii 4. Highbush cranberry Viburnum oyulus 5. Rose of Sharon Hibiscus Syriacus 6. Hydrangea Hydrangea paniculata grandijlora 7. Panicled cornel Cornus paniculata 8. Mock orange (syringa) . . . Philadelphus coronarius 9. Bush honeysuckle Lonicera Morrowi 10. Deutzia Deutzia Lemoinei 11. Common barberry Berberis vulgaris 12. Sheepberry Viburnum Lentago If situated in shade: 1. Silver bell Hdesia tdtraptera 2. Tree hydrangea Hydrangea arborescens 3. Japanese barberry Berberis Thunbergii 4. Red osier Cornus stolonifera 5. Silky cornel Cornus Amomum 6. Regel's privet Ligustrum Ibota Regeliannm 7. Panicled cornel Cornus paniculata 8. Sweet pepper-bush Clethra alnifolia 9. Maple-leaved viburnum . . Viburnum acerifolium 10. Deutzia Deutzia Pride of Rochester 11. Privet Ligustrum Ibota 12. Indian cherry Rhamnus Carolina 43 44 COME INTO THE GARDEN omit the careful drawing of this plan, there- fore, exact and to true scale, before another line is drawn. It may seem an unnecessary task at first thought to take such pains, espe- cially if the house is built and you are thor- oughly familiar with its layout; but house and garden are to be a unit, each complementing the other. Remember this; and remember that the one preeminent means of unification is the axis. Without an exact plan on paper no axes are possible, however familiar you may be with the house plan; hence no means is provided for wedding the outdoors to indoors. Even the single axis, however, which a window or door or portico may furnish, gives immediate solidity and the strength of unity. Keep the need of this in mind and spare no pains to secure it. The first three of these designs are not formal in the sense of being symmetrical, it will be noticed, though the second approaches sym- metry. The reason for this is the lack of sym- metry in the house plans from which they spring. Always it must be house first; then, from this, rationally and conveniently and harmoniously, the garden. "To sing the same tune, as the saymg Is, is in everything cloying and offensive; but men are generally pleased with variety. ' ' — ^Plutarch . CHAPTER IV Grades, Levels and Contours WHILE it is true that the usual flat surface of an average plot offers few alternatives in the matter of grading, it is also true that such a place is not as devoid of interest and possibil- ities as our accustomed and casual view of it presumes it to be. For one thing, the unbroken level is not imperative even on the perfectly flat piece of ground; and for another, ground that is perfectly flat is not as common as we fancy, or as the appearance of most finished suburbs would seem to indicate. It is our conception of it as flat that is responsible for its becoming so with the aid of shovels and barrows and scoops and rakes — those flatirons with which we smooth all the subtle little character wrinkles and coy dimples out of the good brown earth. This matter of grading — of ironing the face of 45 46 COME INTO THE GARDEN the earth out smooth — is an obsession which I am tempted to believe leads to wilder extrava- gances than any other in which a man may in- dulge. And it afflicts all sorts of men. Thomas Jefferson spent ten years in leveling a space eight or ten acres in extent on the top of the mountain where he built his home; and the sages of a vil- lage whereof I wot not long since graded to a level the entire town! Tons of earth from the broad tops of gentle knolls were laboriously hauled down upon the gracious curves of equally gentle depressions — a feat that dressed many of the roads with rich top soil and left much of the land stripped to its barren clay subsoil and as incapable as stone of supporting vegetation; while the trees everywhere, on both upland and lowland, were most of them killed, and the entire section was robbed of its character and all the claims to beauty and distinction which it once enjoyed. It seems to me that neither Mr. Jefferson nor the authorities of this town could have stopped to think; yet a hundred years and more have intervened between them, and this age should know better if the other did not. But the en- deavor has always been and is to change what creation itself has done with the earth. It seems to be impossible for the majority of human be- GRADES, LEVELS, CONTOURS 47 ings to look at a hillside with an eye to building a house thereon, without immediately begin- ning to calculate how the work of leveling will improve God-given conditions. Even those who are most truly lovers of nature, of rocks and woods and wilderness, fall into the same line of thought when it comes to a consideration of domestic grading; and the suburban place ad- justed to its site, when that site is the least bit unruly, is the rarest of rarities. Already the rule which I would establish in handling grades is apparent, I think, without being formulated; but if it is to be a rule it must be expressed. I have always called it fol- lowing the lead of the land. After all, this is what we are bound to do, in the long run. We may stir up a little dust here, and scratch off a little there, but from the great lead of the land, rising and dipping or stretching off to the hori- zon as level as the sea, we can never, actually, get away. And it is a waste of energy and time — and beauty — to try. Approach your individual problem without preconceived ideas to befog its real demands as well as its real possibilities. Then you will be able to conceive a design or scheme for it that will be actually a part of it, and of it alone, un- influenced by this or that that has appealed to 48 COME INTO THE GARDEN the fancy somewhere, sometime. If creation has whimsically tilted the ground appropriated to your use at ever so steep an angle, that angle should not only be accepted as a motif, but it should be emphasized. Go farther than tolera- tion — or resignation. Seize upon the extrava- gance of a site always and make it the feature of the place; develop the plan of both house and grounds not merely to fit the situation but to require it. There is a great difference in spirit between these two — as great a difference as always lies between negative and positive. And as great a difference will show in results. For example, the house and garden occupying what has facetiously been dubbed a vertical plot should be developed up and down — verti- cally as well as horizontally. Different levels in both should be emphasized, and may even be exaggerated sometimes, by any device that will tend to do this. Topping a height with tall, straight trees, like poplars, is one means to this end, while the use of a spirited architecture of rising lines is another. Entrances to the house at various levels which evolve of themselves in adjusting to such a site contribute greatly to the charm of the whole and create an interest of the quaint and unexpected indoors and out, as well as opportunity for the most delightful GRADES, LEVELS, CONTOURS 49 garden schemes. A little more constructive work out of doors is necessary in the making of re- taining walls, perhaps, and steps, but these once made are permanent, and the different levels afford real gardening space. Contrast such a treatment with the unhappy, barren, uninteresting effect which is all that the most carefully smoothed slope achieves, and contrast its upkeep, too, with the difficulties of maintaining such a slope, of keeping it grassed and mowed — indeed of keeping it there at all under the wash of heavy rains and the freez- ing and thawing of winter — and there is not a single point in favor of the latter. Yet so bent upon leveling and smoothing are a great many architects and their patrons too, that not one house in fifty, big or little, do we find following the lead of the land. Which is a pretty large percentage of wrong beginnings and, taken in the aggregate, a startling waste — as well as a discouraging state of affairs to the landscape architect, called in later. For the mistakes in, and of, the house make the best work out of doors impossible, as I think I have already shown in the previous chapter. A garden, you know, grows out from the house. So start right. Find the lead and then follow it — and until it is found do not take a step. For 50 COME INTO THE GARDEN whatever the topography, there is a lead; and though it may hide itself persistently, diligent consideration will reveal it. Hints rise veri- tably out of the ground, so it is the ground that must be searched to find them. Keep in mind that the object in all you do is to insinuate your presence and handiwork into the presence of the earth spirits and their handiwork so gently and deftly and subtly that harmony will never be disturbed; and realize that this may be done only by accepting their mood as dis- played in the chosen bit and adopting it for yours — for the mood of your home. Do the thing, in other words, that is obviously the logi- cal thing, the thing that evolves easily and naturally along the lines established back in the ages when earth was plastic. Low ground or high, flat or sloping, take it as it is; do as it bids you. Difiiculties are at once apprehended at this mention of low ground, I know; but there is really no more reason for shrinking from frank treatment in a hollow than on a hill. Bear in mind, too, that unskilled labor can cart earth from place to place and fill the hollow with the hill, but surely intelligence and imagination ought not to resort to methods so crude. Intel- ligence and imagination should be able to pre- GRADES, LEVELS, CONTOURS 51 serve the hollow and the hill and to find a way to make both habitable and beautiful. Where there is no complicating drainage to consider, the sunken garden planned especially for winter snugness perhaps, sheltered and sunny, is obviously the solution. But where water settles, something else must be done of course. Yet the very last thing which ought ever to be thought of in handling a natural drainage dip is filling in. Such a situation is never improved by filling, for water below the surface is no real advantage, when it comes to the matter of dry foundations, over water on the surface. What, then, is to be done where water stands? Make the water difficulty a feature by con- centrating on it and putting enough thought into its treatment to earn and reap the reward of a personal triumph and of individuality and beauty in the garden. Find the key to the situ- ation — and use it. Why is the water there? For no reason save that it settles from the surround- ing surfaces; in other words, it drains in from higher levels. Very well; make the drainage more complete. Provide one spot at the lowest point so much lower and deeper than all the rest that the water will settle only in it — and make this a swamp or bog garden. Or clear and exca- 52 COME INTO THE GARDEN vate still more and turn swamp into pool, with a stock of goldfish or commoner kinds as mos- quito exterminators. In this connection let me say that in order to insure against mosquito breeding, every tiny little water pocket among the grasses and the mud at the margin of such a pool or pond must be opened to the fish and kept so; and all