> f

i t^^^^l

m

i

I

FORMAL DESIGN

IN

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

FORMAL DESIGN

IN

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

A Statement of Principles
with Special Reference to
Their Present Use in America

By FRANK A. WAUGH

4

Illustrated

New York
ORANGE JUDD PUBLISHING COMPANY, Inc.

London

KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., Ltd.

1927

SB

Copyright, 1927, by
ORANGE JUDD PUBLISHING COMPANY. Inc.

COPYRIGHT IN GREAT BRITAIN

Printed in the United States of America

Inscribed to

Professor James Sturgis Pray

Teacher of
Landscape Architecture

|5l3|fc

PROGRAM

Preface 11

I. Formal Design 15

11. The Rectangular Garden ... 27

III. The Domestic Formula ... 41

IV. Radial Design 53

V. Spirit and Motive 65

VI. Treatment of the Land ... 77

VII. Enclosure 89

VIII. Walks and Pavings 109

IX. Shelter 119

X. Tables and Chairs 131

XI. Plastic Figures 141

XII. Water 153

XIII. Roses and Flowerbeds .... 169

XIV. The Front Yard 181

Index 189

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

HALF-TONE PLATES
Home Garden, "Domestic Formula" .... Frontispiece

FACING
PAGE

Corner of Garden i6

Simple Furnishings on a Home Lawn . . . . . . 17

Formal Treatment of a California Home 17

Highly Formal Architectural Grouping with Water and

Grass 22

Modern Domestic Example from California 23

Classical Design, Rectangular Formula, Amherst, Mass. . . 28

A Formal Mall in a Pasadena, California, Estate ... 29

Severely Formal Rectangular Garden Featuring Box Edgings 38

"Brookside" — Mr. Ferruccio Vitale, Landscape Architect . 39

Garden Panel 42

Spanish Style in California 42

Garden Plan on the "Domestic Formula." By Mr. Daniel

Chester French 43

Grass Panel in Small Garden 48

Intimate Home Garden in Pasadena, California. Mr. Paul

Thiene, Landscape Architect 49

Circular Pattern Bedding on a City Boulevard, Houston,

Texas • • 54

Model for a Circular Rose Garden 54

Semi-Circular Exhedra in a Massachusetts Garden . . 55

Mexican Motives in a California Garden 68

Semi-Classical Treatment of Simple Elements .... 69

Balustrade and Steps 7^

Terminal Feature on Main Axis 72

Bungalow Court in Hollywood, California 73

One Section of Domestic Garden 73

Level Panel. Mr. Jens Jensen, Landscape Architect . . 80

8

List of Illustrations

FACING
PAGE

A Balustraded Terrace 8i

Smooth Grass Panel with Flower Borders 8i

Bird Fountain in a Small Domestic Garden 84

Grass Panel Giving Breadth in a Small Garden ... 85

Garden Wall with Gate 90

Wall with Bordering Pergola. Olmsted Bros., Landscape

Architects 91

Garden Enclosed by Hedge; Design by Mr. Daniel Chester

French 96

Garden of Mr. Daniel Chester French Enclosed by Brick

Wall and Plantings 97

Grass Walk, "Brookside." Mr. Ferruccio Vitale, Land-
scape Architect no

Brick Walk to Front Entrance 110

Brick Walk with Grass Verge and Flower Border . . .111

Cement Mall, Forsyth Square, Savannah, Ga ill

Good Gravel Walk, Charleston, S. C 116

Brick Walks and Edgings with Box Borders . . . .117
Formal Garden Pool and Shelter, Pasadena, California . .120

Garden Pool; Shelter; Brick Walks 121

Home-Made Chairs and Table 132

Chairs and Table Terminating Axis 133

A Public Tea Garden, Nantucket, Mass 136

Garden Seat and Table 137

Entrance to Rose Garden, Garfield Park, Chicago. Mr.

Jens Jensen, Landscape Architect 142

Buergerwiese, Dresden, Germany 143

Grouping in Classical Style, Philadelphia 148

Garden of Mr. Myron Hunt, Pasadena, Calif 149

Memorial, The Paseo, Kansas City. Mr. George E. Kessler,

Landscape Architect 149

Wall Fountain, Maxwell Court. Mr. Charles A. Piatt,

Architect 156

Garden Fountain, Grosvenor Garden, Amherst, Mass. . .157

Marble Fountain with Sculpture 162

Formal Pool with Fountain and Plantings 163

lo List of Illustrations

FACING
FAGS

Rose Garden, Garfield Park, Chicago. Mr. Jens Jensen,

Landscape Architect 170

Rose Garden in Ipswich, Mass. Mr. Arthur A. Shurtleff,

Landscape Architect 171

Formal Flower Beds, The Pasco, Kansas City. Mr. Geo.

E. Kessler, Landscape Architect 174

Simple Formal Flower Garden in Pasadena, California . 175

A Colonial Front Yard, Nantucket, Mass 182

Old Colonial Yard and Doorway, Nantucket, Mass. . .183
Colonial Style, Doorway, Hedged Yard and Brick Walk,

Amherst, Mass 186

Fence and Gates, Charleston, S. C 187

Front Doorway with Paved Court 187

ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT

PAGE

Horshoe Farm, Rapidan, Va 21

Example of the Domestic Garden 50

The Rose Garden 59

The Vegetable Garden Treated with Simple Formality . . 66

Kent County War Memorial 75

Simple Formal Garden with Well-Placed Walks and Good

Enclosure 97

A Garden Shelter Terminating a Principal Axis . . .124

The Water Mirror 154

Pool Used with Principal Terminus 158

Old Fashion Garden Knots 178

PREFACE

N THIS book no attempt has been
made to present the history of formal
gardening. Yet formal gardening
las a history — a long and fascinating tale
not devoid of significance for the Amer-
ican garden maker in the present exigent
twentieth century. That history, however,
has been frequently recounted by those
who are more proficient than the present
writer in all its details. It is hardly necessary
now to rehearse or even to reinterpret the
story of that famous past.

At the present moment it seems more profit-
able to inquire what this art of formal garden-
ing means to America — to a land far, far
removed from ancient Greece, from the glor-
ious field of the Renaissance, from the wild
dreams of the Louis of France and even from
the achievements of Englishmen in Eliza-
bethan Britain. What has the formal garden
to offer to men and women who ride in auto-
mobiles and aeroplanes, who talk by telephone
and sing by radio, who live on the plains of
Texas, on the shores of Long Island or in the
multitudinous bungalows of Hollywood?

12 Preface

Nothing could be plainer, one would think,
than that the old gardens of France and Italy
could not be copied in America. The details
can not be reproduced, the forms will not fit.
But more than that, and altogether more con-
sequential, the spirit is utterly different. And
if one wishes to express the spirit of his own
time and country, so immeasurably alien to
the spirit of the Old World, there must posi-
tively be a new beginning. One must start
afresh from the new spirit and build upon
that. One can put new wine into old bottles
easier than a new spirit into century-old
garden forms.

Yet of course there are some principles in
art that are universal and as permanent as the
human race. These principles guided the
Greeks and perhaps they will guide the New
Yorkers and the Missourians and the Cali-
fornians if we in our day will be as attentive
to sound logic as were our great predecessors.
Certainly it will be worth trying.

To state these principles in the simplest pos-
sible way and to show how they work out
under the conditions of modern life in Amer-
ica is the sole purpose of the present volume.
To be intelligible rather than profound, to

Preface 13

realize all systems in terms of the present
time and place, to find some way in which
our own homes may grow in beauty more
largely expressing the spiritual grace and
power which is their ultimate character — this
is certainly a sufficient ambition, even if his-
tory and philosophy be omitted and modern
illustrative examples left to the many books
already presenting them.

Frank A. Waugh

FORMAL DESIGN

|UST what is a formal garden? The
answer is not difficult. A formal gar-
den is simply one in which the parts
are symmetrically balanced. There is balance,
too, in the best informal gardening, but the
balance is less obvious. It is never gained by
placing one object directly over against its
exact mate, as is the rule in formal balance.

Symmetry is of several kinds, but for most
practical purposes these may be reduced to
two, viz., bilateral symmetry and radial sym-
metry.

Bilateral symmetry is that type of structure
in which each part is repeated on either side
of a median line. It is represented by the
human body with its left hand exactly balanc-
ing its right, each eye, ear, rib, having its mate
on the opposite side. The human figure may
thus be expressed in a simple diagram with
the backbone for the central line upon which
the symmetry is built.

All the higher animals are projected on the

15

i6 Formal Design

same principle of bilateral symmetry. It is a
model widely used by nature, especially in her
most ambitious attempts.

The same principle has been very widely
adopted by man in the practical and decorative
arts. A steamship is bilaterally symmetrical;
so is an automobile, with the exception of quite
minor details; so is an ax, a revolver, a suit-
case, a chair, a loaf of bread, a cravat pin
and a thousand other manufactured articles
of daily use. Apparently the human mind in
working out these patterns has sometimes been
imitating nature, either consciously or uncon-
sciously. At other times the mind has been
guided by purely mathematical principles of
structure or purely decorative principles of
design. Just how the race, working through
ages of experiment, has reached its goal of
bilateral symmetry in this case and in that
doesn't much matter. The great fact is that
this type of organization is widely accepted
as natural, as structurally sound, as pleasing
to the human mind.

Radial symmetry is that type of structure in
which parts are repeated circularly about a
center instead of along opposite sides of a line.
Abundant examples are to be found in nature,

Corner of Garden — See Plan, Page 50.

Simple Furnishings on a Home Lawn-
Formal Treatment of a California Home

Formal Design IJ

as the starfish, the snowflake, many flowers
and most crystals. Abundant examples are
seen also in the arts. Each button, dinner
plate, watch, lamp-shade and a hundred other
similar articles are circular in form and are
often decorated upon their surfaces with fig-
ures repeated round the center.

So this type of symmetry also has been
adopted by the mind of man as natural, struc-
turally safe and pleasing to the eye.

When we speak of a formal garden, there-
fore, we mean one in which the ground plan
is symmetrical, and this symmetry may be of
any kind, though practically always it will be
either bilateral or radial.

Indeed in formal gardening there is fre-
quently a sort of double symmetry. In a large
number of cases the garden is built upon two
axes placed at right angles to each other. It
may be symmetrical to both axes ; or it may be
completely symmetrical upon the major axis
and partially symmetrical with respect to the
minor axis. (See page 31.)

In books on landscape architecture a great
deal has been written about the formal "style".
This has also sometimes been called the Italian
style, and again the architectural style. All

i8 Formal Design

these terms are objectionable. No terms have
been found, in fact, wholly pleasing and ac-
curate. In such cases the simplest language
is nearly always the best. Thus perhaps it is
most satisfactory to speak plainly of formal
gardening. If we must say anything more we
may call it a mode of design rather than a
style of gardening.

POETRY AND MUSIC

In all the other fine arts, just as in landscape
architecture, both symmetrical and asymmet-
rical types of design are employed. The paral-
lelism is significant and at some points helpful
to the garden designer.

In literature prose and poetry represent re-
respectively the asymmetrical and the symmet-
rical modes of composition — the informal and
the formal. Good prose follows its own laws
of structure quite as strictly as poetry, yet the
result is less regular and in a sense more nat-
ural. Poetry is formal and in exactly the same
way that some gardens are formal. Lines of
equal length are balanced against one another ;
cadences balance and rhymes terminate verses.
Some of the ablest poets, not satisfied with all

Formal Design 19

this symmetry, have so constructed their stan-
zas that one idea balances against another.
Even some of the wild iconoclastic writers of
modern free verse differ from the conserva-
tives only in that they aim at a balance of
ideas or of cadences instead of a balance of
rhymes or meters.

Music of all arts is nearest in spirit to land-
scape architecture and has most to teach the
spiritually-minded garden designer. In struc-
ture, too, as well as in spirit, music is much
like the garden art. There is first the asym-
metrical form in which cadences are free and
irregular instead of balanced ("sonata form",
symphonic music), and there is secondly the
more common lyric and dance music made up
of symmetrically balanced cadences and of
equal periods.

To follow out this comparison would carry
us quite too far afield; but one important
analogy ought to be noted. It will readily be
agreed that poetry is generally suited for the
expression of simple ideas in short form, while
for the treatment of complicated ideas in ex-
tenso, prose is much better suited. A modern
poem rarely grows to a length of more than a
page, condensation being considered obliga-

20 Formal Design

tory. If one were to attempt to make a book
of 600 pages in explanation of Einstein he
would certainly not write it in poetry.

Likewise in music, church hymns, simple
songs and dances practically have to be con-
structed in formal periods. The rhythms must
be equally measured and must balance. But
the ambitious composer of a large work, like
an opera or a symphony, must adopt a much
freer and more "natural" style. He would
use a variety of rhythms, would give us ca-
dences of divers lengths, and would not feel
in the least obliged to cut up his score into
periods of equal measure.

All of which states with equal accuracy the
position of the landscape architect. For small
areas where attention is closely focused, the
formal treatment is best — all conditions being
normal. While for areas measured in acres
or square miles the informal "natural" style
is almost inevitable. One could hardly think
of applying a system of formal landscape de-
sign to the Grand Canyon or to the Adiron-
dack State Forest Preserve.

The fact that the formal garden grows out
of precisely the same principles of design as
poetry and lyric music is at least suggestive.

Formal Design

21

d^-^

Horshoc Farm, Rapidan, Va.
No scale

22 Formal Design

The additional fact that this similarity extends
beyond physical structure is even more im-
portant, implying that the spirit of the formal
garden must resemble the spirit of poetry and
of lyric music. Indeed there is more than an
implication here. We may say with perfect
confidence that the formal garden should
always be poetic — should be lyric — should
catch the same spirit which shines through the
best of poetry and which sings in all simple
folk-music.

STRUCTURAL REQUIREMENTS

These reflections come to their application
rather easily. When we consider that no one
can make poetry without knowing and observ-
ing the strict rules of poetic structure (rhythm,
rhyme, cadence) we ought to see that a de-
cently formal garden can not be made without
equally conscientious attention to inevitable
principles of structural design. Some uncul-
tured persons do indeed write verses in which
alternate lines end in rhyme and deceive them-
selves by calling it poetry. Just so there are
too many hopeful citizens, of both sexes, mak-
ing rhymed gardens — gardens which have a

o

2 wi

O

^

Formal Design 23

specious show of formality but which break
all structural rules and which (what is much
worse) fail utterly to capture any of the spirit
of poetry.

It ought not to be difficult for any serious
person to see that the maker of poetry or the
writer of music must know and follow certain
very definite principles. It ought to be equally
clear that the maker of formal gardens must
know the same rules, though in a different
application, and must be conscience-bound to
conform to them to the utmost. And finally,
of course, everyone should see that mere con-
formity to rules, though it may give a struc-
tural righteousness, will never breathe into
any garden the living spirit of beauty. Form
and spirit are both essential. No honest gar-
den maker would be content with a deformed
or malformed body ; nor would he be content
to own a body "possessed of an evil spirit," as
the Scriptures so aptly phrase it.

And we may say this, at least, for encourage-
ment, that the poet or the garden maker who
strives for perfection of form, is more likely
to find his endowment of spiritual inspiration
than the slovenly worker who disregards
sound structure or the ignoramus who does

24 Formal Design

not know that structure grows logically from
universal principles.

It is plain truth to say that the further exten-
sion of formal gardening in America depends
upon a wider understanding of these princi-
ples. It is the aim of succeeding chapters to
formulate these principles and to make clear
their application in landscape architecture.

AVAILABILITY

In times now fortunately past there was a
vitriolic controversy in England and America
over the respective merits of the "natural
style" and the "formal style." One party as-
serted dogmatically that the natural style was
better because it was natural — that whatever
was artificial was necessarily bad. The oppos-
ing party with equal intolerance insisted that
every garden had to be an improvement on
nature; that because houses, lands and streets
were rectangular, gardens must be; that for-
mal gardens were more elaborate, more curi-
ous, more interesting. At the present time all
honest men are agreed that informal design
(the natural style) is better for some places
and purposes, while formal design is better

Formal Design 25

for Others. It remains only to determine what
mode of treatment will best fit given circum-
stances, and further what degree of formality
or what degree of naturalness may be achieved
under existing conditions. The theory that
one mode is inherently better than the other
is a wholly untenable prejudice. One might
as well assert that prose is better than poetry
and that therefore poetry should be abolished.

The present writer is of the opinion, how-
ever, that formal gardening has suffered a
comparative neglect in America. Reasons for
such neglect are easy to give, — so easy that
they need not be recorded. If the idea, already
stated, that every method of gardening is to be
accepted strictly on its merits, the way is open
for the best possible practice in the future.

Under such an unprejudiced view it ought
to be clear that there are many combinations
of practical circumstances which call for for-
mal landscape design. A long avenue or mall
is necessarily formal; a small city square is
positively formal and any naturalistic land-
scape gardening on such a site is absurd; a
small cemetery, strictly subdivided into little
lots and blocks and filled with architectural
monuments, can hardly be made into an in-

26 Formal Design

formal picture. Perhaps most of all will it
appear that the small rectangular areas into
which the average home lot naturally divides
are clearly adapted to simple forms of sym-
metrical development, as are likewise the
smaller areas of college campuses and many
other tracts, public and private, with which
amateur and professional landscape architects
have to deal.

II

THE RECTANGULAR GARDEN

ULES in art are always dangerous.
Their application is often doubtful,

I and the best of rules are cheerfully

defied by the best artists.

Nevertheless rules may be useful for the
beginner; and the settled worker comes to
have rules of his own. It is only fair, indeed, to
recognize certain structural principles, some
of which at least are capable of general state-
ment. And if there be exceptions to these
rules they are for the man who knows and who
may safely be a law unto himself.

With these limitations clearly in view the
following rules are offered for the guidance
of those who need them.

Now in making formal gardens it works
out nine times out of ten that the area to be
used is rectangular. Or if it is not strictly
rectangular it can easily be made to approxi-
mate that form. For the design of a garden
in this figure a fairly simple formula may be
given — subject, of course, to the qualifications
offered above.

28 The Rectangular Garden

SIZE

First of all we have to consider size. For-
mal gardening should be attempted only on
relatively small areas. For the ordinary family
garden one quarter acre would be the maxi-
mum allowance; for a very pretentious pri-
vate mansion one to two acres; in elaborate
public grounds including monumental public
buildings three or four acres might possibly
be used. But these figures are maxima, and
best results will nearly always be realized upon
areas much smaller.

Consider briefly what these quantities mean.
For rough estimating one acre may be taken
as a square 200 feet on a side. (This is slightly
less than an acre, but near enough for garden
estimates.) Thus we see that a plot of ground
200 by 100 feet would be one half an acre;
one 200 x 50 feet would be one quarter of an
acre. But as 200 x 50 feet is rather more than
the size of an average town lot, we can readily
accept the rule that the ordinary family will
find a quarter of an acre the maximum size
for a formal garden.