over- hanging branches of trees or shrubs must be cleared away so there shall be no deep shadows which they will avoid and so miss the larvae. The presence of mosquitoes around a well stocked pool is a sure indication that one or both of these requirements have not been met, for if the larvae are where the fish can get them, they will do so. It is only when the fish are shut off from them by grasses or shadows that they fail in the mission assigned them. The effect of topography upon garden design is of course very great. Yet design, even upon irregular ground, is governed in a general sense by the same considerations which affect it else- where, in spite of the great measure of liberty which it must have in order to conform to the ground's undulations. For the axes are quite as important whatever the contours, and the border, framing and holding all together, is just as necessary. A design may be simple too — GRADES, LEVELS, CONTOUBS 53 even though it does not stay on one plane all the time. But to work out a plan for grounds of irregular surface, the irregularities must be con- sulted and set down upon the drawing; other- wise the plan cannot fit. It is, therefore, a little less simple to design such a garden, and a topo- graphical map is essential as a basis to work upon, if any great irregularities exist. This is getting rather too deep into techni- calities possibly for the average amateur; yet a contour map is a very simple thing, easy to understand and easy to work upon — and not indeed very difficult to make, although I shall not ask you to go quite as far as that. For an engineer's survey should be made of land that varies enough to affect house and garden de- sign; then all the work can be planned exactly. Such a survey reckons usually from a level pre- viously determined by the general survey of the town or county, but this does not matter. All that matters is the mark of the lowest level, which will be the lowest figure given, whatever the situation may be. This mark may be or anything else; but everything that is not on its level will be above it. Contours at one foot ascend from this lowest plane a foot at a time; that is, imagining the land under survey to be submitted to an inun- 54 COME INTO THE GARDEN dation, every rise of one foot in the waters shows a water mark on hills and knolls that is at ex- actly the same level everywhere, all the way around. The wavy, irregular contour line on a topographical map represents the plan of such a water mark; and each one foot rise narrows the remaining portions of dry land and widens the spread of the (imaginary) waters, until at last only little islands remain here and there, whose topmost heights are something less than a foot above the last rise. Obviously, where a slope is very steep the contour lines fall very close together when seen from above; where it is gradual, they widen out. Working on such a plan of the ground itself, the plans for the house and for the garden may be adjusted perfectly; terrace levels may be calculated and terrace outlines fixed to take ad- vantage of every gradation and variation. And though there is always of necessity a certain measure of excavating and reestablishing of dis- turbed earth coincident with building, and some grading is imperative, these are reduced to the minimum through the exact adjustment and calculation possible. Moreover, the form and size of garden divisions depend so greatly upon varying levels, where these exist, that it is really impossible to plan without them. GRADES, LEVELS, CONTOURS 55 Land that is uneven of surface is more often found clothed with scrub trees and undergrowth than the commoner level and conventional plot, probably because the cleared meadows of farm lands which are the first offerings of the coun- try to the suburb, were usually their level por- tions, I suppose, while the hillsides were left un- cultivated. And in this natural growth there is another valuable suggestion for the garden, as well as an actual beginning sometimes. For even the most unpromising specimens already established, if given proper care and attention, have an advantage over trees and shrubs that are introduced. Preservation of such growth, however, is only accomplished by the preservation of the grades whereon it is fixed, for the surface levels above the roots of trees cannot be appreciably changed without great risk to the trees — a risk varying somewhat according to the varieties represented and the amount of the change in level, to be sure, but always present nevertheless. Six inches of soil added or six inches removed may very easily prove fatal, while less is often the occa- sion of a severe set-back or general decline from which they recover very slowly and perhaps never completely. This is because roots grow at the depth which insures them the right de- 56 COME INTO THE GARDEN gree of moisture, of warmth, and of air, and any change in this depth seriously affects all three. The removal of even a small amount of earth allows the sun to bake them as well as to draw away the precious moisture from them. And of course it increases the air supply as well — dangerously. On the other hand, the addition of earth shuts this off, smothering them; and it upsets, too, the moisture and warmth equilibrium which is so carefully and nicely adjusted. So if trees are to be preserved they must be allowed their places undisturbed. No change of more than two inches either way should be made in the ground around them within the space covered by the full spread of their' branches, which is the space occupied by the spread of their roots — and even this is not desirable. I have spoken almost entirely of grading and grade treatment on irregular ground because ground of this character naturally demands more attention than ground which is level. But there are one or two interesting possibilities on even the level tract or plot that are all too sel- dom realized. One of these is the terrace as shown in the first design, page 30, another is the terrace in the rear of the house, page 34. There is always a measure of earth to be dis- GRADES, LEVELS, CONTOURS 57 posed of when a cellar is excavated. Com- monly this is hauled away from the place that does not require filling to bring it to the cus- tomary dead level; and this sometimes, if not usually, is done at some expense. A terrace effectually makes use of this instead — and varies the uninteresting dead level most agreeably into the bargain. Moreover it affords a vantage point from which to look beyond the boundary planting, just as did the ancient mount within the mediaeval walled garden. And the terrace approach to the house is of all treatments the most effective, especially if for any reason it is necessary or desirable to set a house high above the ground. The ramped walk is a pleasant feature alto- gether too little known and adopted on the small place, yet really possible anywhere. Why this graceful slope does not more often take the place of the" steps which we so laboriously build and climb I cannot imagine, unless it be because the idea is generally unknown. Excepting at the main and formal entrance from the street to the house, this ascent is everywhere appropriate; its suggestion of intimacy and ease, however, bars it from the entrance at which strangers ap- proach. It should never be carried out in stone or cement or any artificial medium; but in the 58 COME INTO THE GARDEN garden, where gravel or grass walks — preferably the latter — are possible, any rise where steps ordinarily lead from one level to the other af- fords an opportunity for a ramp. A grade of from thirty to thirty-five or -six per cent, is the best, this being comfortable of ascent and easily established and preserved. That is, there should be an advance horizon- tally of three feet or thereabout for every foot of rise. And although this takes up more space than steps in order to reach a given height, it is space that can usually be spared without ap- preciable disadvantage. Sometimes lawn the entire width of a porch may effectively be ramped up to the porch floor level and the porch steps eliminated altogether. Opportunities for charming and interesting effects will suggest themselves, if this idea is given some attention and its possibilities allowed to develop easily, without being overdone. When grading or terracing is to be done any- where, go about it in the right way by removing the top soil first to a depth of from six to eight inches — more if this soil is deeper; the color will tell you — over the entire area to be excavated, and also over the area which is to be terraced or ramped or altered in any way. Put tliis in a convenient place where it will not interfere with GRADES, LEVELS, CONTOURS 59 building and grading operations, but will be ac- cessible when wanted. Then do the work of grading everj^where, bringing all levels to with- in six inches of their proposed finished sur- face. When all this is done restore the top soil to the top, spreading it evenly and a little deeper than the six inches allowed over those areas which have been built up, as these will settle. I would advise retaining walls of stone or brick invariably instead of sloping grassed ter- races, both for their greater permanence and for their superior merit artistically and practically. A garden of the before mentioned vertical char- acter may be broken, by means of such walls, into levels that provide as much room for vege- tables and flowers as any flat tract of the same area; and at the same time the walls themselves furnish space for a quantity of fruit — much more of course than the single wall surrounding the garden on a level site affords. ". . . . A garden circummur'd with brick, Whose western side is with a vineyard back'd; And to that vineyard is a planched gate — " — Measure for Measure. CHAPTER V Boundary Treatments THERE are three distinct forms of defense pos- sible — the fence, the wall, and the hedge. And of each of these there are several types; so that something suitable to every type of house as well as to every kind of situation may be found. To choose just any sort of thing that will keep out the intruding elements alien to the perfect garden is therefore not necessary — and is, further, not excusable. For harmony is as important between house and grounds and boundary treatment as it is between house and grounds. A place which may be delightful when inclosed with simple palings or a hedge may be altogether overdone if a wall of brick or stone defines its limits and protects its interior. Do not regard time spent in examining into the claims of the various features which may be 60 > t-, -M a -0 C/J 3 *^ 4-> a a; ^ Pi >jT3 ;-i tH 3 ■M 4^ 3 fTl cn 5 ^ C« 0) 8 § 1 1 Oh 0) 3 ^ 0^ > 3 (I) i/i ^ fl BOUNDARY TREATMENTS 61 chosen for the boundary, therefore, as time wasted; analyze each from every point of view, and do not settle upon anything without know- ing that it is the best thing for the place in question. Further, let me say that whatever is being considered let it always be regarded as a pro- tective barrier and never be regarded as an