A garden 30 x 50 feet therefore would con-
form more nearly to the dimensions common-
ly available ; and though this is only about one-

<

Qi

w

u

The Rectangular Garden 29

twenty-seventh of an acre it is enough to yield
a very decent effect. Indeed a little garden of
this size can be made very delightful and
wholly satisfactory. There is great danger in
gardens of this type of laying out too large a
space; the tendency to err at the opposite ex-
treme is almost negligible.

EXTERNAL FORM

The area must be rectangular, or nearly so.
Slight deviations from strict geometrical form
are not noted by the eye and are not objection-
able.

It is often practicable to make a rectangular
area suitable for a formal garden upon a tract
of irregular form by the simple expedient of
cutting off the irregular ^portions for other
uses. This process works toward a reduction
in the size of the formal garden and is there-
fore usually advantageous. At the same time
it may lead toward the definition of boundaries
by fences or other enclosures, and that step
will always yield a further benefit to the gar-
den design. For it is strictly necessary that
the formal garden be enclosed. (See Chapter
VII.)

30 The Rectangular Garden
PROPORTIONS

In this rectangular space no definite pro-
portion between length and breadth is obli-
gatory, but best results can usually be secured
with a ratio of about 7 : 5 or 8 : 5.

The most ineligible proportions are those
which closely approach the square figure.
Any ornamental figure, garden or bed-spread,
ought to be distinctly square or distinctly rec-
tangular. There is a favorite story in the west-
ern mountain country that the sheepherder
went crazy because he could not decide which
was the long way of his bed-sheet (the sheet
being square) . The story is plausible enough,
for any rational mind wants to know clearly
what sort of a figure it is viewing.

The square garden (see Chapter IV) should
be one thing, and the rectangular garden
should be totally different. These two forms
are structurally and radically diverse; and in
designing a garden on the rectangular for-
mula a first desideratum is to make its char-
acter perfectly clear. A figure which might
just as easily be a square as a rectangle is no
more satisfactory than a fish which may turn
out to be either a star-fish or a mackerel.

On the other hand relatively long areas may

The Rectangular Garden 31

sometimes be managed with full success.
Thus a long, narrow strip of land connecting
two major units may be made into an attrac-
tive mall ; and the treatment of any such prob-
lem will fall quite closely within the terms of
the formula here outlined for the rectangular
garden.

SURFACE

The area given to a formal garden should
be level. At least it ought to be plane and
approximately level, though a moderate slope
may not be a serious detriment, especially if
the slope be parallel with either axis.

Formal gardens have sometimes been suc-
cessfully built upon steeply sloping land. In
practically all such cases the land has been
terraced, often with the interposition of retain-
ing walls, to several levels. It is hardly neces-
sary to remark that such garden construction
is expensive, and that unless funds are suffi-
ciently ample to carry out the details with some
vigor the final result is highly unsatisfactory.

MAJOR AXIS

Each rectangularly formal garden must
have as its chief structural feature a major

32 The Rectangular Garden

axis. In the large majority of cases this will
be developed on the median longitudinal line.
In exceptional circumstances it may lie to one
side of this middle line ; or in other exceptional
circumstances it may be developed transverse-
ly to the greater length of the garden.

This major axis is the backbone of the gar-
den. On its security the whole garden de-
pends. The comparison of this major axis of
the garden with the backbone of a vertebrate
animal is something more than a convenient
figure of speech. It is an analogy which goes
as deep as human thinking. It should be
clear, therefore, that this major axis must be
strongly and agreeably designed, and nothing
whatever in the development of the garden
must be permitted to weaken it.

The manner in which such an axis is prac-
tically developed will appear more fully in
following paragraphs.

MINOR AXIS

At right angles to the major axis a minor
axis should be developed. In some cases two
or three minor axes are permissible. In rare
cases also the minor axis may be merely indi-
cated or entirely suppressed.

The Rectangular Garden 33

This minor axis should be in every way sub-
ordinate to the major axis — in width, in length
(usually) and especially in the importance of

its termini. (See page 35.) In a garden hav-
ing several minor axes, for example, a long
mall with trifling cross-axes, their combined
length should be less than the length of the
major axis.

AXIS DEVELOPMENT

These axes, major and minor, are frequently
treated as paths. This is the simplest and most
obvious way of developing a formal garden;
but it is by no means the only way, nor is
it necessarily the best. The central axis line
may be occupied by a water basin, or by a
canal, or it may be an open panel of turf.
We may perhaps say that the essential require-
ment lies in having this axis line open. Plant-
ings or buildings which obstruct the view
along the axis line (major or minor) are
wholly inadmissible.

Indeed the axis, which, as we have said,
must be the strongest structural member in the
garden framework, is not developed by build-
ing directly upon it, but by two other quite
different means. The first of these is the con-

34 The Rectangular Garden

Rectangular Gardens
Differing in Details of Plan

struction of adequate termini (page 35) and
the second lies in the balancing of parts on
either side of the axis. Thus the flower beds,
seats, trees and other features are repeated as
exactly as practicable on either side of the axis

The Rectangular Garden 35

line producing a palpable symmetry. This
bilateral symmetry must be perfectly appre-
hensible to the eye, even at a glance ; and this
obvious symmetry fixes the axial line, even
though that axis remains, like the famous
equator of the earth, "an imaginary line".

TERMINI

Each axis must be provided with suitable
termini. These termini must be objects of
definite interest and beauty. The features
most commonly employed are fountains, bird
baths, sundials, gazing globes, seats, arbors,
ornamental gateways, pergolas (of doubtful
suitability), statues, tea houses, and small
buildings generally. A single specimen tree
or fine shrub may be used for minor axes in
very small gardens. A broad outlook over
several miles of beautiful scenery does not ter-
minate any axis ; and it is never permissible to
allow any axis to disappear into an exterior
view.

With reference to this last inhibition it
should properly be confessed that this is the
author's firm conviction, but that the rule has
been frequently violated. While these viola-
tions stand upon high authority in some cases.

36 The Rectangular Garden

the author still feels that the rule as given is
not only safest and best, but that in practically
every case better results can be achieved under
its guidance. The problem of treating exterior
views will be referred to again. (Page 133.)

These termini must appear at the ends of the
axes, and nowhere else. It is false design to
have two or three objects of special interest
strung along any axis. It gives the same psy-
chological revulsion experienced when the
preacher ends his sermon and then begins
again to conclude in two or three other efforts.
Thus a garden axis, like an after dinner speech,
ought to terminate once for all, and that should
be the end of it.

These terminal features must be carefully
proportioned in size and interest to the length
and importance of the axes on which they are
placed. Features on the major axis must be
distinctly larger and more interesting than
those on the minor axis. In case several minor
axes are developed their termini must be plain
and inconspicuous; nevertheless definite ter-
minal features must be provided. About the
least that can be done is to place a chair, a vase
or a specimen formal tree at the end of these
most inconspicuous axes; for though these

The Rectangular Garden 37

members may be never so mild and gentle they
must still be visibly present each in its proper
place.

INTERIOR VIEWS

While the smallness and snugness of the
formal garden exclude the possibility of any
grand views, still there should be innumerable
good pictures. Many of these ought to be
beautiful, even exquisite; for the possibility of
such intimate interior pictures is one of the
greatest of all reasons for making a formal
garden in the first place.

It might be expected, from the importance
already attached to the garden axes, that the
axial pictures will stand above all others. But
in a good garden this is not so clearly the re-
sult as one might expect. The quartering and
unsymmetrical views of this symmetrical struc-
ture should be almost or quite as good as the
fully balanced pictures upon the middle line.

One may easily test this same principle in
architecture. There are millions of purely
symmetrical buildings in the country, from the
replica of the Parthenon at Nashville to the
railroad station at Washington, yet how sel-
dom does a good photographer make his pic-

38 The Rectangular Garden

ture of one of these buildings straight head-
on? Really, hardly ever. Nor do we, stop-
ping to admire such buildings, prefer the axial
view. Rather do we choose to look at them
from an angle.

Yet, while it is of capital importance to
elaborate the formal garden in such a way as
to make it yield an unlimited number of inti-
mate beautiful photographable pictures, the
space must not appear crowded nor cluttered.
In particular should we avoid cutting up the
small interior so as to lose the longest cross-
views of the best features — features which, if
properly placed, will occupy the margins of
the garden. Fountains, arbors, belvederes,
etc. should not be built within the garden so
as to obstruct the general view. Under no
circumstances should anything be built upon
any axis intermediate between the termini in
such a manner as to interrupt the axis line.
The intersections of axes may sometimes be
marked by pools of flat water (not playing
fountains). Pools in this position are attrac-
tive on account of the reflections they offer to-
ward the principal points of view.

M

O

ps;

1

■%1

C3

a<* .2

fc.

M

The Rectangular Garden 39
OPEN SPACES

Even in the smallest garden there should be
some free open space, usually carpeted with
turf, but in special cases paved with tile or
bound with gravel or given to flat water.
Flower beds are often introduced freely, some-
times profusely into formal gardens. As a
general rule, subject to possible exceptions,
these will prove most satisfactory if disposed
along the margins. Placing them in the cen-
ters of the quadrants can rarely, if ever, be
justified as good design.

ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS

Details of architecture and sculpture must
of course be kept consistent throughout the
garden. Simple and classical forms are usu-
ally to be preferred. The architectural style
most approved by modern taste is undoubtedly
that of the later Italian renaissance. There is
visible here and there a tendency to use so-
called ''rustic" construction, but this can hard-
ly meet the approval of the best taste. One
might imagine using a cigar-store wooden In-
dian or a Hopi hogan in a formal design, but
their inappropriateness is so manifest as hardly
to require a word.

40 The Rectangular Garden

However it must be emphasized, in view of
what actually happens, that some experience,
a lot of common sense and a little uncommon
good taste are needed to insure quite the best
selection of architectural features and furnish-
ings for any garden.

Much depends further on bringing all these
features and furnishings into scale. A pergola
may be so big and coarse as to overpov/er a
whole garden ; or a bird bath may be so small
and dinky as to be lost amongst the roses. In
this very important matter of keeping all the
elements of the design in scale — that is in suit-
able proportion to one another — nothing will
serve except good taste refined by experience.
No rules will be of real use.

COLOR EFFECTS

The temptation to do color patterns in the
formal garden is almost irresistible. While it
is important always to observe the ordinary
rules of color harmony — not to plant pink
mallows with red zinnias and not to have any
Anthony Waterer spirea anywhere, — still it
may well be doubted whether the refinements
of color scheming so well known to interior
decorators have any real place in landscape
architecture.

Ill

THE DOMESTIC FORMULA

VERY formula is subject to modifi-
cation in its application to an actual
problem. When a particular piece
of land is to be developed, for example to make
a home, the high desideratum is not to illus-
trate a formula but to satisfy certain practical
needs. Thus it transpires that a perfectly cor-
rect design is seldom achieved, whether in
radial formality, rectangular symmetry or in
the so-called and well-beloved "natural style".

Such departures from formula, however,
raise a nice question. If they are wisely made
to meet quite definite needs which could not
be satisfied under the rules then the sense of
fitness will amply justify them. But if, on the
contrary, the logic of the ideal plan is broken
to please a personal whim, it is plain that the
first result has been damaged.

Special wisdom is necessary when it comes
to the application of styles or formulas to the
design of home grounds. The effort to meet
the practical requirements of this almost uni-
versal problem while at the same time cling-

41

42 The Domestic Formula

ing to a pet theory of "the natural style" or to
some equally arbitrary theory of "formal gar-
dening" has done much to discredit the whole
doctrine of landscape architecture, especially
in America. If we will clear our minds of
prejudices, however, and approach this fasci-
nating problem from the standpoint of simple
necessities we may find that, somewhere along
the way, there will be a favorable opportunity
for the application of any rational formulas
which we have fairly tested and understood.

EXISTING CONDITIONS

The infinitely multiplied problem of mak-
ing a home out of a house and a bit of ground
presents certain controlling conditions which
are so nearly universal that they may be safely
generalized.

First to be considered is the tract of land
itself. This is limited in extent. Even if a
billionaire owns "all outdoors" he will select
one spot in which to build his mansion and
will set apart a relatively small tract to be de-
veloped with the house. But in 999 out of
1,000 cases the home is built upon a small lot.
This is a city lot 40 x 80 feet, or a village lot
60 X 200 feet, or a suburban tract of two or

Garden Paxel; See Plan on Reverse of This Plate Indicating the Lack

of Stiffness in Good Formal Design

Below: Spanish Style in California

CHA2.L&5 Rpe.'ri:ch Smitm

Garden Plan on the "Domestic Formula." By Mr. Daniel Chester

French

The Domestic Formula 43

three acres. In a very large majority of cases
the area will be a simple rectangle. When not
strictly rectangular it will at least be bounded
by straight lines and will be readily reducible
to two or three connected rectangles.

Then there is the house — the principal
figure to be placed on this land. It, too, will
be rectangular in plan, or a combination of
simple rectangles. Practically without excep-
tion it will be placed with its principal lines
parallel with the principal boundary lines of
the lot.

If other items are to be added, such as a
garage, a chicken house, a tennis court, these
likewise appear upon the plan as rectangles.

All these steps come by necessity. What we
find, therefore, at the moment when we begin
our landscape gardening, is a large rectangle
(the land) broken up by a series of smaller
superimposed rectangles. The inevitable re-
sult is that we have presented for our develop-
ment a series of small, more or less connected,
rectangles. These have a variety of form and
aspect, perhaps show differences in soil, and
are to be kept for a variety of uses. Our prob-
lem has now shifted from the idea of develop-
ing one relatively large unbroken tract to the

44 The Domestic Formula

more difficult necessity of developing several
diverse little tracts and of bringing them into
substantial unity.

SUBDIVISION ACCORDING TO USE

At the outset we come upon the well-estab-
lished principle of subdividing domestic
grounds according to use into three cate-
gories, viz. (a) public grounds, (b) private
grounds and (c) service areas. The front
yard, next the street, will be published to all
passers. The private garden, or gardens, will
be hidden from public curiosity. The service
yard, where the washing is hung out or the
wood-pile piled, will also be an area to itself,
separated from both the front yard and the pri-
vate garden.

This highly logical subdivision of land cor-
responds to the classification of spaces within
every well-planned dwelling house. The front
yard corresponds to the front hall and recep-
tion room; and the front hall opens onto the
front yard. The family garden, or gardens,
correspond to the sitting rooms, library and
other private rooms within the house, and
should connect directly with those rooms. The
service yard is the analog of the kitchen and

T h s Domestic Formula 45

the laundry and should obviously be connected
with them.

In meeting these three practical require-
ments we have made obvious progress toward
disposing advantageously of the miscellaneous
rectangular patches turned over to us. The
space between the front of the house and the
street is the front yard; a small space at the
poorest side of the house has become the serv-
ice yard ; and the larger remainders, — we hope
on the sunny and sightly sides of the house, —
become the private grounds. When these
three assignments are separated by hedges,
walls or trellisses, as is plainly desirable, our
rectangular subdivision of the property has
been further emphasized.

That larger portion which has been assigned
to family use may now be further subdivided.
There may be room for a tennis court, for a
croquet court, for a flower garden, for a spe-
cial rose garden, for a children's play court,
or for such other special uses as the composi-
tion and tastes of the family may suggest.

ANOTHER FORMULA

All these considerations bring us to a point
where we may safely state a new formula

46 The Domestic Formula

covering the design of typical home grounds.
This formula, when once worked out and
understood, will be found applicable, with
suitable modifications, to other problems only
paritially domestic, e. g., to hospital and school
grounds. We may now state our formula
rather succinctly as follows :

1. The grounds should be subdivided into
several parcels, mainly of rectangular form.
How this subdivision proceeds logically from
necessity has already been explained.

2. Such subdivision will be based prima-
rily on use. There will nearly always be (a)
an entrance area or "front yard", (b) a service
area, and (c) a private yard. The private
grounds may be further subdivided, according
to their size and the uses required, into such
areas as childrens' playground, tennis court,
croquet court, flower garden, rose garden, re-
serve garden, bird garden, poultry yard.* etc.,
etc.

3. These several areas should not be uni-
form in size, nor (except for their rectangular
lines) in form. If they can be placed at differ-

*The poultry yard may be assigned to the service area if preferred.
The same might be said of the vegetable garden. The garage and auto-
mobile turn will preferably fall to the service area.

The Domestic Formula 47

ent levels the arrangement is usually advan-
tageous. Thus it becomes a merit of this for-
mula that it deals easily with unlevel terrain.

4. These several areas should be shut off
from one another and from adjoining prop-
erty more or less completely by walls, build-
ings, trellises, hedges, trees or shrubbery plant-
ings. Some of these division screens will
plainly need to be more exclusive than others ;
and both taste and ingenuity will be called
upon to make them effective without being ob-
trusive or otherwise objectionable.

5. Each separate area must be given some
distinctive character derived either from its
luse or the introduction of some definite motive.
Thus one portion might be a wild garden in
the natural style; one might be a very formal
tea-terrace; one might be a garden theatre.
In short these several units may be developed
on quite different formulas.

6. Circulation must be provided through
these several areas ; and the lines of circulation
will usually serve to connect and unify these
separate parts. Paths, steps, pergolas,* corri-

* The pergola here comes to its proper use as a connecting passage-
way between garden or building units rather than as a detached garcten
feature. The latter method of using the pergola is often seen naively
and unconvincingly used in American gardens.

48 The Domestic Formula

dors used for connection, must be interesting
without being obtrusive.

7. Relatively large areas of smooth turf
are desirable. A few small spaces may be
paved with tile, stone, brick or clay.

8. A few good shade trees are almost es-
sential, but shade can easily be overdone. In
some localities a windbreak will be a practical
requirement, and this should become a part of
the primary design.

9. Shrubs will be used mainly as founda-
tion plantings about buildings or in making
up the division screens between unit areas.
They will seldom or never be placed as indi-
vidual specimens or in detached beds. In the
screen plantings they may be unpruned and
informal or they may be sheared to straight
hedges.

10. Every home place, unless of very re-
stricted area, should also include one or more
good showings of hardy flowers. Bright and
cheerful flowers need not be confined to set
flower gardens; neither should they be scat-
tered aimlessly everywhere.

11. Every home garden should be amply
furnished in some of its private compartments.
Furnishings may include shelters, seats, tables,

o

Intimate Home

Garden in Pasadena, Calif.
Landscape Architect

Mr. Paul Thiene,

The Domestic Formula 49

sundials, bird baths, gazing globes, statuary,
fountains, etc.

12. Water is very desirable in the home
garden. It may be introduced in formal pools,
playing fountains or in semiformal canals.
In those rare instances where running water
is available, or an exterior view upon some
river, lake or the ocean, every effort should be
given to realizing the full benefit of such ex-
traordinary resources.

Thus our problem works out very simply.
Each step follows logically from the condi-
tions given. We have met all the necessities.
The service has been duly provided; there is
a decent front yard conforming to the good
American custom; and the larger portion of
the grounds has been utilized for the privacy
and delight of the family.

This is the way the solution presents itself
to most intelligent amateurs, and this is the
way the home-grounds problem is actually
handled by nearly all the professional land-
scape architects. The result is wholly satis-
factory, but it assuredly is not the "natural
style" ; neither is it the ''formal style" as usually
expounded. It might better be called the "do-
mestic style", since this formula states the

50

The Domestic Formula

Example of the Domestic Garden
The Author's Grounds

The Domestic Formula 51

method really followed in tens of thousands of
cases. It is more properly a formal, rather
than a natural, mode of design, since it is
founded upon purely geometrical figures.
Furthermore the interior treatment of our
several rectangles is apt to be formalistic rather
than naturalistic, for very obvious reasons.

Might it not be a happy ending, therefore,
to all controversy about the inherent desira-
bility of formal or natural styles if we could all
recognize the simple and significant fact that
we have actually developed in America a
domestic style of our own which fits our needs,
expresses our best taste and is beholden to no-
body?

IV

RADIAL DESIGN

|NOTHER form of symmetry is found
in those figures which radiate from a
ll center, or in which decorative or
structural units are repeated at regular inter-
vals and at equal distances from the center.
The circle is the type of all such figures; but
any regular polygon may be treated in the
same way. The square may of course be
treated either as a rectangle, in accordance
with the formula proposed in Chapter II, or
as a radial pattern. In the latter case the prin-
cipal decorative object would be placed at
the center — a development radically different
from that used when the square is treated as
a rectangle. In most practical instances it will
doubtless be more effective to develop the
square radially, placing the principal figure in
the center, rather than to treat it as a rectangle
with the principal objects on the margin.

Figures in radial pattern occur frequently
in nature. The corollas of most garden flowers
present such a figure. The star-fish is a nota-
ble example in the animal world ; but there are

53

54 Radial Design

whole orders of animals conforming to this
pattern. Many minute organisms, such as
diatoms, exhibit very regular and beautiful
examples of radial structure. In inorganic
nature many crystals — perhaps most — follow
the same plan. A good example, and certainly
one of the most beautiful, is found in the snow-
flake.

Thus wnen man comes to use radial figures
in industrial or artistic design he is not invent-
ing anything new — only making use of a type
freely and largely offered to him by Mother
Nature. How widely man has accepted this
teaching will be seen at first glance. Buttons,
table plates and saucers, harness ornaments,
flower beds, some windows, light fixtures,
many articles of furniture, and hundreds of
other objects promptly come to notice as ex-
amples.

In landscape architecture, too, the radial
figure has been adopted. If flower beds are too
trifling to serve as examples there may be
found a certain number of authoritative rose
gardens. The famous rose garden in Eliza-
beth Park, Hartford, Conn., is of radial de-
sign. In fact the old English tradition, not
uncopied in America, was to make the rose

Circular Pattern Bedding on a Ciri' Boulevard, Houston, Tex.
Model for a Circular Rose Garden

Radial Design 55

garden in the form of a circle. Then there is
the outdoor theatre which quite naturally takes
the figure of the semi-circle and so comes in
for radial development.

It may be pointed out further that small en-
closed courtyards are often treated in the same
manner, a fountain or other principal figure
marking the center. And it may be fairly sur-
mised that this radial formula might be used
advantageously in the solution of a consider-
able number of problems. At any rate it will
be worth while to consider how this form of
symmetry, so well authenticated by nature and
so freely used by man, may be applied to gar-
den design.

THE AREA TO BE DEVELOPED

Any space to be developed as a formal gar-
den upon the radial formula should be level.
To be more precise it must be plane and ap-
proximately level. No serious departures
from this rule could be tolerated.

Secondly the area should be small. It has
already been argued in Chapter II that the
rectangular formal garden must be compar-
atively small, but the radial garden must be
smaller still. Leaving room for some excep-

^6 Radial Design

tions we may say that the radius should not be
more than 50 feet. In most instances the space
treated would be considerably smaller even
than this. (A radius of 50 feet would describe
<an area of a scant quarter of an acre.) For a
tidy rose garden in /a private home yard a
circle with a radius of 12 feet would be quite
satisfactory. The patio of a comfortable Cali-
fornia or Florida house might be developed
in the radial manner upon a radius of 25 feet
or less. A private garden theatre could be
built in a semi-circle having a radius of only
30 feet and seating comfortably 150 persons.

One of the compelling reasons for keeping
the radial figure small in gardening lies in the
fact that unless the visitor can see the whole
pattern at one glance he will not be able to
understand the design, and unless the design
is quickly grasped and easily appreciated the
whole effort is lost.

Thus while there are exceptions to this rule
(such as the large football stadiums, the Place
de la Concorde, Paris, and similar public
squares) the general practice must be to re-
strict radial design in landscape architecture
to quite small spaces, and generally to favor
decidedly diminutive areas.

Radial Design cj

EXTERIOR FORM

The area to be treated should be a square,
a hexagon, an octagon, or one-half of one of
these figures. Of course it is wholly practic-
able to plan a regular dodecagon or to lay out
a figure having 42 equal sides; but when it
should all be done and the roses growing it
would hardly be possible for the human eye
to distinguish the figure from a circle. The
old geometrician's puzzle of "squaring the
circle" is very easily solved in the garden.

Slight deviations from a strictly regular
form may be accepted without difficulty; or
an area which is approximately square (for
example) may be easily brought to the exact
dimensions desired by readjusting the mar-
gins,— shifting a hedge on one side or making
a new wall.

ENCLOSURE

The garden should be entirely enclosed by
hedges, screens, walls, buildings, or combina-
tions of these elements. The demand for en-
closure, already argued with reference to the
rectangular garden, is even more imperative
here. The radial garden is a small, simple
figure which relies almost wholly for its effect

^8 Radial Design

Upon a quick grasp of its geometrical unity.
If the view is permitted to wander away to
other objects outside this area the significance
of the whole pattern is promptly and irretriev-
ably lost. The fact that the center of interest
is the physical center of the area also adds to
the demand that all attention shall be turned
in that direction.

In a properly handled garden the enclosure
naturally becomes an interesting and delight-
ful part of the picture and a wholly acceptable
expression of the atmosphere of the place.
One can imagine a square space enclosed by
high stone walls forming a prison; but a gar-
den can not be like that. The enclosing walls
will be covered with ivy, or with espaliered
fruit trees, or fronted with gallant rows of
hollyhocks or soft blue delphiniums. Or the
enclosure may be of trellis covered with climb-
ing roses; or it may be made up of verdant
hedges. A garden patio might be surrounded
on three sides by the house itself and on the
fourth side by a pergola. Yes, the enclosure
should be as interesting, homelike and delight-
ful as possible.

Radial Design

59

The Rose Garden
Enclosed — Plan in Lower Corner

6o Radial Design

CENTER OF INTEREST

Yet the main interest must be at the center
of every radial garden, and the marginal treat-
ment should not include mass effects on such
^ scale as to compete at all with the central
feature. Entrance gates present points of dan-
ger, since these may be easily played up too
prominently.

For the most essential rule for the radial
garden is that the geometrical center of the
area is the center of interest and should be
occupied by the principal structure. Figures
most commonly used are pavilions, temples,
fountains, statuary, sundials, gazing globes,
bird baths, etc.

A certain amount of tradition adheres to
this practice. For example a sundial is con-
sidered especially appropriate to a rose gar-
den ; and classical models are considered espe-
cially proper for all features — either the
classic Greek or the Italian renaissance. It
is better in such matters to lean on tradition.
If one must exercise an iconoclastic spirit he
can find better scope for it elsewhere. For
example one might think of putting an
Alaskan totem pole in the center of his formal
garden ; and while possibly this would be no

Radial Design 6i

more foreign to Indianapolis or Atlanta than
a Greek Pan or a renaissance sundial, yet the
affinity of ideas is distinctly less. So we say
it is better to be somewhat formal and conven-
tional in a formal garden.

The capital importance of this central fea-
ture demands that it shall receive the utmost
attention of the designer. It must be a figure
of unquestionable dignity and beauty. In size
and richness it must be nicely proportioned
to the size and elaboration of the garden.

SUBDIVISION

Paths will be laid out as radii from the
center. Their width will be governed, as far
as possible, by the size of the garden with a
veiw to keeping them in scale. These paths
should be of even width, — not growing nar-
rower toward the center of the garden. They
may be of grass, of gravel or of random pav-
ing stones. Brick walks are usually less ap-
propriate, unless brick walls or brick build-
ings conspicuously surround the garden.
Plain cement is hardly ever admissible.

The walks may be effectively edged with
dwarf box, with euonymus, with sweet alyssum

62 Radial Design

or with other convenient garden materials.
In some cases brick edgings to gravel walks
may seem agreeable, or other expedients of a
similar nature may be used.

These radiating walks may or may not have
terminating features at the points where they
intersect the garden periphery. It is all a
problem in scale. In a large garden with
heavy enclosure, some simple termini will be
needed. But they must be kept clearly sub-
ordinate to the chief feature occupying the
garden center.

These marginal termini may be seats, small
statuettes, bird houses, small formal trees, or
other objects of similar value. There may
easily be one or two entrances to the garden
which can well be dignified by simple gates
or arches.

Flower beds, when introduced, will be laid
off between the radiating walks. They should
conform strictly to the structural lines of the
garden.

It may be remarked that most of the radially
designed gardens already made in England
and America have been pretty well filled with
flower beds. This is indeed a most admirable
pattern in which to lay out garden beds for

Radial Design 63

roses, peonies, or for miscellaneous perennials
or annuals. Nevertheless it may be suggested
that, considering the radial garden on its own
merits, it may often be found worth while to
leave more open space, especially about the
center. The value of such open spaces, par-
ticularly when in good lawn, is well known
for rectangular formal gardens; and while it
is seldom pertinent to make a radial garden
seem "roomy," still there is no merit in mak-
ing it seem crowded. In many cases, in short,
it will seem wise to retain a certain free space,
and more so if this openness helps either to
emphasize the general garden structure or to
exhibit to greater advantage the commanding
central feature.

COLOR EFFECTS

Those ambitious gardeners who insist on
trying for color patterns in their gardens will
find the small radial garden the best scene for
their experiments. Its strictly limited size
will prove a distinct advantage. And since the
plan-pattern of the garden itself is to be empha-
sized this end may be gained in part by color
massings. Such massings will be more effec-
tive if placed toward the margins rather than

64 Radial Design

at the center of the garden. The varied tones
of green and gray available in hedge material
offer a particularly inviting suggestion for the
garden enclosure.

l;^^

V

SPIRIT AND MOTIVE

ANDSCAPE architecture in the
formal mode stands in palpable
contrast to work done in the natu-
ralistic or informal mode. This striking con-
trast is seen by the world at large in its
physical aspects. Yet this external difference
must remain forever unjustified unless it cor-
responds to and expresses a deeper difference,
to-wit, a spiritual character. Neither mode of
landscape architecture can live by its physical
body alone ; each must have a soul. No mode
of expression is worth anything unless there
is something to express.

Now it might be said, truthfully, though
very broadly, that the "natural style" in land-
scape architecture attempts to express the
spirit of nature in its diverse forms and moods.
And in contrast to this statement we might
say that the "formal style" attempts to express
the spirit of civilization, i.e. of human culture,
and especially the spirit of man's mastery over
nature. Both statements are broad and sub-

65

66

Spirit and Motive

ject to adjustment on details, but both are
essentially true.

The Vegetable Garden Treated with Simple Formality
Jens Jensen, Landscape Architect

Man is a strange, curious and inconsistent
animal. At times he longs, with a burning
heart, to return to Mother Nature. He de-
lights in the wild. The native, unbroken
forests, the unpolluted streams, the nascent

spirit and Motive 67

moving sand dunes, the pristine prairies, the
unconquered mountains, appeal to him irre-
sistibly. At other times he glories in his con-
quests over nature — in his productive farms,
his graceful bridges, his flying aeroplanes, his
cities, his libraries, his instruments of music.
Both moods are human; both wholesome;
both can be expressed in the forms of land-
scape architecture.

Our present task requires a closer inquiry
into this spirit of civilization — this feeling of
man's mastery over nature. It is, of course,
a complex phenomenon — complex and elu-
sive. Yet a few of its larger specific elements
may be separated and described.

SPIRITUAL SPECIES

First we may fairly place the geometric
idea. When ten trees are planted in a row at
equal intervals they represent the human idea
of order. They do not look like the work of
nature. Yet they satisfy a powerful human
instinct. A large part of formal gardening
goes no further than this. It presents objects
in orderly geometric arrangements. Every
such work speaks in unmistakable terms of
man's interference with nature. It says

68 Spirit and Motive

"Nature did not plant these trees — man did."
Every straight street, every circular flower
bed, and every rectangular potato field speaks
the same language.

Decorative design in general is geometry
raised to a higher power. Yet in decorative
design we have other elements added, as the
love of color, a feeling for texture, a sense of
rhythm and an adaptation to utilitarian pur-
poses. This spirit of decorative design develops
early in human culture. Even savage races
show it strongly ; and it is not hard to see that
in their tribal experience it clearly represents
the measure of their human achievement in
the constant struggle with nature. So the
flower garden made by the pioneer's wife in
the first clearing in which appear color, geo-
metrical forms and sense of balance. So, too,
in the elaborate parterres of the old French
gardens there was little more expressed than
had been said more simply in the gardens of
ten thousands peasants.

Not much later appears the spirit of social
display. Civilization, being gregarious and
social as well as competitive, early witnesses
the attempt of one person to impress others
with his wealth, i.e. with his mastery over cir-

c

Semi-Classical Treatment of Simple Elements

spirit and Motive 69

cumstances. This spirit of social display has
been patently expressed in many of the most
famous formal gardens of the world — in the
"Hanging Gardens of Babylon," in the great
Italian villas, in Schoenbrunn, Sans Souci and
notably in Versailles.

Then there is the spirit of imperialism. Or
if anyone objects to that word he may call it
the spirit of triumphant nationalism. The
Place de la Concorde, the civic center in San
Francisco, the entire plan of Washington, are
nothing more nor less than expressions of
this spirit in terms of formal landscape archi-
tecture. It is not necessary here to raise any
question as to how much of this imperialism
is wholesome or how much of it is ignoble,
since all of it, good and bad alike, is still ex-
pressed in the same physical forms.

But if some of us shrink a little from the
spirit of imperialism and from all its works
we can yield our full homage to the spirit of
home. For the home is incontestably and
simply the greatest thing in civilization — in
all civilization, at all stages of evoluton. Now
the essential character of the physical home
is that it is a spot won away from nature and
measurably protected from the elements and

70 Spirit and Motive

from the encroachments of aliens. There is
a house built in geometrical forms ; to the door
there runs a straight path; in the parcel of
cultivated soil there are straight rows of plants
for use or beauty. Thus the home develops
inevitably along geometrical, formalistic lines.
The first gardens are always formal gardens.

Other elements of human culture, more
highly refined, more lately developed, may
also seek expression in garden forms. The
spirit of poetry, with its love of sensuous
beauty, its rhythms and cadences, its tropes
and metaphors, its romantic and imaginative
impulses, is always striving for objective real-
ization. This spirit is only partly expressed in
written verse ; another portion may be objecti-
fied in gardens.

The thoughtful reader at this point may
properly think of the affinity of poetry for
pure nature, and if he is also a technical land-
scape architect he may be inclined to say
that some of the best naturalistic landscape
architecture has an indubitably poetic spirit.
It is always a mistake to define too closely or
to quibble about terms, and most especially
so in a field like this. When we are trying
to discuss matters of spirit words are mani-

spirit and Motive 71

festly inadequate. But it is at least plain that
the symmetrical forms of poetry correspond
most closely with the symmetrical figures of
formal gardening; and it would seem a fair
inference that those feelings which would
come to their most natural verbal expression
in verse would find their best physical expres-
sion in the terms of the formal garden.

The spirit of music, also, differing some-
what from the spirit of poetry, may find its
way into gardening. In music we have pure
feeling embodied in another medium. It is
practically always easy to specify the feeling
expressed in any ordinary musical work, be
it song or symphony. One piece of music
gives us the feeling of reverie, another of
mourning, another the feeling of smiling joy,
the next one a thrill of military ardor, while
yet another may communicate to us a mood
of religious solemnity. This stir to our feel-
ings is what we most clearly get from music,
especially if we are not too sophisticated;
which is only another way of saying that the
spirit of the music speaks directly to us.

Now it is a curious and suggestive fact that
a garden or a landscape reaches the human
heart in precisely the same terms. One land-

72 spirit and Motive

scape is sunny and cheerful, another is somber
and depressing. One garden is prim and
ceremonious, another is (alas I) slovenly and
undignified.

The facility with which music may be trans-
lated into the language of gardens is rather
remarkable. For years I have made it a prac-
tice to ask my students in landscape architec-
ture to do exactly this. We set the phono-
graph going upon some musical work — some-
thing good and not too abstruse — and then the
pupils are required to paraphrase the musical
work with a garden program. In a notable
percentage of cases the experiment succeeds.

Thus it would be possible by further analy-
sis to isolate, more or less clearly, other ele-
ments in the spirit of human civilization — the
spirit of man in his command over nature, —
and in every case to find for that specific
thought a just statement in the physical ma-
terials of landscape architecture. Enough
has been said, however, to make it clear, as
much as such things can ever be made clear,
that the spirit of the formal garden is quite
different from the spirit of the natural land-
scape and that the two may be broadly con-
trasted as the spirit of man's conquest over

Balustrade and Steps
Terminal Feature on Main Axis

Bungalow Court in Hollywood, Calif.
One Section of Domestic Garden— Page 50

spirit and Motive yi,

nature versus man's love for nature uncon-
quered and undefiled.

FORMAL GARDEN MOTIVES

In nearly every form of art, composition
proceeds by building upon motives. This is
more obviously true in the decorative than in
the representative arts. A motive has been
defined as a physical unit which is repeated.*
In formal gardening this repetition is usually
very easy to see. To make a formal avenue
of trees the tree unit is repeated at regular dis-
tances, and the full row on one side is repeated
in the symmetrical row on the opposite side
of the axis. In a hexagonal garden the flower
beds of one segment should be repeated in the
other fine segments.

This repetend or motive corresponds to the
verse form in poetry, and to the motive or
theme in music. It may be repeated at regu-
lar intervals along a line, or merely given a
second time in bilateral symmetry upon a cen-
tral axis. It hardly requires to be pointed out
that the wise selection of such motives and

* See \yaugh, "The Natural Style in Landscape Gardening," p. 63,
where the idea of the landscape motive is more fully discussed.

Bungalow Court in Hollyvsood, C \i.ik.
One Section of Domestic Garden— Page 50

spirit and Motive 73

nature versus man's love for nature uncon-
quered and undefiled.