orna- ment, in itself. Ornamental a well-designed and well-built fence or wall, or well-kept hedge, as- suredly may be and will be; but it is never for the purpose of ornamenting that it is built — and for an outer boundary especially the quality of unobtrusiveness is the one to court. Within a garden of a certain type, treillage and elaborate latticework and fencing are appropriate, but this sort of thing should never be used to separ- ate private ground from the highway or from adjoining lands. Whatever is ultimately dis- covered to be the proper boundary treatment to harmotiize with the house and the grounds in a given environment, therefore, is to be designed finally with a view to keeping it in a low key and never to attracting attention to it or to occa- sioning remark at its striking character. It is of course only possible to generalize in somewhat broad terms with regard to the suit- ability of the various kinds of boundary treat- 62 COME INTO THE GARDEN ment to different styles of architecture and dif- ferent environment, since many things enter in to cause exceptions, now and then, to what may seem a positive rule. But as a beginning it is pretty safe to say that the hedge is, of all forms of inclosure, better suited to the average non- descript place than anything else, because it is, in itself, a compromise between the definite elements of architecture and the indefinite qual- ties of nature. The deciduous hedge has this about it, more- over, which recommends it; it insinuates itself into a community without shocking the sensi- bilities of even the most conventional adherent of the real-estate style of landscape, for it starts low and only gradually becomes the full-fledged barrier that it is proposed to maintain. And while it is growing to its fullness of height and breadth and effectiveness, everyone grows ac- customed to it and comes to accept it as a matter of course; whereas, if a fence had been boldly erected it would have seemed a piece of impertinence to the entire neighborhood, so es- tablished are most neighborhoods in the thought that garden seclusion and privacy is a direct affront to neighborly privilege. So it is the hedge that shall have first place in our considerations — not, be it understood, be- BOUNDARY TREATMENTS 63 cause I accord it first place as a garden bound- ary, by any means; but because it is so gener- ally useful and so generally possible. It requires, of course, to make it wholly effective as a pro- tection, the reinforcement which a fence alone will give, although if it is properly established at the time of planting and properly cared for thereafter, it is possible to develop it into an impenetrable mass of close-set branches right down to the ground. And of course nothing short of this approaches the true ideal for a hedge. Perhaps no plant has ever had the vogue for hedge purpose which the California privet en- joys, and no plant has ever more deserved its popularity. It is not because it is cheap, either, that it is popular, though this of course partly accounts for the wide use of it. But its great adaptability to all sorts of places and all but the extremely cold sections of the country, its rapid growth, and the beautiful wall of living green which it presents when rightly attended, play quite as large a part in its popularity as its low price. And even when it is killed out in a winter of unusual severity — as much of it was during the unprecedented winter of 1919-20 — it comes again from its roots, if cut back properly, and renews itself within an astonishingly short time. 64 COME INTO THE GARDEN The plants for a privet hedge should be pref- erably three-year-olds at least, for these alone will insure plants that are thick and well branched at the ground — which is almost the most important thing about a plant that is to go into a hedge. Set them nine inches apart, and from one foot to two feet inside the actual boundary line of the property they are to in- close; and set them deep into the ground. The simplest way to go about the work is to have a trench dug some five or six inches deeper than the roots of the plants; on to the bottom of this spread well-rotted manure, then sprinkle earth enough over it to cover it. Then set the plants along in the trench, putting enough earth over the roots of each as it is held in place, to keep it there, but not filling in the trench until all are set, when it can all be done rapidly. When the planting is done, cut back the plants to within two inches of the ground — which, by the way, is the hardest thing about the entire proceeding usually, for the novice at any rate. And I will agree that to cut back a perfectly good bush that is perhaps four feet high and strong and well branched, until noth- ing is left of it but the stumps of its branches standing just above the surface of the earth, re- quires some determination — and possibly more BOUNDARY TREATMENTS 65 faith. It is the only right way to make a right start, however; for any other way will produce a hedge that is bare and weak at the ground and that will, moreover, always remain so. For it is only just below the point of pruning that a plant sends up new growth; consequently if it is pruned high, this new growth will be high up, whereas if it is pruned close to the ground the new growth will begin at the ground — where it must be in order to produce a hedge that is dense and thick from bottom to top. Deciduous hedges should be sheared annually at least, and the privet usually requires shear- ing twice during the summer while it is estab- lishing itself, since its growth is rapid and it is important to shape it carefully during its early years. And of its shape let me say very em- phatically that it must always be narrower at the top than at the bottom, if it is to maintain its branches down to the ground and conform generally to the ideal set for it. The Gothic arch, slightly flattened at the apex, is the best form possible, though the sides may slope in on a straight line from bottom to top, if preferred. The principle involved is simple; namely, that the growth must be able to receive light and air equally all the way to the bottom. Only by making the branches above shorter 66 COME INTO THE GARDEN than those below them, is it possible to insure the latter their proper quota; and of course this results in the in-sloping sides. A secondary advantage of this form is the greater strength of the hedge mass under weight of snow or ice and its consequent resistance; for snow or ice resting upon it is supported by practically all of its branches instead of by only the top branches, as is the case when a uniform width is preserved and the top is flat. The height to which a hedge of privet may be carried is limited only by the height of the shrub when left to its own devices; as this is fifteen feet it is apparent that high and beauti- ful living walls are possible through the use of this variety. As a matter of fact, however, I would not advise bringing it to more than ten feet or even eight, unless on a large place and under exceptional circumstances. In England an upright narrow hedge only a foot in width and from five to nine feet in height is sometimes developed, and beautiful things they are; but we have always to remember that our extremes of heat and cold make it difiicult to do many things in America that English gardeners have no trouble with. This is not to say, however, that walls of privet of this height and width are not possible here; but as with the more BOUNDARY TREATMENTS 67 usual hedge, I would advise tapering them from a width of two feet at least at the bottom to a foot at the top and leaving the top rounded rather than flattened. In the early days of gardening here, the ar- borvitae was much used for garden hedges; and it is as good to-day as it was then. For a hedge of evergreen, indeed, it is hardly excelled, and it endures shearing perfectly. But its shape naturally is such that not a great deal of atten- tion is needed to keep it in the desired form, for it conforms to the lines of the Gothic arch almost without touching the shears to it. When used as a hedge, the plants should be set not quite their width apart, whatever size they may be. This will insure their becoming a solid, dense mass as they grow. Pruning should be directed to keeping them at the height decided upon, and evenly sloping on the sides of the hedge. Prune evergreen hedges in June, preferably, as they are then at the fullness of their seasonal activity and will not suffer from the operation, and will moreover soon clothe themselves with their new growth, which will then conform to the desired lines. Deciduous pruning or shear- ing should be done in June and again, if neces- sary, in August — the latter while the hedge is 68 COME INTO THE GARDEN being formed. After this the midsummer work will ordinarily be enough. There are of course other plants available for both deciduous and evergreen hedges, but I pre- fer not to confuse the issue by dealing with them here. Consideration of the hedge is not com- plete, however, without reference to the use of honeysuckle or actinidia supported by ribbon wire or by any good strong wire fencing. Rib- bon wire is the simplest to use, for it requires only fastening to the posts as it is stretched, while wire fencing requires a fence stretcher and considerable work to erect it properly and per- manently. Furthermore, it is doubtful if any wire fencing is actually permanent, since time does make inroads upon it even when it is painted and well cared for. So the ribbon wire, which is easily renewed, is again a better choice unless absolute impenetrability is desired. On posts set eight or nine feet apart, three rows of this will furnish support for the vines which will, in a very short time, provide a fine and dense hedge — of an almost evergreen character if of the honeysuckle, for it holds its leaves throughout the winter in all but the se- verest latitudes. Set the plants at every post and two between; and see to it that, as they grow, they are twined on to the wire and carried BOUNDARY TREATMENTS 69 up as fast as they have covered the lower wires, to the top one and along this. A little watching and directing will rapidly form the growing mass into almost as even a hedge as one of sheared privet or arborvitse; and as each summer adds the twining branches of its growth to those al- ready established, such a hedge will thicken and become a veritable wall of green which may be trimmed enough with the shears to prevent its being ragged. For very high screens or boundary planting on large plots the beech tree offers wonderful possibilities, holding its leaves throughout the winter as it does and adapting itself perfectly to severe shearing and shaping. And as it may be maintained at a width of perhaps only four or five feet when its height is twenty or more, its usefulness as a screen on a place of limited size is apparent; for it takes up actu- ally very little room. Second only to the hedge in general suitability and usefulness is the wood fence of one kind or another, built in a manner to