FORMAL GARDEN MOTIVES

In nearly every form of art, composition
proceeds by building upon motives. This is
more obviously true in the decorative than in
the representative arts. A motive has been
defined as a physical unit which is repeated.*
In formal gardening this repetition is usually
very easy to see. To make a formal avenue
of trees the tree unit is repeated at regular dis-
tances, and the full row on one side is repeated
in the symmetrical row on the opposite side
of the axis. In a hexagonal garden the flower
beds of one segment should be repeated in the
other fine segments.

This repetend or motive corresponds to the
verse form in poetry, and to the motive or
theme in music. It may be repeated at regu-
lar intervals along a line, or merely given a
second time in bilateral symmetry upon a cen-
tral axis. It hardly requires to be pointed out
that the wise selection of such motives and

*See Waugh, "The Natural Style in Landscape Gardening," p. 63,
where the idea of the landscape motive is more fully discussed.

74 Spirit and Motive

their clever balancing, spacing and repetition,
constitute a large part of the problem in
formal garden design. Motives may be too
large for the garden, or too small; they may
be crowded or too widely separated. To have
them just right is the stroke of genius. Or
rather is it the fruit of good taste.

In the illustration offered above the single
tree constitutes the motive for the formal
avenue. In a garden of flower beds the in-
dividual flower bed may be regarded as the
unit. Architectural motives are easy to find.
In the famous and somewhat ridiculous,
Sieges Allee carried out by that august land-
scape architect the ex-Kaiser Wilhelm, the
equally spaced units are of marble statuary.
These are the motive. One might easily
imagine a garden in which masses of a certain
color should be repeated at regular intervals
thus giving a color motive.

In a certain park in London is a small en-
closed formal space known as the Shakes-
peare garden. The idea in this composition
was to collect within one small area all the
trees, shrubs and flowers named in the works
of Shakespeare. Here we have a literary
motive applied to gardening, and the result

spirit and Motive

75

of repeating a literary idea is properly a
formal garden.

o to sjs zo 4fa so ^

\ — 1 — r I I — y-^

n^\Y£Fs (^[^555^

^1 Hojpi^j I r"

^mMM.^m^Mi^!^mmmmm^#^^i^^

Kent County "VC^ Memorial

MAdefrom Cc^nterbury, England caw.

I^ced Sorvey I i I I T ^ 1025

»o 4o so

In Canterbury, England, has recently been
built a most dignified and admirable formal
garden known as the Kent County War Me-

76 spirit and Motive

morial. Here a very definite feeling (spirit)
has been objectified in the terms of formal
landscape architecture, the memorial cross
taking its commanding position at the center
and the plan-figures being repeated in the
four quadrants of the square.

This discussion may be summarized by say-
ing that good formal gardening seems to de-
mand the following steps :

1. We must first be clear as to the spirit
to be expressed — the feeling or idea which the
formal garden is to embody.

2. We should then choose a suitable motive.

3. We should then repeat this motive ac-
cording to some suitable pattern.

The methods by which these patterns are
worked out has already been outlined in pre-
ceding chapters.

VI

TREATMENT OF THE LAND

|NE of the most fundamental differ-
ences (in a double sense) between
the so-called "natural style" and the
equally miscalled "formal style" in gardening
lies in the management of topography. In
shaping the surfaces of the land the two sys-
tems are utterly diverse. This fact has not
always been recognized. Gardens of both
sorts have been made which did not conform
to topography; and no deeper structural de-
fect than this can be imagined.

Generally speaking we may say that the
formal style is built upon plane areas. There
may be several planes in the same garden,
lying at different levels and having different
exposures, but all the surfaces are nevertheless
essentially smooth and unwarped. The nat-
ural style, on the other hand, is characterized
by land which flows in curves. The surfaces
are warped. There are no planes, or if there
are they are broken or disguised. This is not
a rule subject to no exceptions, but merely a
general principle. However, the sweetly flow-

77

7^ Treatment of the Land

ing graceful modulations of good topography
present one of the most cogent beauties of
the natural style and constitute an element of
its essential character.

One might be tempted, in view of the fore-
going statements, to jump to the conclusion
that the formal style belongs especially to flat
countries. Historically the opposite would
seem more probable, since the formal style
has undoubtedly achieved its most character-
istic successes on very rough land, notably in
the hills of Italy, and even in the mountains.

We will return to this matter very soon;
but parenthetically it may be suggested that
the formal modes of design have not yet been
given a fair trial in flat countries. The great
plains regions of America, for example, are
clearly characterized by their wide flat areas,
their level horizon lines. Now when one takes
a limited area of Kansas or South Dakota and
tries to make it into a city park or a homestead
he seems to be usually misled into methods
of treatment which sacrifice the breadth and
dignity of his native plains, when indeed they
do not boldly deny that character. Would it
not be wiser, at least in many cases, to adopt
some strong and simple formal design under

Treatment of the Land 79

which the beauty of the plane could be ex-
hibited— possibly enhanced?

Going back now to the historical fact that
formal gardens have been frequently and most
acceptably built on rough topography, we have
to note that the areas under treatment were
always reduced to planes by grading and ter-
racing. The practical result is to break up
any considerable tract into quite small areas.
These areas are at different levels and are
separated from one another, not alone by the
difference of level, but by walls, hedges, balus-
trades and other types of construction.

When all this has been done we have an
estate subdivided into compartments much
as proposed in the development of a ''domestic
style" (see page 41). In this domestic style
the subdivision is recommended for purposes
of practical convenience; but if the same end
is achieved through necessities imposed by
topography there can be no objection, seeing
both necessities reach the same result. Indeed
we have here discovered one of the reasons
why this ''domestic" method of design is so
satisfactory in actual practice, that is because
it meets a number of fundamental require-
ments.

8o Treatment of the Land

Still another advantage is gained in this
work of subdivision in that the resulting small
garden areas are more intimate. Instead of
one large park wherein breadth is purchased
at the expense of privacy, we have several
little gardens, cosy, snug and homelike. Of
course the large park has its beauties and its
uses, but so does the small personal garden.
A very fair comparison may be made with the
treatment of spaces within the house. We
demand that the interior of the home be sub-
divided into several comparatively small
rooms. We like snug and cozy rooms much
better than large and stately apartments. They
are more homelike, livable and lovable; and
they are also very much cheaper to build and
to keep.

Either method must be adopted on reason
and with care. It must here be especially
understood that merely to cut up a large piece
of land into several fussy little patches does
not make a formal garden nor any work of
art. Subdivision is pleasing only when logi-
cal— only when it works out naturally from
antecedent conditions.

Development of topography as here sug-
gested seems to be little understood in Amer-

A Balustraded Terrace
Smooth Grass Panel with Flower Borders

Treatment of the Land 8i

ica. Probably it is the matter most to be
studied in making formal gardening a part of
our national practice. There seems to be as
much difficulty and awkardness in passing
from one level to another as a boy experiences
in passing in or out of the room. Yet successes
depends absolutely on the way in which these
transitions are made.

Changes of level are usually made by way
of either terraces or retaining walls. One may
find both methods employed along any resi-
dence street where the city engineer has cut
the roadway down considerably below the
natural grade. Here the houses perch above
the street; and their front lawns are held up
by concrete or masonry walls, or there are
beveled terraces sloping down. It is always
a question which looks worse. For they are
seldom designed with any taste. The house
looks as though it were plumped down upon
an unsuitable site. It never seems to grow out
of the ground. Instead of giving one the feel-
ing that it could not be removed it cries to
heaven for relief.

Yet it ought to be possible in just such cir-
cumstances to design the whole project —
house, lawn, steps, retaining wall and side-

82 Treatment of the Land

walk— SO as to give pleasing proportions and
a sense of integral connection. The front
yard would belong to the house; the terrace
or wall would separate these naturally and
usefully from the street, while the steps would
conveniently connect the front door with the
public sidewalk. It is a perfectly possible solu-
tion for a very practical problem — a problem
moreover which is repeated ten thousand times
in all parts of America.

Successful solution of this type of problem
seems to rest usually on the following fairly
simple conditions: (1) The front lawn should
be all in one area. (2) It should be practically
level. (3) The house should have a moder-
ately low foundation. (4) The house should
further be tied to the lawn by low foundation
plantings. (5) Trees should be omitted from
the front yard. (6) The change of level should
usually be made by a wall of concrete or well-
built stone. (7) This wall should constitute
a clear separation between street and front
lawn. For this purpose it may be carried
slightly above the lawn level. In cases where
a high wall is required, the lawn being six feet
or more above the sidewalk, the wall should
be surmounted by a fence or balustrade. Even

Treatment of the Land 83

above lower walls a fence or a hedge will
assist materially in making the transition. It
seems to be quite desirable in all such cases
practically to shut ofif the view of one level
from the other. (8) The steps leading up from
the sidewalk must be well-proportioned and
interesting. If the line from the front door to
the foot of these steps is not straight, but is
broken once or twice at right angles, the result
is apt to be improved.

Within the grounds changes of level, prop-
erly and naturally associated with convenient
subdivision, will nearly always make the gar-
den areas more intimate and interesting. For-
mal terraces, i.e., slopes of mowed grass bev-
eled on straight lines, may be used when the
changes of level are between two and four
feet ; for less or more they are in very doubtful
taste and are difficult to maintain. Retaining
walls are nearly always more agreeable. Here,
within the garden areas, rough stone, or dry
walls, are often agreeable. At times these may
be planted with a great variety of interesting
plants and featured strongly in the picture.
This opportunity to grow plants in walls, on
top of walls, and along the foot of walls is so
fascinating that eager gardeners can seldom

84 Treatment of the Land

resist it. The libraries will show many books
devoted to wall gardening.*

Just here it is no part of our plan to go into
the horticulture of wall gardening, nor even
to argue for the delights of such experiments,
but merely to point out the large acceptability
of such walls in the subdivision of the grounds.

Where walls are built of stone masonry, of
brick, of cement, of stucco or in combinations
of these materials, it is usually good practice to
soften them by tasteful plantings. There may
be hollyhocks, ferns, tritomas, asters or other
good species (there are hundreds to choose
from) along the foot of the wall ; there may be
vines, such as ivy, climbing fig or euonymus
on the surface of the wall; there may even be
shrubs, as lilacs, against a high wall; and
lastly though not leastly there may be trees so
placed as to cast their softening shadows on
the too-sunny and too-conspicuous brick or
cement surfaces.

The ideal should be to soften and break up
the wall surface — not to cover it entirely. Not
infrequently one sees a good wall buried in
verdure. Such a wall might as well be a hedge.

*See especially Jekyll, Wall and Water Gardens, London (3rd edition
without date).

o

Treatment of the Land 8^

It requires good taste to feel just when a wall
of this sort has covering enough.

The walls here discussed are, of course, re-
taining walls. But it is often desirable to carry
such a wall above the level of the upper earth
surface, above which it becomes, not a retain-
ing wall, but a free standing wall. In short
the two types of construction may be com-
bined advantageously in certain circum-
stances. Or the retaining wall may be sur-
mounted by a balustrade, a fence or a hedge.
Any of these combinations is perfectly practi-
cable, and if well designed is apt to be both
useful and pleasing.

As is elsewhere pointed out (see page 109)
this scheme of design involves another essen-
tial factor, viz. connection. There must be
provision for circulation: this is a practical
requirement. But there must also be a posi-
tive connection between the separate garden
units: this is an esthetic requirement.

Connection is made by means of walks. To
this general rule there are few exceptions.
The walks may be mere strips of grass with
passageway indicated by a gateway, by a rose
arch or by posts; or they may be the most
elaborate constructions of brick and tile.

86 Treatment of the Land

They must, of course, be in scale and harmony
with other features of the areas connected.
Brick and tile walks should be used with brick
buildings and brick division walls; concrete
may be used in the neighborhood of masonry
or stucco, though concrete walks within a
family garden are seldom agreeable. Grass
walks, gravel walks or stepping stones may be
used where no architectural structures are
present to suggest the harder materials.

Another feature of this problem lies in the
need of marking in suitable manner the points
at which these lines of circulation (paths) cut
through the boundaries of individual garden
areas. These points are of considerable sig-
nificance in the structural design. They are
in fact the points, though not always the only
ones, at which the structural lines are sup-
ported. They appear as fixed points in a sys-
tem otherwise capable of easy flux.

These points of intersection are therefore
usually and naturally marked by some special
physical structure. Where the path passes
through a wall there is a door; where it goes
through a fence there is a gate; where it in-
tersects a hedge there should be posts or an
arch or other figures; where the walk passes

Treatment of the Land 87

from one compartment to another on a dif-
ferent level there will of course be steps, and
these should be given some dignified mass-
effect. Each one of these intersections in fact
yields a special opportunity for the use of some
figure which may be made, indeed must be
made, beautiful.

In many cases, of course, these gates or steps
or other figures become the termini of axial
lines. In short they are integral features in
the primary organization of the garden de-
sign.

Finally it may not seem superfluous to re-
turn to the beginning of our argument long
enough to make an earnest plea for a more
general recognition of the beauty of land sur-
faces, the lovely qualities of topography; for
a deeper understanding of what topography
means in order that out of the land itself a
more sympathetic, and therefore more artistic,
landscape architecture may be developed.

VII

ENCLOSURE

OOD design requires that the formal
garden be wholly enclosed. There
may possibly be exceptions, but they
are so few as hardly to supply the proverbial
proof of the rule.

The demand for enclosure thus set up on
principle is strongly enforced by practical
considerations. Even the horticultural re-
quirements are better met in the enclosed gar-
den where protection from wind and partial
protection from sun make it possible to grow
many plants which will not thrive with more
exposure. But the most cogent reason of all,
and the one which should always be given the
most serious consideration, is that the garden
should have privacy. The small formal gar-
den should be closely tied to the dwelling
house. It should be an integral part of the
home. It should be intimate and private. If
it can be just as completely secluded as the sit-
tingroom or library within the house it will
be all the better as a garden.

This necessity for privacy calls for the ut-

89

90 Enclosure

most emphasis because it is not felt by the aver-
age American. Rather has an opposite pre-
sumption grown up. When our grandfathers
began to take down the picket fences along the
street fronts and to demolish hedges on divi-
sion lines their work was generally approved.
The front yards which were thus democratic-
ally opened to the public view are still worthy
of our admiration. But gardening should not
all be in the front yard, though millions of
American voters think so; and a private for-
mal garden at the rear of the dwelling-house
and connected with the living rooms is quite
a different matter from a patch of lawn lying
between the front door and the sidewalk. This
distinction once made clear we shall be in a
better position to understand what a real family
garden or a genuine social garden is.

There can be no question, once the matter
is fully considered, as to the desirability of en-
closure for formal gardens. The only practi-
cal question is how shall the enclosure be ef-
fected? The most practicable materials are
buildings, walls, trellises, hedges and other
plantings. In many cases, perhaps in a major-
ity, it happens that the formal garden is
bounded on one side by a building — by the

Garden Wall with Gate

Wall with Bordering Pergola. Olmsted Bros., Landscape Architects.

Enclosure 91

house, or even by a garage. The house should
become a part of the garden ; the garage may
be trellised and covered with climbing vines ;
in any case after the abutting building has
been properly assimilated it becomes a part of
the garden enclosure. Generally a perfectly
agreeable part.

THE GARDEN WALL

The vague American feeling against the
means of privacy for the garden runs to posi-
tive antipathy as soon as mention is made of
masonry walls. One might think that every
citizen was haunted by unhappy memories of
penitentiary enclosures; for in fact when the
popular objection becomes vocal it is offered
in these set terms: "Those stone walls make
the place look like a penitentiary! "

Yet the garden should not look like a jail-
yard, even if walled, and the owner should not
feel like a convict. As a matter of course the
garden wall will not be left bare but will be
clothed in verdure. Against its neutral back-
ground masses of bright flowers will show
their colors. In parts there will be trained
fruit trees. At other points there will be niches
with vases, fountains, windows. A wall thus

92 Enclosure

festooned, colored, softened, broken and ab-
sorbed into the garden can hardly give any-
body the shivers, no matter how bad his con-
science.

Instances must be very rare, moreover, in
which the most extreme lover of walls could
find excuse to extend them to the complete en-
closure of his garden on all sides. Normally
the need for a wall is found at one side of the
garden only, or at most on two sides. A sec-
tion or two of masonry wall between buildings
and plantings can not be so bad. In fact the
wall itself often becomes a mellow and lovely
feature of the garden. The English gardens,
doubtless the most likable in the world, make
large use of walls solidly built of brick or
stone.

The garden designer, amateur or profession-
al, who would therefore introduce masonry
walls into American gardens has every good
argument on his side. He need not forget that
there is a native prejudice against his walls,
and if he is wise he will not gratuitously offend
this prejudice. It is his problem merely to
make his garden so snug, cozy and homelike
that every skeptic heart will melt to the
warmth of its hospitality.

Enclosure 93

Of course a garden wall needs to be de-
signed with taste. It can be made coarse and
repulsive, or it can be quiet, domestic, refined.
Height, materials, textures, color, breaks and
treatment of details all demand careful study.

Used in connection with a house the garden
wall may best be of the same material. If the
house is of gray limestone, then the wall should
come from the same quarry. If the house is
red brick the same brick should be used for
the walls. With a stucco house nothing har-
monizes better than stucco walls. With a
wooden house the problem is a bit more dif-
ficult, though good wooden enclosures may be
built, and indeed are very widely used for gar-
den walls in England.

The practical construction of stone, brick
or stucco walls is well understood. There are
workmen available in nearly every community
to do the work when once the wall is fully
designed. The use of wood for such purposes
is less well worked out, but the possibilities are
so great that they should be given careful
study.

A wall, entirely satisfactory for many posi^
tions, may be made of wooden strips one inch
thick, three or four inches wide and six or

94 Enclosure

eight feet long. These are placed edge to edge
with room for expansion and are held top and
bottom by suitable horizontal runners, which
in turn are fastened to strong posts. If strict
privacy is required the cracks must be bat-
tened. This wall may be painted, though
creosote stains generally give a softer and more
agreeable tone. A tight board fence of hori-
zontal members is not difficult to design or
construct. Fences made of pieces sawed and
left with the bark unstripped are sometimes
built, but are rather too rustic for formal gar-
dens. A favorite garden wall in England is
made of rived oak strips about one-half inch
thick, three inches wide and of any convenient
length, usually some six feet. These are set
vertically, overlapping at the edges, like
courses of shingles, tops and bottoms being
held between horizontal strips. These are
nearly always stained brown. They blend
most sweetly with foliage and flowers.

TRELLISES

Where walls of stucco, stone or brick seem
too obdurate, inappropriate or too expensive,
trellises may serve the case. The common
American antipathy toward walls does not ex-

Enclosure 95

tend to trellises. There has been considerable
experimentation, especially of late, in their
design and manufacture. Anyone who de-
cides to enclose his garden, wholly or partly,
by trellises, at least stands a fair chance of get-
ting good design and sound construction.

A trellis-work enclosure may be made more
or less impervious to prying eyes. Perhaps
the tighter it is the better, at least when used
on boundary lines or street fronts. The popu-
lar lattice of ''diamond" openings may not re-
present the zenith of good design, but it is
passable when well done.