conform with the style and the character of the house beyond it. There are of course many fashions for this, ranging all the way from the solid deal or plain board fence of the city or large town back- yard to the palings or picket fence of the trim 70 COME INTO THE GARDEN New England village; but when anything apart from the simplest design is approached, beware ! Not that real variation in design may not be considered, but that the unusual is, as I have already warned, not to be selected if, by such selection, attention will be drawn to the fence before anything else is noted. As a general rule there is a fence suited to practically every house that is really architec- turally good, even in the humblest way; but further to generalize, I may say that the picket fence, or palings, seems naturally to take its place before the modest house of discreet and unpretentious Colonial type, while the post-and- rail fence demands a rather more spacious, wide- spreading dwelling of somewhat the same char- acter. One is, in other words, essentially the town or village type, the other more especially the farmstead type; and it is well to try and use them accordingly. But this is not to say that there may not be places in the close confines of a town where the latter will produce a better effect than the former — as for example before a house standing high up on an eminence rising directly from the street. In such a case, how- ever, the eminence itself becomes in part the barrier shutting off the highway; and the fence topping it does not need to be of the BOUNDARY TREATMENTS 71 close-set type in order to make the setting apart complete. Which prompts me to observe that it is after all something of a psychological problem, this whole matter of boundary barriers, as well as a problem of actual protection. For it is neces- sary to seem protected as well as to be protected — but not to establish a sense of fortification in doing this, since after all it is only against peace- ful invasion that defense is being established. To do enough without doing more than enough is, therefore, a matter of real concern, and re- straint is very necessary in the small garden. Of high and latticed ornamental fences it may be said that their function as screens is perfectly legitimate and their use is to be en- couraged if circumstances demand them; but this is rarely on the street side of a dwelling, since on this side none of the actual garden features that invite to intimate use and com- panionship will be located. And there is an element of the bizarre in a fence of this char- acter which strikes the beholder more forcibly than we desire. They are dramatic — or even melodramatic — and that is the thing we are avoiding. If a street exposure must be inclosed with a high fence for one reason or another, a better 72 COME INTO THE GARDEN selection than lattice topping therefore is a solid structure of the simplest lines, capped with substantial coping and simply paneled, if de- sired, the whole painted in conformity with the house. In other words, duplicate the eJBFect of a wall, frankly; and do nothing to call special attention to it. Such a fence, with a gateway admitting a vista within, or a doorway through it, if its height is sufficient for this, possesses the qualities of dignity and permanence and serious intent which instinctively are felt to be seemly in the public aspect of a home. Walls of brick or stone or plaster are of course desirable above all else, providing house and grounds generally are in keeping; but never resort to a wall on any sort of place unless it can be a continuation of one of the house walls and thus come into existence naturally and logically. This presupposes a house of masonry, usually; yet not invariably, inasmuch as a wall of stone or brick or even of plaster may per- fectly well continue from a house foundation wall of the same material, and thus preserve unity with the house, though the latter is itself built of wood. For the city garden nothing can equal the effect obtained by a continuance of the house walls in this way, as we need go no farther than BOUNDARY TREATMENTS 73 some of our own old Southern cities to discover. In very crowded cities, indeed, such a wall be- comes the larger part of the garden, since only a tew kinds of plants will live in the atmosphere, and wall tiles, recessed bits sheltering sculp- ture, wall fountains and seats must provide the color, interest, and beauty usually furnished by them. Variation in the height of a wall wherever there is a real reason for it — that is, at a point where the contour of the land or where a turn, or a junction with some different section of the garden, or some other element of change makes it logical — is pleasing usually, and sometimes is almost necessary; especially is this felt when a wall entirely surrounds the grounds. One break alone will suffice, many times; or even the vari- ation that comes of a gateway. But this much at least is needed to avoid monotony and the sense of grim (overdone) defense. To extend a wall some distance from the house at a consid- erable height and then to decrease this height is one way of achieving the necessary variation. Of course a study of good examples is just as essential to intelligent and discriminating selection when it is a wall for the garden that is under consideration as when it is the house itself. So without regard to preconceived ideas 74 COME INTO THE GARDEN or prejudices, go carefully over as many books of good architecture, both landscape and build- ing, as it is possible to lay hands on, before de- ciding on any features that must be designed and built. No one can know how limited his knowledge is until he seeks thus to broaden it; and certainly not until it has been broadened is it possible to exercise taste and to select with full appreciation of all the finer points involved. A list of the best hedge plants for different sections of the country is appended. Of fence and wall materials I will say only that there are two things to avoid. The first is the so-called ornamental wire fence, the second is the con- crete block wall — unless it is plastered and the blocks obliterated completely. As a foundation such blocks may serve but never as the final wall surface. And as to the wire fencing, unless it is used as the support of such a vine hedge as I have earlier mentioned, it fails altogether to give any sense of inclosure, since it allows all the world to look in, if not to enter. And it cannot, by the wildest stretch of the imagina- tion, be regarded as beautiful in and by itself; apart from pure utility, therefore, there can be no reason for using it. And there can be no reason whatsoever for using rails of gaspipe or chains swung through iron posts, since these BOUNDARY TREATMENTS 75 are neither good to look at nor good for any- thing as an inclosure! Hedge Material The Northern States: Common privet Ligiistrum vulgare Amoor privet Ligustrum amurense Russian olive Eleagnus argentea Arborvitse Thuya occidentalis The Middle States: California privet Ligustrum ovalifolium Box-leaved barberry. . .Berheris huxifolia Japanese yew Taxu^ cusjpidata Arborvitse Thuya occidentalis The Southern States: Evergreen privet Ligustrum lucidum Tree box Buxus sempervirens English holly Ilex aquifolium Abelia Ahelia grandiflora Vines as Substitutes Hall's honeysuckle . . . .Lonicera Japonica, Halliana Actinidia Actinidia arguta "No line or compass traced its plan; With frequent bends to left or right In aimless, wayward curves it ran But always kept the door in sight." — Tlie Crooked Footbath. — Holmes. CHAPTER VI Walks, Paths and Garden Entrances THE value of first impressions is too well established to need expounding, so if I merely call attention to the fact that here we have the feature responsible for the first im- pressions of a garden, the importance of walks and entrances will not call for further emphasis. Responsible in many ways too are these walks, paths, and entrances; through the material of which they are constructed they make one sort of impression, through their form another, and by reason of what architects call their scale still another. Material has been mentioned first because it is, in one way, the most obvious thing, more glaring when badly chosen, contributing in a larger degree to a pleasant effect when well 76 WALKS, PATHS, ENTRANCES 77 chosen. But the obviousness of material should by no means detract from a realization of the importance of a walk's form or line of direction and its scale — although I personally feel that a walk or path or even an entrance gateway may be more comfortably tolerated when its design and scale are altogether failures but its material suitable and harmonious, than when a very ex- cellent design or plan is executed in the wrong substance and thus thrown distressingly out of scale. Material and scale — otherwise proportion — affect each other so intimately that they can- not, as a matter of fact, be considered as things apart; indeed, scale in one sense is altogether dependent on material. For example, a grano- lithic walk leading to the door of a shingled cot- tage is out of scale even though its width be kept down to the minimum, whereas a most generous walk of gravel or even of bricks, loosely laid, would not be, owing of course to the greater harmony of material. Sidewalks of cement along the highway are unquestionably superior to any others, but with- in the garden — which means within the bound- aries of the plot, remember — they are in nearly all cases quite hopeless. Indeed I cannot recall a single exception. There is something so grimly 78 COME INTO THE GARDEN uncompromising about cement, so public-seem- ing — and so ugly when brought Into close rela- tion with grass and flowers and the garden gen- erally — that it puts a blight upon beauty, how- ever bravely one may seek to neutralize it. Only by toning it down with a gravel space from eight to twelve inches wide on either side is it possible to qualify its glaring, garish, utilitarian unpleasantness suflSciently to make it anything but an offense anywhere within private grounds. And even with this modification it should never be used except for a main entrance, which is al- ways conceded to be semipublic in its character. The material par excellence for interior walks is brick, laid on a bed of sand, this on a bed of cinders. The old-time natural flagstones are next in choice to the bricks, while gravel, prop- erly laid, always makes a walk little inferior to any. This latter must be carefully railed in, however, as old garden beds were railed, to pre- vent its scattering into the turf along its mar- gins; or else the turf must stand well above it. The latter is a more pleasing measure to insure the confinement of the gravel, perhaps, and quite as effective if the walk itself is well crowned and good drainage at either side is provided. Across and through the garden, especially if WALKS, PATHS, ENTRANCES 79 it be small, there is nothing so pleasing to the eye and so generally a jSnish and ornament to the design as walks of close-cut turf. That