A combination of trellis and pergola some-
times fits conveniently along one boundary
of the garden. The possibility of such a solu-
tion of the enclosure problem should not be
overlooked by the designer.

A highly prevalent custom favors white
paint for every trellis. But white paint makes
the structure very conspicuous and if the de-
sign leaves something to be desired the paint
advertises the defect still further. Painting in
soft greens or neutral grays is advisable in a
good many instances, and the use of creosote
stains has much to recommend it.

g6 Enclosure

HEDGES

After all a hedge is one of the most legiti-
mate expedients known to the garden maker's
repertoire. It grows out of the ground. Its
green foliage makes a beautiful background
for flowers, furniture or statuary. It has a
poetry all its own. With a long list of plants
from which to select, the designer may secure
almost any effect he desires. Above all a good
hedge gives the privacy so much required in
the garden, yet does it without offense. There
may be some feeling of resentment against a
brick wall, but the stranger who would deny
the householder his garden hedge must be a
socialist beyond the lunatic fringe.

So let us have hedges. Let us have more of
them, and much better ones. Let the species
be judiciously selected ; let the ground be well
prepared, let the plants be closely set, and
above all let the pruning be done betimes and
in a workmanlike way.

Hedges are of all sizes, from the four inches
high edging to the screen of poplars perhaps
80 feet tall. They may be sheared to a smooth
surface and to straight lines, or they may be
allowed to grow freely and naturally. They
may be made of deciduous shrubs, of broad-

o

a

w

Enclosure

97

leaved evergreens, of coniferous evergreens or
of deciduous trees.

Simple Formal Garden with Well-Placed Walks and Good Enclosure
Design and Drawing by Sidney B. Waugh

For the average formal garden a sheared
hedge of moderate height, say six to ten feet,
is generally best. This may be either of ever-
green or deciduous material. Speaking
broadly, and with room for special circum-
stances and individual tastes, the best ever-
green hedges are to be had from hemlock or
arbor vitae, with spruce not far behind. The
best broad-leaved evergreens are certainly the
box and the myrtle where they can be grown.
The best of the deciduous shrubs are the pri-
vets, the barberries, the buckthorns, the haw-
thorns and the Japanese quince. Yet let any-

9^ Enclosure

one who has a preference founded on practical
experience exercise his own choice, inside or
outside this list.

Close planting is quite desirable if one is
to have a good solid clean sheared hedge. It
is even worth while to set the plants in double
rows. The great problem with most hedges
is to prevent their becoming ragged at the bot-
toms after a few years. This is to be prevented
by close planting followed by early, frequent
and regular pruning.

Pruning should begin the first year ; and as
soon as growth is established should be a never-
failing annual rite. Indeed many hedges are
best managed under a system of two or even
three prunings each year. With such free-
growing species as privet and buckthorn it is
best to prune early in spring, before growth
starts, preferably in February, and again late
in June, after the first strong growth has
ceased.

It may be well to remember that pruning
calls for some skill. It was not for a joke that
the ancient gardener was called the topiarius,
or shearer of trees. Let no one despise the art,
but seek to do each year a better and cleaner
job of hedge-making.

Enclosure 99

LIST OF PLANTS

Following is a brief list of the plants most
commonly used in hedge making. The truth
is that hundreds of species can be used if some
skill and patience are applied to their training.
The catalog of available plants is by no means
so restricted as is often supposed.

Acanthopnax pentaphyllum is the thorny
name of a thorny hardy vigorous shrub which
is well known and deservedly popular and
which serves well for hedges. It makes a good
stiff enclosure when unpruned, but it also
makes a good hedge under the shears. The
foliage is bright, rich and clean.

Arbor vitae is unquestionably one of the
great American favorites in hedge making,
and quite deservedly so. It is hardy over a
wide range of country, will stand exposure,
neglect and poor soil, and is easily pruned to
any size or form. It is probably the most de-
pendable species for making solid screens and
hedges which really enclose a garden.

Barberry, The Japanese barberry enjoys a
popularity almost reprehensible. Doubtless
it is used too much. Its clean and ready
growth, its ability to stand shade and adversity,
its good foliage and pretty fruit, make a strong

lOO Enclosure

combination of good qualities. It requires
little pruning. The dwarf box barberry makes
a nice little hedge or border plant. The larger
species, European and American, are also ex-
cellent and also withstand shade. They are
looser in habit of growth and require more
pruning, to which however they submit quite
amiably. Several other species are exceed-
ingly promising though less familiar to gar-
den makers.

Beech, This tree will submit to much prun-
ing and training. In Europe it is not infre-
quently treated as a hedge plant. However
it is rather too large and coarse for garden
hedges.

Box, The old-fashioned box is an ideal
hedge plant long associated with formal gar-
dens. It will submit gracefully to any amount
of shearing, yet it makes a beautiful growth
when quite unpruned. It is hardy along the
eastern seacoast to Cape Cod, but not reliable
northward. Where it can be grown it should
always have early consideration.

Buckthorn was formerly a prime favorite
for hedges in the seaboard states. There is no
reason why it should not still be popular. In
fact it is one of the best plants for sheared

Enclosure loi

hedges, hardly inferior to that universal favor-
ite, the privet. It should be more frequently
used, epecially where a high-class sheared
hedge is desired.

Deutzia. The smaller deutzias, viz. D.
gracilis and D, lemoinei make pretty little
hedges three to four feet high, very attractive
for their pure white blossoms, but scarcely tall
enough for making real enclosures nor hardly
submissive enough to the shears ever to shine
in a topiary competition.

Escallonia montevidensis is a strong-grow-
ing erect bush with good evergreen foliage
and fragrant flowers now considerably grown
in California. This has the qualities which
make an excellent screen. I have not myself
seen it sheared into a formal hedge, but it
ought to work out well under such manage-
ment.

Eugenia. This broad-leaved evergreen
makes good hedges. In California E. myrti-
folia is considerably used. It makes a good
substantial growth up to 10-12 feet and stands
shearing well.

Euonymus. This genus includes several ex-
cellent species for hedge making, both decid-
uous and evergreen. The common Strawberry

I02 Enclosure

Bush, E, americanus, grows to a height of
8-10 feet and can be sheared to good effect.
The foliage is good. The Winged Euonymus,
E. alatuSy the Wahoo, E, atropurpureus, and
the European Burning Bush, E. europeans,
are also available. The two evergreen sorts
best known are Euonymus radicans and the
broad-leaved variety E. radicans vegetus.
These are excellent for bed borders but not
strong enough in most gardens for boundary-
line hedges.

Fir et horn {Pyracantha) makes a thick, im-
penetrable hedge 5-8 feet high. It is thorny
and firm and should be used only where posi-
tive enclosure is desired. With prompt and
regular shearing it gives excellent results, but
is not safely hardy much north of Washington.

HaiiDthorn. This is the traditional hedge of
England, fitting the pages of all old poetry.
The English hawthorn does fairly well as a
hedge in the northeastern states and in the
northwest. Several native species are well
fitted for similar use. They all require regu-
lar and frequent pruning.

Hemlock, The richest and most beautiful
evergreen hedges in the world may be made
of hemlock. The Canada hemlock is the

Enclosure 103

favorite, but the Carolina species is quite as
good. The cost of good nursery stock is a con-
siderable item in either case. The hemlock,
like any evergreen, requires careful annual
pruning, preferably the last week in June, to
give the best results.

Hornbeam makes a fairly good plant for
large strong hedges if properly trained and
pruned from the beginning.

Hydrangea. These ever popular shrubs do
well for loose hedges, having good foliage and
showy flowers. They do not serve so well for
sheared hedges, however. The two favorites
are H. paniculata grandiflora and H. arbor-
escenSy the former being the more popular but
the latter generally better.

Japanese quince makes a delightful hedge
up to five feet or even six feet on good soil. It
stands pruning well. It was formerly quite
popular in America but proved highly sus-
ceptible to the attacks of San Jose scale. With
the recession of the scale the Japanese quince
is coming back.

Lilacs. For large, loose, unsheared hedges
or screens the lilacs serve very well. Any of
the varieties will do. Moreover the lilac will
admit a certain amount of pruning, even of

104 Enclosure

formal shearing. If the pruning is done im-
mediately after the flowering season very fair
growth may be expected and a moderate crop
of flowers for the next year. However the
lilacs, lovely as they are for garden uses, must
be regarded as more valuable for unsheared
screens than for formal hedges.

Maple. Any of the maples may be used for
some sort of hedge. Any of them will submit
to a certain amount of pruning. Compara-
tively dwarf kinds like Acer ginnala and A.
campestre (which is known as the hedge
maple) may be sheared to quite strict hedges.

Myrtle, The true myrtle and the dwarf
(Rosemary) myrtle are used in California
freely as hedges — perhaps also in Florida and
Louisiana. They are excellent broad-leaf ever-
greens, look something like box, and may be
sheared in the same way. The true myrtle is
best for small hedges — two to four feet high,
while the Rosemary myrtle is suitable for small
edgings.

Orange. The hardy orange. Citrus trifoli-
ata, makes an excellent hedge and stands prun-
ing well. It is rather a favorite in middle lati-
tudes, from Washington south.

Osage orange. This plant was formerly

Enclosure 105

very widely used as a hedge plant in the middle
states, seldom however for garden making.
It is very thorny; but where such a hedge is
desired it answers the purpose admirably. It
is clean and hardy and will yield ready obedi-
ence to the shears.

Pea-shrub, The Siberian pea-tree, Cara-
gana arbor escens, and possibly other members
of the genus may be successfully used in
hedge making. The Siberian species has the
advantage of being very hardy and on this ac-
count of being available over wide stretches of
the north and northwest where only a few
shrubs can be grown. It prunes well and
makes a stiff, solid hedge.

Pines make good hedges, quite contrary to
the common opinion. They submit to prun-
ing when given from the start and regularly.
The native white pine is most easily managed
and gives the best results. The Scotch and
Austrian pines, however, may be grown in the
plains states where the white pine will not live.
The value of the pines for hedge making
should not be overlooked.

Prickly ash. Here is a hardy native shrub
which has not received the attention it de-
serves. It is stiff and thorny, and where that

io6 Enclosure

sort of a hedge is desired it will serve the pur-
pose well. It grows five to seven feet high and
can be sheared.

Privet, Quite possibly the privets would
get more votes in the hedge popularity con-
test than any other group. They make ideal
hedge plants. They are easily sheared to any
size. Practically every member of the genus
is thus used. The California privet, being
nearly evergreen in the southern states, is a
prime favorite, but unfortunately is not re-
liably hardy northward. The common privet,
Ligustrum vulgare, does well but is being
widely replaced in norther states by the bet-
ter Amur privet. The hybrid Ibolium and
the Pygmy privet make good edgings, but are
rather small for enclosures. All the privets,
to make good hedges, should be pruned regu-
larly, preferably twice a year.

Roses. There are several ways of making a
hedge of roses, depending to a large degree on
the species. The ramblers may be run on a
trellis very effectively, and not infrequently
this scheme gives excellent results in making
formal gardens. Loose unpruned hedges are
easily grown from Rugosa varieties. F. J.
Grootendorst, a hybrid is especially recom-

Enclosure 107

mended for that purpose. Low hedges, un-
sheared, may be made from the dwarf ramb-
lers or from such species as R. Carolina, All
roses are ingratiating with their flowers, but
they do not stand shearing well enough to
recommend them for formal hedges.

Spirea. Several of the hardy spireas make
fairly good hedges, the more so where strict
shearing is not desired. S. thunbergi, S.
japomca and 5. salicifolia are perhaps best for
these uses.

VIII

WALKS AND PAVINGS

ARDEN walks serve two purposes.
First, they are a practical means of
getting about; second, they are the
structural members which tie together the sev-
eral, and otherwise largely separate, units.
This unifying influence of the garden walk is
to be seen even in poorly planned places. In-
deed where a truly successful design has been
achieved through the study of a competent
artist, the satisfying feeling of integrity de-
pends largely on a system of circulation, as
the landscape architect calls it, which obvi-
ously binds each part to every other.

The location of the garden walks therefore
becomes one of the first and most exacting
problems of the garden designer. This is a
matter to which both the amateur and the pro-
fessional might well give greater care.

DESIGNING THE CIRCULATION

In the discussion of domestic garden design
(page 47) the principle has been laid down
that ''the lines of circulation will serve to con-

109

no Walks and Pavings

nect and unify the separate parts". If one of
these parts be a rectangular formal garden
this method begins to work out immediately,
for the principal structural lines — viz. major
axis and minor axes — are almost certain to be-
come the main traffic walks. Where there are
exits and entrances these will cut through the
walls of the formal garden at the most em-
phatic structural points, that is at the termini
of axes. Should the general lay-out include a
radial garden its entrances and exits and its
walks are hardly less conspicuously parts of
the structural scheme. If there be a tract of
natural woodland or other area treated in the
''natural style", this, too, while having its walks
designed on a quite different pattern, will make
make them to be nevertheless the principal
structural lines.*

There thus remains no serious difficulty
except to make the walks issuing from one
garden area connect naturally with the walk
entering the next one. This is not quite so
easy, but with ingenuity and careful study it
can usually be accomplished.

♦This structural development of the circulation in informal gardening
is fully explained in Waugh, "The Natural Style in Landscape Garden-
ing," page 74 and following.

GraSj Walk, "Hrookside." Mr. Ferruccio Vitale, Landscape Architect
Brick Walk to Front Entrance

Brick Walk with Grass Verge and Flower Border
Cement Mall, Forsyth Square, Savannah, Ga.

Walks and Pavings ill

Nothing more completely destroys all sense
of good design in any garden than to find
walks disconnected and disjointed or to see
them wandering aimlessly about with nowhere
to go and no method of getting there. And
unfortunately examples of this bewilderment
are easy to find, perhaps especially so in parks
and gardens of alleged natural style.

MATERIALS FOR WALKS

Probably the pleasantest garden walk is
over turf, pine needles or firm, dry soil. A
clean, hard trail through the woods is super-
latively agreeable both to the feet and to the
eye. Here is another point among many where
simplest things are best.

Turf walks in formal gardens, for example
in rose gardens or between beds of old-fash-
ioned flowers, are very appropriate, and turf
walks properly made and maintained will
withstand a remarkable amount of wear. To
be well made they must of course be planted
upon good soil, deeply dug, fully drained and
well enriched. They must then be sowed with
the most resistant grasses, such as the bents
and the fescues, or, in limestone regions, with

112 Walks and Pavings

bluegrass and white clover. They should be
watered in times of drought, kept clear of
moles and grubs, and mowed betimes. This
is not a convenient place for a treatise on lawn
making and maintenance, but fortunately full
information on these matters is widely avail-
able.

Yet the maker of a formal garden, and more
particularly of a house garden for constant
use, sometimes feels compelled to use more
durable materials. The simplest answer to
this problem lies in placing stepping stones in
the turf where steady traffic has begun to wear
away the grass. Smooth split stones of soft
neutral colors cleverly laid make a very pretty
pattern in the garden and are by no odds un-
pleasant in use. Yet one does sometimes see
quite unhappy stepping-stone walks — for ex-
ample those made of rough, non-splitting
stone, or those cast from cement. Some taste
in this matter, as in all other garden decisions,
is required.

Stepping stones should be set flush with the
surface of the turf so that the lawn mower
will pass over them without dulling. Some
stones in some soils will not lie smoothly and
quietly in their earthen beds, and for such

Walks and Pavings 113

some firmer foundation of sand, gravel or
concrete should be provided.

From laying stepping stones wt pass quite
naturally to the building of walks of random
flat stones or slate. Such walks may be made
distinctly beautiful as well as wholly practical,
or they may be constructed so as to be neither
beautiful nor practical. To please the eye the
stones must be of different sizes and shapes
and must match with many clever inexacti-
tudes. The walk must be comparatively nar-
row— four feet wide is perhaps the maximum.
It must be smooth. There should be some
green showing here and there through the in-
terstices, yet the walk must not be weedy nor
overgrown with grass. Yet there are many
beautiful diminutive garden plants suitable
for growing upon these walks, and their cul-
ture affords a highly eligible opportunity for
skillful gardening.

There should nearly always be a straight
edging for this walk of flags. The edging is
made preferably of the same kind of stone
turned up edgewise, and this part of the con-
struction is a bit ticklish. It is facilitated if
the whole walk is given the foundation it ought
to have, viz. gravel and drainage material

114 Walks and Pavings

solidly rolled down to a depth of 18 inches or
two feet.

BRICK WALKS

A properly made brick walk is one of the
most pleasing, both as a decorative feature of
certain formal gardens and as a practical foot-
way. Clearly the brick walk gains in appro-
priateness when it is seen in close proximity to
a brick house ; and per contra it loses its charm
when it disappears in the jungle out of sight
of buildings. On garden terraces next the
house, or used as front entrance walks, or
built in formal gardens where architectural
features are freely employed, the brick con-
struction seems fitting and harmonious.

Yet a brick walk requires most careful
handling. If it grows to be too wide, too
bright in color or too flamboyant in design —
if in short it obtrudes itself on public notice, —
it has then passed the bounds of modesty and
ought to be corrected. Brick of quiet tone
should be chosen. Some paving brick are ex-
cellent, especially those of darker color and
rough surface.

Brick may be laid in pattern, sometimes
combined with areas of cement. Simple pat-

Walks and Pavings 115

terns in quiet colors may be interesting and
wholly pleasing; but the facility with which
this pattern making leads to bizarre effects
constitutes a serious danger.

Practically without exception should the
brick walk be bordered with brick turned up
on edge. This makes still more necessary the
foundation which the brick walk ought to have
on any terms. The foundation should be 18
inches to three feet deep, depending on soil
conditions (deeper in a badly drained clay),
and should be composed of gravel, shards, cin-
ders or other drainage material heavily rolled
into place. If the bricks are to be loosely laid,
or if the walk is to bear extra heavy traffic, it
will be well to lay them in a bed of rich con-
crete, which concrete rests upon the drainage
material already specified.

OTHER TYPES OF WALKS

The terrible vogue of modern cement leads
to its use in many inappropriate connections.
Perhaps it is more vulgar and unpleasing
when used for garden walks than anywhere
else in civilization. It is sufficiently hard and
inhuman when used in cities and in front of
public buildings. (I have seen more than one

ii6 Walks and Pavings

school-ground with the whole playyard laid
down to concrete: Could anything better
typify the hard uncultivated character of our
education?) But when the cement walk
crowds in amongst the pansies, the primroses
and the four-o'clocks the limit of indecency
has been reached. Let us therefore banish the
cement walk forever from American home
gardens.

Before this catalog is ended a word should
be said however for the gravel walk. When
improperly made it is ugly enough and not at
all inviting to the feet. Yet when rightly con-
structed it is one of the best. It is one of the
most durable under severe wear, may be pleas-
ant to the pedestrian, and may also be distinctly
alluring to the fastidious eye. One easily re-
members that the world famous promenade
Unter den Linden is paved with gravel of a
peculiarly rich dull orange hue harmonizing
softly with the green of grass and foliage.