they are wet after rain there is no denying; but so too are walks of other kinds, and most other things as well. The morning dew leaves them reluctantly, some object, which must be granted. But to my mind neither of these complaints — nor both of them together — voices a sufficient reason for not using them. However, where they seem to, stepping stones of equal size and regular form may be sunk into the turf regularly and the effect practically unimpaired. Indeed the stones themselves are charming, bedded in the green, and may prove a real acquisition. They should be regular where definite and regu- lar lines prevail, only gardens of marked infor- mality admitting the flat stones of all sorts of shapes and sizes. The arrangement and the form of walks and paths are of course of the greatest consequence in the garden design, from every point of view. Naturally prominent because of what they are, and bound to mark divisions, they should al- ways follow leading lines; but note, please, that this does not mean that leading lines should in- variably be followed by a walk or path. Indeed it is better to err on the side of restraint in the 80 COME INTO THE GARDEN number of walks rather than to introduce too many. But this is one of those nice Httle mat- ters that will almost settle itself, if allowed to do so without forcing. For a walk or a path would never exist if there were not, earlier than it, two objects from one of which it was desired to pass to the other. "Where does this lead?" is the instant query whenever and wherever a path meets the ram- bler; which means really what does it lead to, what lies at the end? Or in other words, why is this path? Here if you please, is the whole thing in a nutshell; and we realize at once that there must never be a path or walk in the garden that has no reason — no answer to that why and to that what. It may or it may not go straight to its objective point — its course will be deter- mined by circumstances — but it must have the objective; and it will work always toward it. This brings us to a phase of walk layout that has always been to me one of the most interest- ing — a phase which I do not find often recog- nized, even by those who have studied the matter. I can give it no better name than the instinctive direction — and this will need ex- plaining I think. It is just what the name sig- nifies; given, for example, an object in one place to be approached from a point at any distance WALKS, PATHS, ENTRANCES 81 from it, every creature making the trip will choose, without stopping to think, a certain course — and all will choose practically the same course. Naturally we should expect this to be the most direct, all creatures being constituted similarly in that they are somewhat averse to unnecessary effort; hence a perfectly straight line between the two places. Actually, how- ever, it almost never happens that a path fol- lows a perfectly straight line — for which there must be a reason. Of course there is; and equally of course — when one stops to think — it is a reason that has its basis in that natural indolence just noted, common to man and beast. For the straight line is not usually the easiest way; and it is the easiest way that is followed, even though this must deviate from being the shortest for noth- ing more consequential than an ant hill or a rank tuft of grasses. The longer distance is invari- ably less objectionable than the effort to sur- mount even so small an obstacle; feet instinc- tively seek the level. This element must be permitted free rein in planning walks, even in formal garden design, if they are to provide really satisfying strolls — and this is of course the ultimate purpose for which such walks should always be designed. 82 COME INTO THE GARDEN Not that they may take their own course un- guided, wherever they may list, by any means, but for their guidance the instinctive direction should be kept in mind, and the conditions which determine it should be provided, where they will guide along the line predetermined by the designer. Generally spealdng, walks may be put wherever they are desired; then, wher- ever this may be and whatever their direction, they and their environment must be so con- trived as to make that direction seem instinctive. Planting is usually enough to provide all the guide to direction which even the most tortuous path may need; and of course large garden beds, devoted to vegetables and flowers, them- selves offer obstacles around which clean turns must be made in the regularly laid out garden. Walks that are purely utilitarian need not be so painstakingly worked out, for the utilitarian walk provides its own reason and direction, and that is all there is to it. Well proportioned and of suitable material they certainly should be, though; and planted and ornamented they as certainly may be. But on all small grounds their direction should never be interfered with, for such interference wastes precious space. Take for instance the service ways in the four plans given; they do not use up an inch WALKS, PATHS, ENTRANCES 83 unnecessarily, but go direct to the object at which they are aimed. Moreover, they do not give access to the grounds generally, any more than the street does; and the scheme makes them almost unseen — certainly unrealized — • from either the house or the garden. Where the space between the house and street is kept in lawn, it is an advantage usually to carry the front entrance walk also in at the side —for lawn space should be undivided wherever possible. But where this cannot very well be done, where it will sacrifice convenience and directness and the point of instinctive entrance from the street, this walk may be made a part of the general design, as in Plate I, page 30: thus its position is vindicated. This point of entrance from the street, by the way, is another of those subtle things which in- stinct must govern — actual instinct in this case and not artificially directed instinct, as in the case of the walk. For no trick will serve to fix this point; it fixes itself, definitely and obsti- nately. The direction from which a place is approached has more to do with it perhaps than anything else, but the position of the house entrance complements this; so really it takes the two in combination to work the matter out. Again it is the impulse to save steps—the lazy 84 COME INTO THE GARDEN human nature in us — that is at the bottom of the thing. Here we must let this impulse do its work without interference; and there is no way of doing this except to experiment, on the ground. Given the house location, try approaching its entrance — its porch steps, if it is reached by porch steps — from the sidewalk, from both di- rections. Try it a great many times, until the turn is instinctive, and not thought about; get others to try without their knowing it, and note the point where the majority leave the sidewalk. There may be two such points; in all likelihood there will be, if the two directions of approach are used — in which event a spot midway be- tween them will probably be the right place for the gate and the start of the entrance walk. Yet this may not be it after all, possibly, for the point indicated by those coming from the direc- tion whence approach will most commonly be made, as from trolley or station, may be more true to the situation. Or if not this exact spot, one nearer to it than to the other, rather than midway between. If for example the customary approach to the place in Plate I, page 30, is from the left, then no excuse that could possibly be invented would serve to justify an entrance walk where that plan shows it. Nearer to the left boundary than WALKS, PATHS, ENTRANCES 85 to the right it would have to be, unless it solved the difficulty as in Plate II, page 34. Here, then, is an influence from outside the garden or grounds that must always be reck- oned with in planning at least the main en- trance walk. For of course its curves, if it have them, and its general direction will be deter- mined by its point of departure from the side- walk. The formula of the general rule, so far as a general rule may be formulated, therefore is: never pass the house entrance to reach the entrance to the grounds. Supplement this by a rule to go as directly as possible from gate to front door, especially on small grounds. Garden entrances themselves, or gates, have even greater possibilities as regards first impres- sions than walks. Indeed they may very nearly make or mar a place, as far as its street aspect is concerned, for they have a capacity for express- ing very accurately the qualities which lie be- yond them; curiously enough, they seldom err. I have never found an inhospitable gateway guarding a generous, warm-blooded man's door- way; neither have I ever failed to find the sort of person I have learned to look for beyond the arrogant, the mean, the splurging, or the silly entrance. So let us look well to our home-por- tals; they are all-revealing. 86 COME INTO THE GABDEN But first of all let us make sure that we have them. No yawning intermissions in fence or hedge, with nothing to close them, will do; nei- ther will fine gateposts and gate, with no wall or hedge through which they admit. Either de- mands the other; and the garden demands both. Each must be in scale with the other, too — and with the house and the place generally as well, conforming to its delicate balance quite as nicely as the walks. The adjustment of scale in building material, whatever is being constructed, is so largely a matter of feeling, however — of an extra sense — that I hesitate to offer advice concerning it. If one does not know, through this sixth sense, that an iron fence does not belong around a plot oc- cupied by a deep-eaved, shingled cottage; that wire fencing is out of scale with buildings of masonry; or that a hedge is a weak retainer for large grounds and stone buildings, while a dressed-stone wall overshadows a small place and takes interest from wooden buildings, there is little to be gained by telling him. For in some other direction he will turn aside and do the wrong thing, it being impossible to foresee all the unfortunate combinations which may arise — or to foresee instances when the combi- nation becomes intolerable that would, under WALKS, PATHS, ENTRANCES 87 other circumstances, be permissible. Apply the test of common sense and reason, however, and rely upon its guidance, if the sense of propor- tion is lacking. It will keep you within fair lim- its either way. Similarly common sense will prevent the building of an airy lattice arch between stone posts, or the erection of clumsy monstrosities of birch or beech saplings, laboriously put together but never solid, anywhere but in the wilderness; even there they are not practical. Arched gateways, rightly conceived and executed, are charming, without a doubt, but the entire place must be considered and its character must de- termine whether such an entrance will add to or detract from the ensemble. With the simple cottage type of dwelling, a vine or rose covered arch entrance is a delightful and appropriate feature, but with a formal house such a gateway is too ingenuous and childish to be appropriate. The stiffer arch of living green, either privet or hemlock, rising from an inclosing hedge @f the same, is better suited to this type, with a trim paneled gate swinging from simple posts beneath it. But for the place that is in no sense quaint there is probably greater dignity and appropriateness in the uncovered gateway than in any sort of arched opening. It is the 88 COME INTO THE GARDEN small and intimate garden that needs this more distinctive setting apart, especially. It is with walks and gateways as with so many other phases of constructive garden work, of making and adorning; the one great obstacle to our accomplishing the best results always is the tendency to minimize the value of each seeming small feature. Once rid of the idea that anything at all does not matter, the road to progress becomes an open highway along which we are bound to move, if we resolutely refuse to be beguiled from it this way or that by the trifling, the unreasonable, and the bizarre. These are the pitfalls of the unwary and un- discerning. "Tyme passeth and speaketh not, Deth Cometh and warneth not; Amende today and slack not, Tomorrow thyself cannot." — Old Sundial Motto. CHAPTER VII Garden Accessories and Ornaments WE have seen that the walks in and around a garden must have an objective point, must lead to something; and obviously that something must be a distinctive feature, strik- ing a sharp note in the design and focusing the attention positively. This it is not possible for vegetation alone to do; no specimen of tree, shrub, or flower, however superior it may be as a specimen, is distinct enough from all the rest, in just the right way, to provide the needed positive element. Hence garden accessories in all their variations — the casinos, gazebos, ar- bors, statues, fountains, columns, or whatever they may be, of use or ornament. In this briefly outlined purpose of these gar- den attributes lies the guide to their positions. It is at once plain that no reason exists for put- 89 90 COME INTO THE GARDEN ting an urn, a statue, or anything else in the midst of open lawn. No argument in the world can justify such a position for any kind of ob- ject, any more than it can justify putting a sim- ilar object in the midst of a drawing-room floor. Things of this nature are to adorn, not to mon- opolize. True, a sculpture of merit deserves a setting wherein all its beauties may be fittingly enjoyed; but such a work demands its own gallery or alcove, whether it be outdoors or in, and only when an area sufficient to provide this is available should an image or group of such importance be used. For then the object itself, not the garden, is the feature; the latter, or that portion of it immediately about a great work of art, is secondary — an effect obviously to be avoided, w^here space is limited. Let it not be understood that I am arguing against merit, however, in garden statuary or ornament, for of merit there can never be too much anywhere — certainly not in the garden. It is only the too ambitious conception that should be barred from the garden which it will overtop and render insignificant. Neither in actual size nor in the idea expressed may orna- ment ever assume greater proportions than the thing it ornaments. Be sure that it has done this, however, whenever it conveys the stronger GARDEN ACCESSORIES 91 impression. If any garden accessory sends you away with the thought "So-and-so has a fine statue — or pool or garden house — in his gar- den," instead of, "So-and-so's garden is attrac- tive with that statue — or pool or garden house — where it is," be sure that the object in ques- tion is either ill chosen or ill placed. But further than now and then an arbor or summer house it seems difficult for us to pro- gress, in all except the great gardens designed and executed professionally — and wearing an air too often of professionalism. And of course an arbor or a summer house is something of an achievement, in limited space; so more often than not we do without even these. Perhaps it is just as well that we do until we have learned to use them, for certainly they are senseless creations unless they are used. So, for that matter, is a garden, too; the remedy lies not in foregoing to make a garden, however, but in learning to use it. The great American front-porch habit is largely responsible for our neglect of the real outdoors, I believe, but a certain spirit of snatch- ing at our idling rather than taking it deliber- ately may be at the bottom of this. xAnd then, of course, our outdoor retreats have never been made with the intention of actually using them, 92 COME INTO THE GARDEN hence they do not invite to occupancy — to breakfast on pleasant mornings and tea on sum- mery afternoons, to steamer chair naps or a hot- day forty winks on a cool swinging rush couch. Magazines and books do not find their way to the uncomfortable-looking table tops — and in short there is no reason for idling or resting because there is nothing really to idle with or actually to rest on. All these things are on the front porch — or indoors, out of wind and weather. And because there is no such ren- dezvous in the garden or at the end of the garden walk, the garden itself lies alone in sun- light and in moonlight, under the dew and under the pale mists and the sweet, cool rain — and not one thousandth part of what a gar- den really is ever comes home to one of us. Casinos and summer houses let us have, there- fore, by all means; but of the pergola, beware! For pergolas, as they are so often seen and made, are just another instance of our tendency indis- criminately to seize upon and use — and abuse — a novelty. The pergola in itself is not ob- jectionable, but ignorant use has made it so, and worse — made it ridiculous. Which is al- ways an unfortunate state for even the most ad- mirable thing to reach. Properly speaking the architectural pergola or Studiously avoiding the conventional this garden appro- priately entertains the unconventional thatched shelter that would not be in harmony with less casual surroundings GARDEN ACCESSORIES 93 vine arbor is a transition from the house, out into the pergola or vine arbor that is not archi- tectural, or out into less architectural regions generally. Pergola, be it noted, means nothing more nor less than "vine arbor"; it is our own false conception of the term that applies it only to the timber and heavy column structure which has found its detached way into gardens and succeeded generally in getting where it does not belong. Away out of doors and apart from dwellings there should be no architectural per- golas; here genuinely roofed structures are in order, or else the simplest arbors. Only at- tached to the dwelling, not merely against it but leading from it, may architectural pergolas be properly introduced. Many gardens or garden sites which are too small to admit a garden house or casino suffi- ciently apart from the dwelling to be worth while may yet afford space for this proper use of the pergola. Where this is too ambitious for the type of house and the grounds generally, however, a seat under a tree is always possible — or under a bower of vines — with an outdoor table to keep it company. This much at least should never be omitted from any garden — and may be repeated as often, within the bounds of reason, as space admits or fancy dictates, to 94 COME INTO THE GARDEN provide the greatest amount of encouragement possible to the cultivation of the out-of-doors habit — and the greatest amount of help in breaking up the front-porch habit. Seats in the form of a semicircle are especially agree- able for groups, or if these are beyond the pos- sibilities, in the form of a square open at the side. Either is good, for either brings the occu- pants somewhat face to face; thus they are con- ducive to use because they are conducive to conversation. Comfort and use should be consulted pri- marily in the construction of both arbors and seats. None of the narrow, rail-bottom, rail- back, unpleasant affairs so generally found in the latter should ever be given any position whatsoever. Firm balance, a smooth seat, and an easy, smooth reclining surface for a back are essential — and all three are perfectly simple to attain without sacrificing the picturesque in the least. With the loitering places and the living spots of the outdoors provided, lesser accessories make their claim. Named in the order of their interest I consider them to be: first, the bird bath, either a pool or elevated basin or a very simple foun- tain, if circumstances permit its being kept in play; second, the sundial; third, the statue or GARDEN ACCESSORIES 95 Herm; fourth, the column or, under conditions where it may be suitable, the stone lantern of Japanese extraction, or some similar object. Arches I have purposely omitted for reasons which will develop later; and bird houses find their positions in trees or atop of posts inciden- tally and not as special objects of consideration. If I could have nothing else in my own garden, I most certainly should have the bathing and drinking place for birds. And the tiniest garden imaginable need not be without it — this of course assuming that there are no cats to turn its delightful comedy into tragedy. Puss is an adorable creature; still she is a feline, and we have no right to lure songbirds into her zone. Where there is a doubt concerning this very im- portant point, therefore, the bath must be ele- vated and guarded by a wire or sheet-metal shield extending from beneath it, out around it at least two feet on every side, and inclined slightly up. This must of course have no outer supports up which a cat might climb, but should either be stiff enough to support itself or else mounted on a frame purposely made for it. And the bath should be placed in the open, with no possible vantage point near enough for a jump to be made clear of this shield, or from above. Where cats abound, the basin on the wall 96 COME INTO THE GARDEN needs protection from above as well as from below, but such protection is easily given by a canopy similar to the underneath shield. Both may be dressed with vines if the ground is kept open below and no communication between it and the basin established. Unless these condi- tions can all be complied with, however, elimi- nate this feature altogether. It will be a verit- able death trap until the birds learn their peril and abandon it — and then its reason for being at all is of course gone. Many kinds of receptacles are offered or may be secured for the basin itself; and ingenuity and imagination will undoubtedly suggest others that no one has ever heard of. Anything from a soup plate to a marble font will serve — both of these have, I believe, although neither would be my choice. A shallow water space rather than a deep one should be provided; and one portion should be shallower than the rest, for the tiny fellows and the young birds. Stones that are flat and may be laid at an incline to form a gradual descent, duplicate