A first problem is met in finding gravel of
good color. Dull orange is perhaps the best.
Soft greenish gray is quite agreeable. Then
the gravel has to be sifted so as to place the
coarse material underneath and the finer on
the surface. Finally if the gravel does not

Good Gravel Walk, Charleston, S. C.

w

Walks and Pavings 117

carry its own binder a light dressing of lime-
stone dust or even of clay should be added.

A border of bricks on edge is often accept-
able with a gravel walk, though of course the
colors of brick and gravel must harmonize.
Edgings of dwarf box, euonymus, periwinkle,
or similar materials are highly available with
gravel walks.

PAVED AREAS

Besides the walks certain small paved areas
are occasionally required, especially in formal
gardens. These areas sometimes mark the in-
tersection of walks, they may appear as mar-
gins to pools of water, they are practical and
convenient as floors to summer houses or per-
golas, while one of the most natural adapta-
tions comes in making a small paved area
where a table and seats are to be placed. These
paved areas are practically always connected
with the system of walks and will almost in-
evitably follow the same type of construction.
If the walks are of irregular flags the paved
piazettas should be of the same; if the walks
are of brick then a brick paving will almost
necessarily be used for any such areas. Of
course there will be some exceptions. There

ii8 Walks and Pavings

are conditions, for example, where tile floors
may be adopted for fine terraces, pergolas or
garden pavilions, though tiles, especially
fancy tiles, would rarely or never be chosen
for garden walks.

These garden plazas, whatever their surface
paving, should be built upon substantial foun-
dations, meaning two feet deep of gravel and
drainage well tamped down. The paving ma-
terial may well be further fortified by bed-
ding in cement or concrete.

The wise development of these conspicuous
garden areas requires taste and a good sense
of design. They offer a first rate test to the
ambitious garden maker.

IX

SHELTER

MERICAN gardens are sadly defi-
cienc in furniture and in shelter.
These twin neglects spring from the
same source, namely from the fact that our
gardens have been designed to look at rather
than to live in. The great domestic reform
which must come, and which indeed is slowly
coming, consists in turning from the former
idea to the latter.

If one is to live in his garden there must be
both furniture and shelter. Dismissing furni-
ture to another chapter we may say at once
that in our climate shelter is particularly de-
sirable. When the sun shines it is hot, and
when the wind blows it is chilly, and as no one
prefers either to swelter in the sun or shiver in
the wind, he forsakes the garden for the house :
he turns from playing with his roses to play-
ing bridge.

THE PORCH

Quite likely he (or she) decamps to the
porch. For the porch is a good American in-

119

I20 Shelter

stitution, supplying the necessary protection
from wind and sun yet permitting still a meas-
ure of outdoor living. Indeed porch life has
become almost a specialized native institution.
It is a good institution, too, and fit to be pro-
moted. Especially if the porch fronts upon
the garden and has adequate family privacy.
If it is built upon the front of the house, jut-
ting out into the street, as public as the mail-
box on the corner, that is quite another matter.
Quite American, too, perhaps, but with a kind
of Americanism which we do not wish to en-
courage.

The porch which is built upon the private
face of the house and which forms a transition
between house and garden is a feature of do-
mestic architecture and life greatly to be
praised. It deserves further development and
still more careful study than it has yet received.
In particular does the connection between
porch and garden need to be more strongly
made. A very successful example of such
integral connection may be cited at Maxwell
Court, Rockville, Conn., where Mr. Charles
A. Piatt designed both house and garden, ty-
ing the two together quite beyond the possibil-
ity of separation. On the garden end of the

^C5?;'^'

Formal Garden Pool and Shelter, Pasadena, Calif.

Garden Pool; Shelter; Brick Walks

Shelter I2i

house is a large square glazed porch. On one
side this porch opens into the house, on the
same level, without a step up or down; on the
other side it opens into the garden on the same
level. Within this glazed enclosure are lusty
growing plants, as it were in a cool conserva-
tory; and outside are lusty growing plants in
the garden. In every way the transition from
house to porch and from porch to garden is
so obliterated that one easily forgets that there
is any difference.

When we are able therefore to make the
porch as completely a part of the garden as
it is of the house we have acquired a garden
shelter which will serve all uses in a highly
acceptable manner. In this sense, and under
such fortunate conditions, the porch is to be
regarded as a part of the garden — a garden
feature quite as much as a detached summer
house or pavilion all covered with climbing
roses or fruitful grape vines.

Perhaps the most difficult physical problem
of transition arises when the floor level of the
porch stands at a considerable elevation above
the ground level of the garden. Certainly
there ought to be a flight of steps connecting
the two ; and these ought to be wide, easy, com-

122 Shelter

fortable, inviting the traffic, that the passage
from porch to garden should be made as
nearly inevitable as possible. These steps
moreover may be made the site of some good
garden effects, with vines running on balus-
trades, or with flowers in boxes or hydrangeas
in tubs or nasturtiums in vases.

THE TEA HOUSE

In a garden of any considerable size, how-
ever, something more than a porch will be de-
sirable. A detached shelter may take the form
of a tea house or a garden pavilion. The dif-
ference is theoretical and unimportant. Per-
haps the pavilion is more classic, more orna-
mental, more fit for show, while the tea house
has imputed to it more immediate service. In
the tea house one might serve refreshments to
guests, or one might linger for a visit or a
game of cards, or one might sit by himself and
read or think or play the flute.

The garden house is sometimes called a
studio. If some one in the family has a legiti-
mate use for a studio the name is unobjection-
able and the purpose altogether pleasing. In
one garden which I visited the studio, placed
at a good distance from the house at the edge

Shelter 1 23

of a quiet wood, was fitted with a fine piano,
and here the really musical daughter studied
her music lessons. No accommodation could
be better.

A children's playhouse may be so con-
structed and equipped as to serve older mem-
bers of the family at need; and when thus
managed the playhouse may be the principal
structure in the garden.

These detached shelter houses, on account
of their size and importance, require very
careful handling. They must be scaled with
great judgment. If they are either too large
or too small they are worse than failures. The
degree of architectural development, in deco-
rative detail, must be nicely adjusted to the
other features of the garden. A very elaborate
pavilion, with Corinthian columns or rich
carvings, would overpower a small and simple
garden; or a very plain arbor would seem
poverty-stricken in a large and luxurious pro-
gram.

Garden houses of the ordinary sort will
nearly always be built of wood. There may be
turned columns, but often there will be only
plain sawed posts and railings combined with
interspaces of sawed lattice pattern. These

124

Shelter

A Garden Shelter Terminating a Principal Axis
Drawing by Sidney B. Waugh

Shelter 125

wooden structures may be painted white pro-
viding the design is positively good and pro-
viding the house requires some emphasis in
the place where it is to stand; or they may be
painted green or gray if less emphasis is de-
sired.

Almost always the garden shelter, whatever
its kind and scale, will be combined with
plenty of good horticultural materials. A
large tree will shelter and shade it ; vines will
clamber over the roof; bright flowering plants
' — geraniums, nasturtiums, poppies, — will
snuggle against the base or blossom from tubs
at the railing; or flowering shrubs may half
conceal the whole structure.

So large a feature as a garden shelter, when
used in a formal plan, will necessarily always
stand at a point of great emphasis. In a radial
plan it would always occupy the center. In
a rectangular plan it would terminate the
major axis. Practically no exceptions could
be made to this rule.

THE PERGOLA

Elsewhere in this book the opinion is re-
corded that the pergola should be used, if at
all, as a connecting feature between other

126 Shelter

architectural units. Contrary to this theory
one sees so-called pergolas used in some
American gardens as detached features, not
seldom as termini for garden axes. In such
positions what is wanted is a shelter, and the
pergola is merely an arbor or pavilion given
another physical form. But a false form, as
I am bound to believe. For in place of the
detached pergola, which is really a garden
shelter, it would be manifestly better to build
what is frankly a shelter house — a building
which can be given its own true character.

But since it is entirely possible that in the
lay-out of a rectangular garden, for example,
it may occur that buildings form the enclosure
on one or two sides, and since these buildings
may be connected by genuine pergolas, it may
work out so that the pergola will form a part
or the whole of one boundary. Thus the per-
gola might even become a terminal feature;
but inasmuch as, under the circumstances here
imagined, the pergola would run across the
end of the garden transversely to the axis, the
real terminal feature would probably be a
fountain, statue or similar figure framed in a
single bent of the pergola. In short the per-
gola would not be a detached feature, nor

Shelter 127

would it be used as a terminus for an axis,
differing thus in two highly essential points
from the arrangement herewith dispraised.

OTHER FORMS OF SHELTER

One of the nattiest pieces of furniture that
ever strayed into a little garden is the parti-
colored garden umbrella. With its stripes of
green and crimson it gives a splash of color
which can fairly compete with the Baltimore
oriole in the elm tree. Such a sunshade well
placed is very effective pictorially, and when
it shades a small table and four chairs it offers
the desired facilities for social meeting. Here
we can have our tea and cakes; here we may
have our afternoon committee meeting; here
we may read and watch the baby playing on
the grass. These garden umbrellas are very
practical, not very expensive and ought to be
more popular.

In our native gardens protection from wind
is required oftener and more urgently than
shade from the sun. In many parts of our
noble country where well civilized people live
it is hardly possible to grow roses or holly-
hocks until the wind is broken. A competent
windbreak is a necessity in many regions and

128 Shelter

a real help to practical gardening everywhere.
In the midwestern prairie states where the
wind has its full head the universal necessity
of windbreaks is generally recognized. Of
course in thickly built towns one house and
garage and tree planting protect the next.
Even so some large growing trees or thick
hedge is perhaps needed on the north and west.
In the country every well kept farm has its
large windbreak. This usually consists of a
belt of trees, preferably deciduous species
mixed with evergreens and faced with hardy
shrubs.

In the small home garden where wind con-
ditions are less severe a good high hedge may
prove the best protection. A garden wall
serves other purposes, but it is a highly suc-
cessful shield against wind, and in the early
spring days or late autumn one may sit close
against the sunny lee of such a wall and enjoy
many blessed hours of garden comfort which
elsewise would have to be spent in the house.
Neither is it to be forgotten that the warm
south front of this wall is the place where the
first scillas and grape hyacinths break the glad
news of spring.

When the garden is thus fully sheltered the

Shelter 129

season of garden pleasures is lengthened at
least two months — one month at each end of
the year. And when the garden is properly
sheltered and furnished the hours of its daily
use are multiplied. The ideal for the garden
is to make it an integral part of the home, to
use it daily and almost hourly, and to enjoy
it at all times. When this ideal is clearly per-
ceived— when it has fully displaced the false
conception of the garden as merely a spectacle
to be exhibited to stray visitors — then we shall
naturally turn to such simple conveniences as
chairs and tables and shelters from the un-
friendly wind and the too friendly sun.

X

TABLES AND CHAIRS

I HEN the garden becomes a genuine
part of the home — a place to live in
rather than a curiosity to be looked
at — furnishings for use become a prime neces-
sity. Tables and chairs are the most necessary
of such furnishings.

I shall always remember with pleasure the
home garden of Willy Lange near Berlin. (It
was he who wrote the "Gartengestaltung," one
of the best modern books on garden design.)
His small suburban home grounds, covering
about two acres, included seven stations at
which seats were provided, giving their in-
vitation to linger and enjoy the picture. And
at five of these seven places tables were also
standing, where one's book could be laid
down, where a game of pinochle might be
played, or, more especially, where the after-
noon guest would visit over a cup of coffee
and a plate of cookies.

In our American home gardens we greatly
need just that sort of furnishings. We ought
to loaf and live more in those outdoor rooms ;

131

132 Tables and Chairs

we ought to work and play there; we ought to
entertain our choicest friends there. We
ought to read and play cards in the garden,
and haply sometimes to take an hour there for
thinking — one of the almost forgotten luxur-
ies. We ought often to eat there, either as a
family or with our guests. Yet these most de-
sirable things simply can't be done in an un-
furnished garden. Tables and chairs are in-
dispensable.

There is, of course, the possibility of over-
furnishing a garden, just as some persons over-
stock their houses; but nowhere in America
are we yet in sight of this danger.

POINTS OF VANTAGE

If now we inquire where in the garden these
tables and chairs are to be disposed a fairly
definite answer is ready. We have concluded
(Chapter III) that the practical development
of the home grounds will lead to a subdivision
of spaces into small enclosed rectangles, each
of which is to be treated as a garden unit. The
most available treatment for the principal gar-
den will perhaps follow the rectangular for-
mula (Chapter II). In this case the garden
will have a major and a minor axis ; and at the

HuMt-M.AUfc C H.VlKa AND TABLE

Chairs and Table Terminating Axis

Tables and Chairs 133

termini of these axes are highly eligible points
for seats or for tables or for both. Of course
tables and chairs will not be wanted for all
four termini in any garden — seldom for more
than one; — but at the most convenient ter-
minus these objects will serve two highly im-
portant purposes; first they will complete the
structural requirement of terminating the axis,
and second they will offer an advantageous
point from which to view the garden.

In a garden designed according to the radial
formula (Chapter IV) seats and a table may
be placed at the center, especially if the garden
is large and elaborate enough to justify a con-
siderable pavilion at the center. It is hardly
probable that a table with seats would fit at any
other point in a radial garden ; but single seats
of appropriate design might well be placed at
the peripheral termini of radial walks.

In less formal gardens or upon wholly in-
formal lawns tables and seats may still be in-
troduced if they are placed with due taste.
Under a shady tree, somewhat at one side, is
a spot worth considering. Or at a point of
commanding outlook, where also some shade
ought to be provided. And it ought to be
noted just here, that when fine wide outlooks

134 Tables and Chairs

are available to the home it is better to exhibit
them from the most naturalistic portion of the
grounds rather than from the formal garden.
It may be regarded further as a good prin-
)ciple of landscape architecture that tables and
seats, when provided primarily for use rather
than for decorative purposes, should be placed
at nodal points along the lines of circulation,
but preferably just at one side — never really
interrupting the walk, but merely inviting the
wayfarer to turn aside and rest and enjoy the
prospect. For nearly always should such a
seat be placed where there is something of spe-
cial beauty to be enjoyed. Indeed this is the
landscape architect's favorite means of calling
attention to his best pictures, either within or
without the garden.

GARDEN SEATS

Seats may be made or bought in great
variety. Roughly classified there are, first,
benches without backs, made of marble or
stone, highly ornamental but impracticable
for sitting purposes; second, benches with
backs, made preferably of wood, and very satis-
factory in use; and third, chairs of various
manufacture.

Tables and Chairs 135

Wood is by all odds the most pleasing ma-
terial for garden chairs. Simple '"colonial"
designs are possibly best, though everything
depends on where the chairs are to be placed.
These garden chairs may be painted white if
they are to serve as ornamental features in the
garden ; or they may be painted gray or dark
green if something less conspicuous is desired.
In any case they will need repainting every
winter, since the exposure to sun and rain soon
tells upon wood work.

"Rustic" chairs, and other "rustic" furni-
ture, made of crooked roots or bent wood with
the bark on, have been used to some extent and
are still offered by active purveyors along the
main motor routes. The good taste of such
furnishings may be questioned. If these fan-
tastic "rustic" conceptions are fit in any home
yard it certainly is not in the formal garden.

Simple light chairs of iron — particularly
those of strap-iron — are sometimes found
which are so practical and so inconspicuous,
when properly painted, as to be admissible in
some retired parts of almost any garden. For
entertaining considerable parties in the gar-
den— at bridge, or for garden teas, receptions,
etc. — simple folding wooden chairs are best.

136 Tables and Chairs

These are brought out on demand and are
promptly put away again. Perhaps it is just
as well to rent them when required.

Benches of marble or of artificial stone are
of great value as ornamental features in a gar-
den and should be freely introduced in formal
plans in spite of the fact that they are not very
comfortable in use. As their purpose is orna-
mental rather than practical it is essential that
each piece shall be well-designed, of good pro-
portions, properly scaled to the position it is
to occupy, and the decorations, if any, re-
strained and appropriate. Benches of splen-
did construction and excellent design are now
available from several American manufac-
turers; and some very decent pieces may be
bought from the stocks of the larger depart-
ment stores.

GARDEN TABLES

Tables are placed in gardens for ornament,
for use, or for both. Purely decorative tables
are not very common; yet one may now and
then find in some well-appointed place a rich
and admirable table of carved marble which
adds its touch of incontestable dignity to the
luxurious garden. An occasional fine piece

Tables and Chairs 137

of this sort is purchasable in the shops dealing
in European antiques, and a few rather good
ones have been manufactured in America.
Still we would have to put such a table down
as a rarity; and we might say moreover that
this is one of the elegancies which even a high-
class American garden could spare.

Tables for use are quite another matter, and
of course there is no objection to making a
useful table also beautiful. Only the decora-
tive results required in the average garden can
usually be secured more effectively by other
means.

Wood is the first material to be considered
for garden tables — perhaps indeed for all
kinds of garden construction. Good plain,
well designed, solidly constructed wooden ta-
bles are always serviceable and good looking.

Once more it may be useful to insert a cau-
tion against grotesque "rustic" furniture and
all other fads and freaks.

GARDEN HOUSEKEEPING

Tables, chairs and other furniture presup-
pose some housekeeping. Such things have to
be kept in repair. The exposures incident to
an outdoor life bring wear and accident to all.

138 Tables and Chairs

'I

Even a cement bench sometimes suffers dam-
age and has to be restored. Wooden furniture
ought to be repainted annually during the
winter vacation.

But more than this is required. Tables and
chairs ought to be kept clean; and this is a
real chore in garden maintenance. Rain and
blowing dust and roosting birds account for
the fact that a garden seat is always a bit
grimy; and when our pretty visitor comes to
our garden party all sweetly set out in her
most delicate and frilly garden dress it will
not do to let her spoil it all by sitting in a
soiled chair or eating from a muddy table.
In fact there ought to be kept handy in every
garden a stiff brush and a breadth of strong
cloth wherewith to rub off chairs and tables
whenever they are to be used. Even though
they are in daily requisition such housekeep-
ing is not too nice. No one thinks it too
troublesome to dust the furniture within the
house every day, or nearly that; and plainly
the tables, chairs and benches out in the gar-
den are much more exposed to soil.

Finally it is to be expected that the demand
for good garden furniture, already established
and steadily growing, will encourage constant

Tables and Chairs 139

improvement in manufacture and design.
Every home-maker who loves and tends his
own garden should seek the best he can afford,
either by making it himself or by patronizing
the really good craftsmen. These details of
good design and good construction in garden
furniture might well engage more and more
attention on the part of professional landscape
architects.

XI

PLASTIC FIGURES

S TALL spreading trees with their
shadows lying over rich green lawns
are the very life of the naturalistic
garden, so fountains and statuary are the nat-
ural and all but necessary organs of the formal
garden. Along with fountains and statuary
are to be considered bird-baths, sun-dials, gaz-
ing globes and all similar features which
please the eye with their plastic forms.

Unfortunately all plastic art remains yet
comparatively undeveloped in America. It
ought to be as easy to buy a good garden
Hermes as to buy a good copy of a classic
painting and hardly more expensive. And it
ought to be as convenient to find a practicing
sculptor to produce a pretty fountain as to
engage a painter for a portrait of Madame.
But it isn't. Perhaps some day it will be if
garden lovers and landscape architects keep
up a demand for good plastic figures.

Even as matters now stand, the quest is not,

however, hopeless, either for fresh and origi-

141

142 Plastic Figures

nal works or for good stock designs. Excel-
lent small pieces, especially garden statuary,
may be had of a few good American dealers.

As to materials we have a choice lying
mainly between marble, artificial stone, lime-
stone, terra cotta, bronze with a smaller possi-
bility of using carved wood. Much objection
has been made to marble on the ground that
it will not support the rigors of the American
climate. This criticism has in it considerable
truth, yet fine marbles are successfully used
in a few gardens where adequate care is as-
sured. Perhaps terra cotta and artificial stone
may be looked upon as the most generally
desirable. Both materials are available in re-
fined and beautiful designs for bird baths, sun
dials, vases and some simple statuary. Either
material may be worked to order quite success-
fully without extraordinary expense.

Sculptured limestone or granite may be had
to order, as well as many native marbles. How
freely available these materials are may be
seen by examining the modern monuments
erected in any prosperous cemetery. Here the
curious visitor will find many good materials
worked with great skill and sometimes with
taste. While it may seem a hazardous leap

o

Plastic Figures 143

from cemeteries to domestic gardens it would
appear to be wholly feasible for the gardener
to employ the same resources so cleverly
drawn upon by the cemetery superintendent.

Bronze has its own uses. For memorial
sculpture of the best sort it is unsurpassed.
Small figures or groups are sometimes made
of this material for garden use ; and certainly
when rightly designed and executed they give
the garden an air of great distinction. The
expense is comparatively large.

Carved wood has considerable possibilities
and should be highly appropriate for garden
use. Nevertheless it is practically unknown
in America.

IDEALS OF DESIGN

Everything depends on good design — or
nearly everything. Experience is a bit dis-
heartening at this point, for it shows us that
fountains and statuary, especially in public
gardens in America, are often stupid and
meaningless, sometimes atrocious, and only
now and then really admirable and full of
poetry. Yet when the plastic art does conquer
all difficulties and achieve its natural and com-
plete success the results are so delightful that

1 44 Plastic Figures

we must all try and try again, hoping for an
increasing percentage of successes.

What constitutes good design? This cen-
tral question could hardly be answered in a
whole book on sculpture; in a book on land-
scape architecture only the most sketchy con-
sideration can be given it. Plainly we do not
want in American gardens any of the heavy
coarse figures seen so numerously in the older
Italian gardens and copied so stupidly into
more modern works in France and Germany,
sometimes even in England. Nor does any sane
American want any of the elaborate roccoco
work from later Italian and French patterns.
It is to be gravely doubted, furthermore,
whether the rather tame or inane models of
the Victorian period in England would yield
a thrill of joy to any home-maker of the pres-
ent hour in Chicago or Galveston. In fact we
find ourselves in this matter almost bereft of
acceptable models from the past.

Fortunately the present is not altogether
unfruitful. Very modern sculptors in Europe
and America are doing some things which
appeal strongly to our own feelings. Ameri-
can work seems to lean toward light and
fanciful figures done in free and graceful

Plastic Figures 145

strokes with a view to naturalistic interpreta-
tion, such as fauns, children, Indians, animal
figures, in playful poses. German, Russian,
Danish and Swedish sculptors lean more to-
ward symbolic figures, with more rigorous
lines and less playful attitudes. Either method
may be successful, but it may be suggested
that the symbolic figures have not had so much
attention in this country as they deserve.
There are good grounds for feeling that sim-
pler symbolism is likely to be more effective in
garden sculpture than too much realism.

SUN DIALS

Highly desirable as sculptured fountains
and statuary groups are in American land-
scape arqhitecture, the average citizen will
find himself much more interested, for his own
garden, in such simple things as sun dials and
bird baths. These are available to practically
everybody. They ought to be much more
commonly employed.

Many excellent designs are at hand in terra
cotta, artificial stone or cement. Nor is it be-
yond the craftsmanship of a certain number
of gardeners to make their own bird baths.
There is, of course, a personality in home-made

146 Plastic Figures

work and a rich tingle of enjoyment which no
purchased ornament can give.

The sun dial may be placed at the terminus
of almost any garden axis, providing the axis
is strong enough to warrant it and the sun
dial strong enough for its position. Or it may
become the central feature in a small radial
garden. Conventionally it is quite the correct
figure for the center of a rose garden. Natur-
ally it will be impracticable, however, to place
the sun dial at the southern terminus of a gar-
den axis, since the sunlight is not likely to fall
upon that spot, at least not in the open un-
broken way in which it should fall on the
northern side of the garden.

Greater facility is found in placing the sun
dial in the fact that it may vary so easily in size.
A large, monumental figure 30 feet tall may be
designed for a large space, or a little pedestal
three feet high may answer for close quarters.
The design may be very elaborate or very
simple. The materials may be rich or homely.
This latitude in design is very grateful to the
landscape architect but it follows that failure
lies near to the man or woman who has any
deficiency in taste.

How varied the styles in sun dials are will

Plastic Figures 147

be appreciated best by the reader of Mrs.
Earle's book.* Anyone who essays to design
a dial for his own grounds should give careful
study to all available models, as well as to the
mathematics of gnomons and azimuths.

BIRD BATHS

Even more practicable, and to the common
taste more desirable, is the bird bath. To have
birds always about the house betimes nesting
and singing and making themselves quite at
home, is a delight against which only the most
hard-boiled sinners are proof. Now for the
attraction of birds, water is a first necessity,
more important even than bird houses and
food plants.

Yet the bird bath is to be considered quite
as much for the decorative effect which it gives
in the garden design. In a simple, graceful
and dignified form and in the rich colors of
good terra cotta or of artificial stone, it greatly
pleases the eye, contrasting richly with the
green of foliage or with the bright colors of
flowers.

Locations appropriate for a sun dial are,

♦Earle, "Sun Dials and Roses of Yesterday," New York, 1902.

148 Plastic Figures

generally speaking, best also for a bird bath.
That is the decorative figure of the bird bath
can be employed to terminate an axis or to be-
come the central feature of a small circular
garden. Of course there is always the problem
of scale never to be forgotten.

Very satisfactory bird baths are to be found
in the market. They can be bought through
any good florist, from some department stores,
or any landscape architect can find them for
his clients. At the same time the greater de-
light of owning an exclusive and personal
work of art should be kept in mind. Perhaps
the cost is not too great, and then it will be
much better to employ the landscape architect
or the sculptor to design an original bird bath.
A certain number of garden amateurs will
indeed be able and deeply interested to design
and construct their own.

GAZING GLOBES

Another item of decorative furniture quite
legitimate in the formal garden is the gazing
globe. The globe is nearly always set on a
simple pedestal, and so presents substantially
the same figure as a small sun dial. It may

Grouping in Classical Style, Philadelphia

Garden of Mr. Myron Hunt, Pasadena, Calif.
Memorial, The Paseo, Kansas City. Mr. George E. Kessler, Landscape

Architect

Plastic Figures 149

tions in the garden. Perhaps its most natural
setting is at the center of a small radial garden.
Because it can not be given any large bulk it
will hardly serve in a large space, though it
might possibly terminate a minor axis, or
might be used in combination with other plas-
tic figures, or with a rose trellis or some other
feature to build up a terminal group.

Gazing globes in various sizes may be
bought, with or without pedestals, from florists
or from department stores. In general the
simplest pedestals are best, though this part
of the figure should have sufficient mass to
justify the rather conspicuous position to
which it is chosen.

No strong fashion for gazing globes has set
in in America, and perhaps it is just as well
that this rather trivial garden trick should not
be unduly popularized.

VASES AND TUBS

At first mention it would seem that a vase
would be highly appropriate to the garden.
The typical garden vase, however, does not
rely on its utility for its place in the picture,
but wholly on its mass, its graceful form and

150 Plastic Figures

its pleasing color. Of course vases are some-
times used for the growing of hydrangeas, ger-
aniums, sheared box, bays or other horticul-
tural material, but such use is the exception
rather than the rule. A vase, to find a place in
a good formal garden, should have a certain
size, say sixteen inches high or more ; it should
have a good color, reds and soft clay colors
being best ; and it should above all else have a
figure which delights the eye.

Vases meeting these specifications are made
of terra cotta, pottery, artificial stone, con-
crete, or sometimes of other materials. Very
attractive designs are to be found in the
markets.

A large vase might have sufficient mass to
serve as the terminus of a minor axis in a small
garden, especially if given a suitable elevation
upon a good pedestal. It might even answer
all requirements as a central figure in a quite
small radial design. But the customary prac-
tise of placing vases generally on steps, at the
sides of gates, or at the corners of pools is per-
fectly sound. Such locations are undoubtedly
first to be considered.

While the garden vase is primarily a decora-
tive unit the garden tub is first of all utilitarian.

Plastic Figures 151

The tub, usually made of wood, is used to hold
sheared bay or box trees, to grow hydrangeas
or other showy shrubs, or even tender her-
baceous flowering plants. Of course orange
trees, lemons, palms, agaves and similar plants
are often tubbed for the gardens of Italy or
Spain, or for those gardens in the American
subtropics which flourish upon Spanish mo-
tives.

Every garden tub should be of good mass.
It should have proper scale. It should not be
too big, looking coarse and ugly; nor should
it be too small, seeming ineffectual or useless.
It should be of good design. Some tubs are
much better than others in this respect. It
should be painted an agreeable color. This
color will nearly always be green or neutral,
the idea being to make the tub inconspicuous
— quite the contrary from the treatment of the
garden vase.

Tubs and vases, along with much other gar-
den furniture, will be moved out of all north-
ern gardens in winter. The plants contained,
if any, will receive their appropriate horti-
cultural care, while the tubs will be repaired
and given a fresh coat of paint.

152 Plastic Figures

OTHER FEATURES

Several other kinds of furniture have much
the same purpose in the garden as statuary and
sun dials. In effect they are plastic figures.
Their decorative value lies in the mass which
their figures show to the eye. For example,
a bird house may be quite useless to the birds
but its mass and color may make it highly
pleasing to the human eye. Pergolas and gar-
den shelters are not infrequently built upon
much the same idea, that is for the decorative
effect of their mass rather than for their purely
practical uses.

XII

WATER

T HAS long been a tenet in all systems
of landscape architecture that every
garden should include some water.
Some schools of practice — as, for example,
the Japanese — have held more firmly to this
prescription than others; but certainly the
commanding value of water is as obvious in
formal gardening as it can be in any style or
mode. Special consideration should be given
to water in designing a garden in the full for-
mal manner of the rectangular formula.

In formal gardens water may appear m a
variety of forms, the more usual being (a)
pools or basins with geometrical margins,
(b) playing fountains, (c) canals, or, at the
minimum, in (d) bird baths.

FORMAL POOLS

A garden pool may be of almost any size or
form, though very simple forms are best. At
one extreme would be the little pool, perhaps
only 3x4 feet in size, in which a few gold fish
play and a dwarf nymphaea grows. At the

153

154

IF a t e r

The Water Mirror
Comprising the Principal Feature of the Garden

Other extreme one may imagine a large sheet
of water occupying practically the whole of
k formal garden and highly elaborated along
its borders and in its furniture. The Basin of
Appollo in the gardens at Versailles may be
cited as an example ; or the large interior basin
on the grounds of the Columbian Exposition
in Chicago in 1893.

Many well appointed gardens of the present
day include an outdoor swimming pool.*

* For the practical construction of swimming pools see A. D. Taylor
in Landscape Architecture. For working details in the construction of
garden pools see A. D. Taylor in House Beautiful 56:353, Oct., 1924.

Water 155

Nine times out of ten or oftener this feature
should be made part of a formal treatment con-
stituting, in the whole, a garden of the rectang-
ular pattern.

The pool may be placed at the center of the
garden, or it may be placed toward one end of
the main axis. In the latter case the plan
should be so contrived that the terminal ob-
ject at that end of the main axis is reflected
from the surface of the water. The terminal
feature should then be strong of outline and
white in color in order to give a bold reflection.
Mutli-colored objects of intricate form are apt
to be lost in such a mirror.

The plan is not untried of placing four
homologous sheets of water in the four quad-
rants of a formal garden. This makes neces-
sary a fairly elaborate design; but if well ex-
ecuted the result may be very gracious.

The garden pool need not be deep. Exi-
gencies of construction rather suggest making
it shallow. Eighteen inches or two feet would
be ample in most cases. In order to enhance
the mirroring effect of the water the bottom of
the pool should be of quite dark colored mate-
rial— perhaps of a layer of cement heavily
charged with lampblack.

156 Water

Statuary and sculptured fountains may be
used most happily with reflecting pools, but it
is important then to plan these groups so that
the figures appear at the ends of structural axes
and not within the central areas of the garden.

With very rare exceptions the garden pool
will gain greatly in beauty if there are some
plants growing in it. But not too many, for
overplanting is dangerously easy at this point.
And there should not be too many species. A
jumble of ten or a dozen different sorts will
ruin the best pool in the world.

A stock of gold fish may be kept in any good
pool, especially if the water is constantly re-
newed. They are interesting and ornamental
and moreover they devour the mosquito larvae,
thus rendering a special public service.

In the northern states gold fish and plants
will have to be removed and the water drawn
off from garden pools each autumn before
heavy freezing weather arrives.

FOUNTAINS

One who visits Rome, Luzern or some other
Old World cities will be fascinated by the
fountains. In every garden and on every street
corner he finds them; and besides the merry

Wall Fountain", Maxwell Court. Mr. Charles A. Piatt, Architect

Garden Fountain, Grosvenor Garden, Amherst, Mass.

Water 157

tinkle of the falling water he is bound to ad-
mire the sculptured figures. While they are
not all masterpieces a great many of them are
homely, indigenous and delightful. The visi-
tor is sure to feel that it would be pleasant to
have more fountains in America. Especially
in formal gardens are they highly desirable.

A fountain, of course, may be almost any-
thing. It may be a mere jet of water thrown
up by a spray nozzle, or it may be a sculptured
group as elaborate as a political platform.
The water may be thrown high in air, or it
may be permitted to tinkle, slowly and music-
ally, into its little basin. Good simple sculp-
ture, depicting either human or conventional
figures, is most desirable. Unfortunately good
sculpture is hard to find in America, especially
at a price which the average householder can
afford to pay. Quantity production of plastic
figures to be purveyed through the department
stores offers no alluring promise. If the de-
mand were brisk enough suitable sculpture
might be produced by good artists so that any
family in comfortable circumstances could
have its own. Sculpture is not essentially
harder to produce than oil paintings, but thou-
sands of people who feel that they could not

IS8

Water

Pool Used with Principal Terminus
Design and Drawing by Sidney B. Waugh

Water 159

keep house without two or three good paint-
ings would never consider the purchase of an
original piece of scuplture for the garden. In
this matter let us hope for better times coming.

CANALS

In some of the ever famous gardens of Italy
water appears to good advantage in canals.
Some of these are built on a steep gradient so
that the water comes rushing and gurgling
down, sometimes pealing over formal cas-
cades; sometimes they are built on the level, or
so nearly level that there is hardly a perceptible
current.

In any case the canal forms a strong and
conspicuous line in the garden — so conspicu-
ous indeed that it can hardly be placed any-
where but on the major axis line.

OTHER WATER FEATURES

One of the most strictly fashionable items
in the modern garden is a bird bath. Certainly
nothing can be said against it. Such a dainty
feature, however, requires to be handled with
considerable taste. The bird-bath should first
of all be an object of indisputable beauty. It
should be dignified and pleasant to the eyes.

1 6o Water

not heavy, grotesque or over-drawn. If the
garden owner can afford a small piece of orig-
inal sculpture it may well combine here with
the bird-bath. But original works of art are
not necessary. The current fashion has called
into the market many ready-made bird-baths of
first rate design, executed in good materials,
mainly artificial stone and terra cotta. It is
so easy to buy a good bird-bath that no excuse
can be accepted for a poor one.

Next there is the question of situation to be
settled. Now the bird-bath, like any other
article of stone or terra cotta, fits more snugly
into the formal garden than into the woods;
and the birds themselves, having no prejudice
in the matter, will come to one garden as
readily as another. A good bird-bath makes a
very appropriate feature for the center of a
small and simple radial garden, as, for ex-
ample, in a rose-knot. Or it may be made
quite the thing at the terminus of a minor axis
in a rectangular garden plan.

A bird-bath set out in a detached position
on an open lawn, without clear reference to
other parts of a planned whole, is simply a
stray piece of furniture. The birds may be
entirely satisfied with it, but no human mind

Water i6i

which cares for logical design can take any
pleasure in it.

Much depends on scale always; that is on
good proportions. The bird-bath is especially
vulnerable to nice judgment at this point. If
it is too small, or set too low for the position to
which it is assigned it looks weak. If it is too
large or too tall it will seem out of place;
though mistakes in this direction are naturally
rare.

Informal pools are sometimes attempted,
but are obviously unsuitable to formal gar-
dens. For reasons discussed elsewhere a wide
outlook over ocean or lake, while always de-
lightful, is not properly reckoned into the for-
mal garden. It should be used to the fullest
possibility but the view should be developed
from some other part of the grounds. In like
manner running water in a natural or natural-
istic brook-bed is to be treated as a part of the
wild or natural garden, not as a feature of any
formal garden. Running water more or less
formalized in canals, on the other hand, may
be used to emphatic advantage in a formal
plan.

1 62 IV at e r

PLANT MOTIVES

Certain plants are especially adapted to use
with water; others are somewhat convention-
ally associated with pools or flowing streams.
Iris, for example. Now iris will thrive quite
as well in any good sunny garden as at the
edge of a pond, yet there appears to be a spe-
cial psychological satisfaction in tying the two
together.

One caution needs to be reiterated, namely,
that overplanting should be rigorously avoid-
ed. Overplanting is a sin anywhere, but
when perpetrated upon a pretty mirror of
water it becomes a crime.

If elaborate planting of large basins be-
comes necessary then special study should be
given the whole fascinating subject of aquatic
plants. Meanwhile the following list includes
the more popular and available kinds.

Acorus calamus/^ Sweet flag will grow in
moist or shallow water.

Agapanthus umbellatus, African lily, ro-
bust, rather tall plant with pale blue flowers
in umbels, usually grown in tubs ; suitable and

* The nomenclature here given, both latin and vernacular names, is
that of "Standardized Plant Names," Salem, Mass., 1923.

IIPHP..>iiiii.iyPiyipi I lliapiiptpil!!""^

Marble Fountain with Sculpture

Water 163

very decorative for the borders of pools and
fountains.