the condi- tions of a brookside and please the birds; for often they come for a drink and a wade when they cannot stop for a dip. A wooden chopping bowl, painted stony gray inside and out, and sprinkled with sand while GARDEN ACCESSORIES 97 still wet, was the inexpensive yet very effective provision made in one garden that I have known of. Such a water holder, mounted on a rough pile of stones and buried to its brim in vines, is as picturesque as a very much more elaborate pool, and is of course lighter and easier to handle than one of stone or cement. It may be affixed very easily to a single post, if an elevated position is preferable for it. It is a bath only for the most informal type of garden, however, a cottage garden in the true meaning of the word. Elsewhere something more distinctive may be needed. A simple cement basin comes nearer to the requirements of the average sub- urban grounds, without being in the least pre- tentious. One may be made by pouring the cement into a mold made of burlap, doubled and tacked into the top of a barrel. The dip of the cloth takes on a very graceful form, and its folds imprint melon-like ridges on the outside of the basin that vary its surface pleasantly. Before the cement hardens the inside should be worked out and hollowed and smoothed by hand; and when the cement has finally set — after an interval of about eight hours — the bar- rel should be turned on its side and the basin tipped out carefully, bottom side up. Then it must be thoroughly wet down with a sprinkling 98 COME INTO THE GARDEN pot, to prevent the surface from drying faster than the inner part, thus overcoming the tend- ency to crack. Finally it must be mounted on a big stone bed, with small stones laid around as needed to keep it erect and solid. All basins of this simple nature, and even more elaborate marble or terra-cotta ones, are very easily and expeditiously filled by hand, either with a hose or water carried to them in a pail. Daily replenishing is usually sufficient, though during dry weather a second supply is sometimes necessary. It is possible to brush the moss and slime from the stones and the in- side of the basin with a whisk broom often, though this is not necessary. Mosquitoes need not be apprehended, for the constant agitation of the w^ater would prevent their breeding if the constant replenishing did not — but the lat- ter of course does. Only stagnant water is the Anopheles nursery. Next to the bird bath, with its animation and living interest, is the sundial — still, silent, mysterious, in its eternal union with Time, bringing its eloquent message in from eternal space. Indeed, when I stop to dwell on its awesome beauty and majesty, I almost feel that the dial should take precedence over all other garden features. Yet just because of this maj- GARDEN ACCESSORIES 98^ esty and a certain veneration which it com- mands, I hesitate to put it in first place — in other people's gardens. It should only go where it is wanted — and where it will not oppress; yet it can ill be spared anywhere. Hence, if a position is available in open and unobstructed sunlight I always hope that the gardener will be moved to set up in it this most ancient of timepieces. Bronze dials are of all the most permanent naturally; but a dial of cement well made is practically everlasting — and not beyond the possibilities of amateur construction, if one cares to take the trouble. The pedestal is im- portant and, from the aesthetic standpoint, should be given as much consideration as the dial itself, or more. For it of course looms up in the garden vistas prominently. Solidity is essential to it, and only a deep foundation will insure this, as freezing and thawing affect the ground to three feet or more below its surface. Of outdoor statuary and images there are a vast number too dreadful to contemplate ! Chief among these are the cast-iron dogs and hunters and swan and deer, and all the multitude of monstrosities of this character that were scat- tered extravagantly a generation or so ago, 100 COME INTO THE GARDEN guarding front doors and gracing (!) the midst of lawns. None is so benighted as to acquire these things now, assuredly; but altogether too many which have lasted over remain to afflict long-suffering humanity. Their complete dem- olition is the only solution of the aching prob- lems which they create, for they came into popu- lar favor in the black-walnut-and-hair-cloth era, along with the Italian villa, a period growing more famous — or infamous — for its execrable taste, as we come more and more fully to real- ize this. Most garden makers, however, are spared these iron zoological specimens, happily; so it is a question of selection only and not of de- struction first, when garden ornaments of a plastic nature are to be considered. Personal taste will naturally influence here, of course; but if it can be restrained from more than in- fluencing, if it can be held back and not allowed actually to guide or finally to determine, the results will usually be happier. This is not be- cause individual taste in matters of art may not be of the very highest order, but because taste of even a high order may fail to take into consideration all the difference in circumstances and conditions which a garden environment involves. GARDEN ACCESSORIES 101 First of all, for instance, it must be kept in mind that the garden statue will be fixed in its position through all the weather vagaries of the four seasons and during the garden barrenness of half the year. Any figure that approaches a representation of the altogether human, there- fore, if clothed or partially clothed, will not be pleasant to contemplate throughout the year, for the very good though perhaps childish reason that it will seem very cold and wet and suggest discomfort too keenly, in storm. Imagination makes us childish very often; and even repre- sentations of the gods of the ancients are not beyond thus impressing our human and com- fort-loving side — if they wear drapery or cloth- ing. Nudes, however, do not have this effect; and of course satyrs and nymphs and the great god Pan come under this general exception. And then abstract conceptions rather than incident should be chosen; and no better nor more appropriate subjects can be found than mythology offers. Best of all to my mind, for general use, are Hermae — those graceful swelling pillars surmounted by heads of varying charac- ter, all representing the god Hermes originally, but now frequently the likeness of satyr or faun or nymph or just a fanciful head — that present lines so pleasing when thrown into clear relief 102 COME INTO THE GARDEN against a wall or background of live green. The appropriate symbolism, too, of a Herm in the garden, especially at the intersection of walks at a turn, makes it an interesting as well as a picturesque attribute. The situations where a shaft or column, sur- mounted by a classic capital perhaps or some device of interest and beauty, may be placed to advantage are very much less common than those which will admit the Herm, for such a feature is not suitable where a generally infor- mal or careless scheme has been adopted. The straight, clear lines of a column are distinctly architectural and necessarily convey an impres- sion of formality and dignity which must react against the simple cottage type of garden to the latter' s disadvantage, and which must also subject the architecture of the hou?e to critical and very possible crushing comparison. The column is indeed a very finished and elegant object and must have finished surroundings. Ordinarily I should advise against using it in a small garden, although it is not a question of size at all. The simplest garden design will admit it, and the smallest space, if it is all de- cidedly formal and accompanied by a house of refined motif and real architectural merit. Reverting finally to the arch — which has been GARDEN ACCESSORIES 103 left to the last because, although it is in its pur- pose an ornament, it is at the same time a struc- tural feature — there is just one positive thing to be said with regard to its position. An arch should always be at a point of transition from one part or phase of the garden to another — and never anywhere else. In other words, re- gard it as a door, and imagine that it leads through a wall; then you will have a true idea of the difference which should be apparent, be- tween the parts which it connects. This gives it a raisoii d'etre, and it at once acquires the character and importance which should distinguish it, however simple and crude the materials of which it is constructed. Let it mark an end and a beginning always; never put it midway of a path or in the garden's cen- ter. Even though it leads through no wall which obscures that which lies beyond, this definite dividing function which is peculiarly its own, this ceremonial leaving and entering which it expresses, must never be taken away from it. Subject to this one limitation and necessity, it may be used with excellent ejffect at almost any portion of the grounds or garden. God the first garden made, and the first city Cain." — Cowley. CHAPTER VIII The Place That is Started THERE are of course a vast number of gar- dens waiting to be made that cannot be taken in hand from the bare ground up — and here we confront special conditions and special problems quite unlilve those which are a part of garden making where it has a more ideal start. They are enough like each other, how- ever, to make a general survey of them possible; and general suggestions concerning them may be more helpful perhaps than an attempt at detailed directions for their treatment might be. The one thing is to approach the problem ex- pectantly and confidently. The process of building a place up is of course the same, whatever the conditions, and succes- sive steps follow each other whether the start 104 PLACE THAT IS STARTED 105 is made in the midst of a half-completed task or at the beginning of the work. So the first thing to be done with the place already par- tially established is to determine just where a start may be made — in other words, just which steps have been irrevocably taken, and how many may be retraced, if it seems wise to re- trace, in order to reach the one farthest back from which to inaugurate the work. Assuredly the plan and the position of the house are fixed, beyond all possibility of change, which elimi- nates the first step of all. The dwelling's ex- posure is thus settled and the convenient dis- position of the ground about it, according to the location of the doors and windows, its ser- vice, and its social portion has probably been made, or accepted as it has made itself. The garden design, however, which is hardly a design at all, is not unalterable; neither are the grades; nor as a matter of fact are any of the other attributes or features which follow in orderly sequence, from the initial step of plan- ning and choosing the position of the house. Walks may be changed and arbors and all the things of this sort; plants may be moved, even very large ones, if the work is carefully and properly done. Really the only step which is not retraceable then is the very first, unless 106 COME INTO THE GARDEN perchance a large tree has grown up in the wrong place. But this we will come to later. So all the way back to that first step we may go, and thus make a beginning with the second — the garden design. Of course this will be greatly influenced by the work already done, but after all it is not of necessity absolutely determined in all its parts by this. And its possibilities, though perhaps not as great as they might have been with a different start, are not by any means even hinted at in the usual negligent acceptance of it as it stands. With a plan of the ground and the house in its place on the ground, therefore, before us, let us begin the work just as we would go on from this point if it had been possible to start at the beginning. The firsts thing in design is the border, quite as truly now as in the other instances; so the border allowance is the first thing to be laid off on the plan. How much this shall be depends on the border that is to be used, of course, but an allowance of two feet all around will cover wall and fruits, hedge, fence and fruits, or fence and flower border; this may, therefore, be made and the kind of an inclosure decided upon later. Then to the actual design — which is to be uni- fied, you will recall, and held together first of all by giving it an axis from which to grow. PLACE THAT IS STARTED 107 The house plan and the disposal of entrances and windows and all similar features will fix this, or will indicate its logical position. But the out- doors must be taken into consideration, too, and the most advantageous division of the ground insured. An axis should also be so located that it naturally invites the eye to follow its direc- tion without obstructions to divert it. So here again I must ask you to refer to a diagram (page 108), made in this instance from a house as built on its plot — which was afterwards designed — in a typical suburban development. The house is 34 by 40 feet, exclusive of porches, and its front porch line is 25 feet back from the sidewalk. It is 4 feet from its boundary on the west, which leaves 12 feet at the other side, the lot being 50 by 100. The entrance to the front in the original ar- rangement passed straight from the sidewalk to front steps. The old position of these is in- dicated by dotted lines in the diagram — for al- most the first thing which required doing was their shifting. In their original position they opened the porch up too freely to the street, as well as necessitated an entrance walk in the midst of the small space before the house. Both of these were bad features, hence the change. The whole place at best is cramped, and 108 V. Planting Plan. 1. Wall fruit trees, Verrier form. 2. Lattice with arched opening at X. 3. Wall fruit trees, palmetto form. 4. Flowers. 4b. Shade-enduring flowers. 5. Roses. 6. Sundial. 7. Steps down, arches over; on these a Dorothy Perkins rose and Clematis. 8. Terra cotta bird bath, 10 inches in diameter. 9. Turf edging to all flower spaces. 10. Sweetbriar rose; rosa rubiginosa, Penzance hybrid. 11. Climbing honeysuckle; lonicera Halledna. 12. Boston ivy; ampelopsis Veitchii. 13. Grapes. 109 110 COME INTO THE GARDEN the house, though fairly pleasant, is much broken up, with absolutely no axial points. Of course the ground outside it is also broken up and disjointed; this would follow naturally, and indeed is the case in almost all places of this kind. The two things most imperative, there- fore, if a garden of any real distinction is to be expected, are something to give a sense of greater space, and an axis that will pull every- thing together — front and rear and side spaces, and house and garden, too. Such a line and only such a line w^ill unify all these totally unlil^e and unrelated parts. The front-to-back axis of the wider space at the side is the choice, although it cannot truth- fully be called a "choice" as a matter of fact, for it is really the only line from which any be- ginning can be made. As soon as it is drawn it vindicates its insistence, however, by instantly revealing the key to the spaciousness which is so essential. The entrance falls naturally on it in the front ; and then the far distance at its ex- treme other end immediately suggests a place for something which shall attract the eye the moment the entrance is reached, and distract it from the smallness of all the rest. As an actual fact the sundial as shown is more than 85 feet from the gateway where it is first PLACE THAT IS STARTED 111 seen — a very creditable little vista for a small garden. The house does not connect direct with this long axis, but it is sufficiently united with the garden generally through the lines of the broad walk leading from this to its steps; also by the locating of the bird bath at the point of inter- section of the sitting-room axis with the trans- verse axis of the dooryard. A lattice extending across to the boundary at the rear and spanning the main walk with an arch, further draws house and garden together. The entire garden is inclosed with a plastered wall made on a wood and galvanized wire lath framework, supported between brick piers. This is level on top and runs from a height of six feet in front to about eight in the rear, owing to the pitch of the land. It starts at the front corner of the house rather than on the boundary line, thus allowing space for the service entrance to pass along between the house and the bound- ary. This brings the service gate admitting to the garden at the rear of the house, where the wall completes its course at the house corner again and ends. Here is the design in all its salient features, simple, restful, unusual, and yet not in the least startling. The most radical thing about it is the 112 COME INTO THE GARDEN wall — and this will seem radical only for a little while, for its economic service as well as its very great charm will become apparent to all who see it. Grades engage attention third on the list, so the grading is the next thing to be looked into here. Of course the dip of the land toward the rear was taken neither account nor advantage of, in the original smoothing down. It fell away in an even slope from about the front line of the house, with a lawn that was just like any lawn anywhere. Earth enough to grade to a level as far as the rear of the house where the lattice crosses was obtained from the back yard, on the railroad plan of cut and fill, the cut just making the fill. This secured the drop at the lattice which adds greatly to the interest and beauty of the long vista to the sundial standing on the lower level. The first walks were granolithic; the present walks are gravel with brick edging. The gate is high and solid paneled except for a small latticed space suggestive of the old-time wicket, on a level with the eyes; its material is cypress and it is stained to match the cypress shingles of the upper part of the house. The lower story of this, by the way, is plastered, and the foundation is of brick; hence the plastered gar- den wall on brick piers. PLACE THAT IS STARTED 113 No arbor or summer house seemed desirable here, as every bit of sunny space was wanted for practical use. A seat by the sundial may furnish a resting spot without shading any of the precious fruit space along the northeast wall as an arbor would have done. Yet a tiny gazebo on this wall at the end of the walk would not use up much space nor sunlight if one very much wished to have it. Personally I am al- ways in favor of some out-in-the-garden shelter, but for those who do not feel that such a fea- ture is absolutely essential to their happiness, it is perhaps as well to omit it on a small place — for it is likely not to be used, where there is no enthusiasm for it. The planting of this place is of the highest economic eflSciency, as the key shows. And it may be truthfully said that at least fifty per cent, of this eflSciency is made possible by the wall whereon the fruits are growing. Every inch of this which is open toward the south is covered with these, and the rear wall too, which is reached only by the overhead and western sun, has been planted experimentally. No special drying yard or space for clothes is necessary, as a clothes reel is used which fits into a socket that is buried in a secondary path of the rear garden. This folds up and puts ) 114 VI. Planting Plan. The suggested treatment of a neighboring plot the same size with a house of altogether different character is given, for comparison. The owner's desire in this instance is not so fixed upon the growth of useful things, owing to his ab- sence during a large part of the summer. The house is cen- tered on the plot, consequently there is no need for estab- lishing an axis. Consequently, too, the design is bound to be symmetrical; hence symmetry is taken for its leading note, and a still more perfect balance than already exists in it is obtained by introducing the little Dutch garden in the angle of upright and L at the rear. From this a walk, cor- responding to the service walk opposite, leads to the ter- race in front. A hedge six feet high encloses the entire place, growing through and concealing a strong and im- penetrable fence of galvanized wire. This hedge is carried up and over the main gateway in a clipped arch, and ex- tends in from this to form a low border along the walk to the foot of the steps. Quite definitely the service yard is set apart and screened with arborvitae, faced with a win- ter shrubbery border; and a bronze piping Pan stands at the rear on the axis of the living room, Dutch garden and lawn. 1. Privet hedge, Ligustrum Amurense. 2. Flowers. 3. Dwarf fruit trees. 4. Faun. 115 116 COME INTO THE GARDEN away in the laundry between times. So the entire space at the rear of the house is an in- tensively cultivated vegetable garden — and I should not be surprised to see the similar area in front given over to the daintier vegetables some of these days, with flowers suitably orna- menting its borders! Not a tree has been introduced save the wall fruits, nor are there any shrubs. In fact the limitations of this particular place and of this kind of place have been fully recognized and made to furnish its keynote. Yet it is richer by an inestimable degree in appearance, and in fact, than dozens of garden plots its size; and the interest and entertainment and pleasant delight within its stout walls are as much as one might find on many places containing acres. Flowers border the long, straight walk its en- tire length, yellow being the dominant color opposite the house to brighten the shade al- ways resting there. Currant and gooseberry bushes flourish between this flower border and the house, from the bay of the hall back to the lattice. On the south side of the lattice, ex- posed to the sun, is a grape vine nearest the house, but next the wall there is a climbing rose which covers the arch and waves greeting to the outer world, where it peers above. 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