Alisma plantago-aquatica. Water plantain,
sometimes recommended, may be used in large
pools, but is better for ponds.

Aponogenton distachyus, Cape pond-weed,
is highly recommended by Mr. Wm. Tricker
for pool planting.

Arundoy Reed. These are very popular, es-
pecially the well-known A. donax, growing
six to ten feet tall, which is rather too large for
formal gardens, unless in quite large quarters.

Butomus umbellatus, Flowering rush, is a
hardy perennial aquatic of easy culture.

Calla palustris. Water arum (not Calla
lily), is a small perennial aquatic very well
suited to use in formal pools.

C alt ha palustris, The homely Marsh mari-
gold, may be freely planted along formal
canals and even at the margins of pools, espe-
cially if rather lush plantings are intended.

CareXy Sedge. Many of the sedges are use-
ful in water gardening. The one chiefly used
by florists and nurserymen is C, morrowi.

Cyperus, Sedge. Very satisfactory for aquat-
ic uses. C. papyrus, the papyrus of Egypt,
growing four to six feet high, is often used.

1 64 Water

as is C, alternifolius, the umbrella sedge. Sev-
eral other species are in cultivation.

Epilobium hirsutum, Hairy willow weed,
is an old-time garden flower, now somewhat
rare, but suitable for use along water margins ;
grows two to four feet high, flowers showy.

Filipendula ulmaria, European meadow-
sweet, sometimes called an herbaceous spirea,
is a delightful hardy plant well fitted to show
its best at the edge of a formal pool or canal.

Hemerocallisy The Day lilies, all show to
good advantage when planted near pools,
fountains or canals of water, and may be freely
used for such plantings in formal gardens.
The roots should be set high enough above the
water level to get good drainage, and an
abundance of rich soil is desirable.

Hippurius vulgaris is mentioned in Bailey*S
Cyclopedia as producing "an attractive effect
with the simple shoots standing above the
water in ponds".

Irises of many kinds are used in connection
with water gardening, though most species,
including the Japanese iris, are more effect-
ively cultivated on dry land. The best water
plant in the genus for use in the United States
is perhaps /. pseudo-acorus, with lusty foliage

Water 1 65

and tender yellow flowers. But several of the
more popular species, including Japanese,
German, Spanish and Siberian iris, may be
used along the margins of pools and fountains.
They should be set up out of the water, how-
ever, where the rhizomes will get good drain-
age and sun.

Kniphojia, the Torch lilies, or "Red-hot
poker plants", are used in sunny gardens and
in California are much affected for Spanish or
''mission" gardens amidst arid surroundings,
yet several of them may be used freely along
the margins of pools or canals in formal gar-
dens, and for such plantings are quite desir-
able.

Lobelia cardinalis, Cardinal flower; a very
wild native species, but not difficult to culti-
vate except that it is not permanent and must
be often renewed from seed. It is so striking
in its autumn flowering that one might take
considerable pains to grow a few plants be-
side his garden pool, or more particularly be-
side a flag-bordered canal.

Lysmachia, Loosestrife. Several species
suited to shores of ponds or running water and
to some extent adaptable to the requirements
of formal water pieces.

i66 Water

Ly thrum s all c aria, The Purple loosestrife,
is a hardy and popular native plant (especially
the var. roseum, which is much better) for
planting by ponds and slow streams. It may
also be used freely in formal gardens.

Menyanthes trifoliata, Bogbean, is de-
scribed by Bailey in the Cyclopedia as "a very
interesting bog plant, growing often in shal-
low water". It is a native of North America
and grows a foot and a half high.

N ymphaea, Water lily. These beautiful
plants are well known, but not well enough.
The hardy native species and varieties are
everywhere admired. There are now offered
by nurserymen dozens of beautiful hybrids,
many of which are wholly practicable in culti-
vation, others being available to good gar-
deners who are willing to take necessary pains.
The Pygmy water lily (TV. tetragonal may be
particularly recommended for small pools and
fountain basins.

Phalaris arundinacea, Reed canary grass, is
admired by many. The striped variety (var.
picta) is too popular, being rather a freak.

Polygonum. The polygonums are mostly
quite effective for waterside planting; but on
account of their rank growth and coarse foli-

Water ity

age are better for wild garden uses than for
formal surroundings.

Sagittaria, Arrowhead, several species,
nearly all native to shallow ponds, hardy and
quite ornamental, suitable for planting in
pools. S. subulata is a small species desirable
for small pools. S. natans is also to be recom-
mended.

Sc'irpus, the ancient Bulrush, perhaps the
very kind where Moses had his nursery.
Suitable for water gardens; several species
and varieties in the horticultural trade, espe-
cially varieties of S. lacustris, including the
popular but gaudy and objectionable striped
var. zehrina,

Tritonia {Montbretia) in several species
and horticultural varieties gives a delightful
effect when planted along the margins of small
pools.

Typha lati folia. Cattail, a common marsh
plant growing 4-6 ft. high but excellent for
large pools.

Vallota purpurea, Scarborough lily, often
grown in pots for a porch ornament, may be
much better employed in pots or tubs for the
borders of pools or fountains and in formal
gardening generally.

i68 Water

Veratrum, False hellebore, or Indian poke,
grows naturally in swampy places and makes
a good ornamental plant, but is not so well
adapted to the requirements of formal garden-
ing. Still some of the species may be used
occasionally if wisely handled.

Veronica longtfolia^ the Beach Speedwell,
2 ft. tall, is effective planted at the margins
of pools or fountains. Other species of Ver-
onica may also be used.

XIII

ROSES AND FLOWER BEDS

HE queen of flowers" has a partic-
ular claim upon the formal gar-
den. Long association with Per-
sian seraglios, with the gardens of ancient
Greece and with the magnificent formal gar-
dens of old Italy, with the set and sheltered gar-
dens of Mother England, with the Georgian
culture of colonial America and with all the
poetry and tradition of our language lifts the
rose quite out of the company of common
flowers, however lovely, and teaches us to
think of them in different terms and with a
different background. With the background,
in short, of the formal garden. So when a
modern American author, inspired to the mak-
ing of a good garden book, began to write of
roses, she called her essay "Sun-Dials and
Roses of Yesterday".* The sun-dial, of course,
stands for the formal garden, thus giving us
together the approved combination of roses
and formal gardens with the tradition of the
poetic past.

♦Earle, "Sun Dials and Roses of Yesterday," New York, 1902.

169

170 Roses and Flower Beds

But this association is supported by more
than poetry and tradition. Practical horti-
culture tends to the same decision. For the
roses, with the exception of well-known hardy
species, do not take at all to the wild garden
or the open border. They have to be grown in
good set beds, well dug, with drainage under-
neath and timely culture above. And because
tea roses and hybrid teas, and all their kin and
progeny, have to be planted in beds for these
merely practical reasons the rose garden be-
comes more or less of a formal feature from
the start.

Whether, therefore, we intend to indulge
ourselves with a mere knot of roses — a wistful
dozen plants, — or whether we begin to plant
a whole acre to make a stunning show in the
public park, we still look to the formal garden
for our planting and to the principles of sym-
metrical design for our ground plan. If one
will look at the plans of existing rose gardens
in America,* such as the famous one in Eliza-
beth Park, Hartford, the one in Lyndale Park,
Minneapolis, designed by Mr. Theodore
Wirth, the one in the Missouri Botanical Gar-
den, St. Louis, designed by Mr. John Noyes,

* See the American Rose Annual for 1918, Harrisburg.

' , .; 3"': t

m, :

'myM.

O

O

<t".V -<»M«

'"'•'44;v

o

Roses and Flower Bed

171

the one in Garfield Park, Chicago, done by
Mr. Jens Jensen, he will see that this necessity
for formal design has been always recognized.

In the chapter on radial design the opinion
is offered that this radial pattern is especially
suited to the rose garden. It is the formula
adopted, in fact, in Elizabeth Park and in the
Missouri Bontanical Garden, while in Gar-
field Park Mr. Jensen used a curious and very
interesting combination of the rectangular
formula with the radial. The circular rose
garden, sometimes reduced to a mere round
— or half-round — rose-bed, was a feature of
many of the garden plans in Elizabethan and
Georgian times in England and America.
The idea, while never lost, is worth a revival
for present use.

To plan a formal rose garden is to raise
immediately the question of enclosure. For
good effect enclosure is essential. Doubtless
persons not committed to any formula will
hardly feel the compelling need of walling in
their little ten-foot bed of roses, even if it be
circular, and radial and have a bird-bath in
the midst. But enclosure is a matter of degree,
and something much less than a high brick
wall may serve. Even so slight a frame as is

172 Roses and Flower Beds

supplied by festooning climbing roses from
stake to stake round the circumference of the
rose-bed would help powerfully to tie the rose-
knot where it belongs, — to give it its sense of
completeness, of unity, and to save the appear-
ance of a loose round cookie accidently
dropped upon the lawn.

Or the small formal rose garden may be
enclosed by a hedge, and this hedge may be
as low or as high as the taste of the designer,
influenced by the size of the rose garden, may
determine. The hedge may be of box, of
roses, of sheared arbor-vitae, or buckthorn, of
hardy orange, of myrtle, or of any one of a
hundred other highly available shrubs, ever-
green or deciduous. In a certain number of
cases the round rose garden may be set into
an existing depression, the sides of which may
be brought up to the desired height by bank-
ing or by building up with loose stones, or by
any other means within the circumstances and
invention of the designer.

The large formal garden should have a
still more emphatic enclosure, of trees, high
shrubs, or buildings. Lacking these it may
be walled in or a good high trellis may be
constructed. Either wall or trellis should be

Roses and Flower Beds 173

covered with climbing roses or other horti-
cultural material, such as espalier fruit trees
or grape vines.

It is not within the province of the present
book to give directions for the culture of roses,
the selection of varieties, or to discuss other
horticultural phases of the making of rose gar-
dens. These may be found amply treated in
other books.* What here interests us is the
design of the rose garden, its formal structure
and its organic relationship to the other parts
of the grounds.

BEDDING PLANTS

Other plants besides roses may be grown
in beds. For a good many kinds the cultivated
bed, as distinguished from the free border, is
quite as necessary as for tea roses. Geraniums,
scarlet sage, heliotrope, coleus and florists'
tender stock generally can hardly be intro-
duced into the garden successfully except in
some style of formal bedding. Indeed many
of the very popular kinds are always known
as "bedding plants."

Now these tender bedding plants have suf-

* See such works as Hubbard, "Gut-door Rose Culture," New York,
1926.

1 74 Roses and Flower Beds

fered for fifty years in America under a gen-
eral unpopularity. Their low reputation has
been especially depressed among landscape
architects. Many reasons could be cited to
explain this eclipse; and it may fairly be said
that the soundest taste in this country is against
their general use. Americans quite naturally
and properly prefer the primeval woods and
the native landscape; or if these are out of
reach they want good indigenous trees with
the shadows falling on cool unspotted lawns.

All of which is part and parcel of the good
American preference for the natural style in
landscape architecture; but if any place be
admitted for any formal gardening — and such
a place unquestionably exists, even in Amer-
ica,— then the making of flower beds and the
culture of bedding plants assume a very differ-
ent standing. In short, in formal gardening
flower beds and pattern beds and all the arts
of "bedding out" have a quite proper and not
unimportant place.

Every planting bed for coleus, alternan-
thera, cannas, fancy caladiums, for geraniums
or begonias, for spring tulips, will be designed
in some symmetrical figure. These symmet-
rical beds must therefore have a perfectly for-

Roses and Flower Beds 175

mal geometrical relation to the formal garden
plan. Indeed the shape of every bed should
grow directly out of the plan of the garden.
Designed in this way, and used with discre-
tion in due reference to the larger garden
effects and to architectural surroundings, bed-
ding plants may yield a real esthetic delight.
Decorative results may be produced on a par
with those seen in tapestries or in parquetry.
Some critics have asserted, especially in
years now well past, that pattern bedding was
unsuitable to America on practical horti-
cultural grounds, it being claimed that the
climate of this country would not give good
results with some of the most important bed-
ding plants. Without being in any manner
an advocate for this type of gardening I am
ready to challange this statement. After hav-
ing made personal comparison between the
gardens in every part of America with those
of all central Europe and the British Isles I
roundly maintain that our climate is as good
as any. We have on this continent all kinds
of climate, and naturally some plants excel in
one part of the country while others come to
perfection elsewhere. But I have seen as good
beds of herbaseous begonias in Vermont, as

176 Roses and Flower Beds

good tulips in Washington and in Boston, as
good geraniums in Chicago, as I ever saw
anywhere. And the best pattern bedding I
ever saw in the world, of such universal mate-
rials as coleus, acaranthus and alternanthera,
was in Swope Park, Kansas City.

FLOWER BEDS

In point of garden respectability flower
beds have always stood higher in this country
than mere pattern beds. There has been some
leaning of fashion toward hardy old-fashioned
flowers grown in a supposedly old-fashioned
manner. This style, whether authentically
historic or not, has asked for flowers in bor-
ders or in beds. And this combination of beds
and borders falls almost inevitably into sym-
metrical patterns. In other words it fits the
scheme of the formal garden and it does not
fit the lay-out of the natural garden.

Beds for hardy perennials, — peonies, phlox,
anchusas, hollyhocks, gaillardias, and all the
rest — need to be less complicated in outline
and less elaborate in interior pattern than
beds for such materials as stevias, alternan-
theras and colei. Nevertheless even the sim-
plest beds, in plain unassuming squares and

Roses and Flower Beds 177

rectangles, will be best when balanced one
against another in straightforward symmetri-
cal plan.

Such beds may then be planted for mass
effect. Quite stunning color groupings can
be produced in this way. Probably this is
the nearest we can come practically to those
decorative color effects so dear to the imagina-
tion of the good lady who has learned her land-
scape gardening in the school of interior dec-
oration.

It may be well to point out that these beds
for perennials must have a certain size. If
they are less than three feet wide they will
hardly contain the required materials. If they
are more than eight feet wide they are hard
to maintain. Beds 12 or 15 feet wide are some-
times attempted, but the cost of maintenance
is excessive and the pictorial effect is not cor-
respondingly enhanced.

Objection has been made to the whole art
of bedding on the score of its ephemeral qual-
ity. This criticism is not without point, but
it is met by good gardeners by providing a
succession of materials. In early spring the
garden beds are aflame with tulips and hya-
cinths or are laughing with pansies. As soon

178

Roses and Flower Beds

Old-Fashioned Garden Knots
Illustrating Radial Design in Small Areas

as these are gone the summer flowers are
ready. Even winter may have its provision of
evergreen material. Though it is to be remem-
bered that a good many gardens are deserted
in the winter months. Opulent citizens have
country places for gardening and city homes
near the grand opera for the winter. Many
public parks turn attention in winter from

Roses and F t o iv e r Beds ij()

the gardens to the skating and the skiing.
Thus one of the stock strictures upon the
practice of "bedding out" is greatly mitigated
by ineluctable circumstances.

EDGINGS

Flower beds in formal gardens are often
edged with box or other materials. I have seen
such edgings made of telephone insulators or
of inverted beer bottles, though I do not now
recommend them. Box, myrtle, dwarf euony-
mus are typical and generally to be preferred,
though almost any slow-growing shrub which
can be kept closely sheared will pass the re-
quirements.

Special bedding plants are also used for
these edgings. In this category would be
named stevia, sweet alyssum, etc. Dwarf iris
has been a favorite in many old gardens,

XIV

THE FRONT YARD

|NE day my friend, a street-car con-
ductor, asked me where he could get
a red shrub. As I did not imme-
diately get the drift of his inquiry he ex-
plained : "You see there was a tree-agent came
along last year and sold my wife a yellow
shrub. She planted it on the east side of the
walk and now I want to get a red shrub to
balance it on the west side."

The picture is a vivid one. The little front
yard, a strip of lawn twenty feet wide between
the house and the sidewalk, bisected by a walk
running from the door to the street, and on
either side a bush. Only one was to be red
and the other yellow for variety's sake. So
here we have Design, Unity, and Variety —
the whole of Art!

Here we have, too, the typical American
front yard. Nothing much like it is to be found
anywhere else in the world. It is democratic
— open to the world. It is domestic, express-
ing the owner's pride in his home. It is not
devoid of a sense of decorative design. On

i8i

i82 The Front Yard

the contrary it shows a very strong feeling for
unity and balance. It is a native species of
landscape architecture much more typically
American than the millionaires' country club
or than Mrs. Millionaire's French chateau
and Italian garden.

Nothing could be gained by railing at such
an institution, if indeed anyone had the heart
to find fault. In one way only can such a
situation be approached with hope, and that
is in the way of developing a better taste for
the application of the popular formula. The
American front yard can be improved: it
should not be abolished.

FRONT YARD FORMULA

Let us examine this formula more closely.

We may begin by recalling the sound prin-
ciple that the usual home grounds are to be
divided generally into three parts (See page
44) one of which should be the front yard.
The first item in popular practice concerns
the depth of this yard. There is manifest a
somewhat general tendency to set the house
well back from the street, the idea being, ap-
parently, to give the house increased dignity
and to enlarge the front yard. If the private

u

Old Colonial Yard and Doorway, Nantucket, Mass.

The Front Yard 183

garden at the rear of the house is mostly
neglected this tendency may go unchallenged.
But if the householder can come to the point
of making the most of the private garden, then
the front yard should be limited to a narrower
strip, the space thus gained being used in the
family garden.

Next we observe the tendency to build a
social porch upon the front of the house over-
looking the front yard, the traffic of the side-
walk and the whole street. This is a very
American symptom, too, and clearly manifest,
Especially in poorer neighborhoods. It can
hardly be justified, either socially or artistic-
ally. The porch where the family sit and
where they visit with their guests might much
better be at the rear of the house where it
would be less vulnerable to the noise and dirt
of the street and where it would have much
greater privacy. It may be argued, of course,
that privacy is just what these citizens do not
want : they prefer to see who is passing in the
street and at times to visit with these passersby.
Yet it must be answered that privacy is what
these Americans ought to want. They are
not Frenchmen who prefer to eat off the side-
walk. And even the Frenchman makes his

1 84 The Front Yard

own home more private than these Americans.
In this matter the American is the victim of a
vicious habit.

One radical improvement in the front yard
formula, therefore, could be made by banish-
ing the social porch forever to the rear of the
house, leaving the front door sheltered by a
single canopy, or something a little less or
more, as good architectural design might dic-
tate.

Another American tendency, combined with
the one last mentioned, is to set the house high
out of the lawn. Nine houses of every ten
to be seen on the ordinary streets stand too
high to look their best. The appearance of
many homes and of their front yards would
be improved by placing the floors lower —
say, not more than eighteen inches above the
ground level, often less.

This has its immediate relation to founda-
tion plantings. These plantings are a part of
the formula, widely recognized as "the proper
thing." If the house is brought comparatively
near to the street and kept comparatively low
then it follows that the foundation plantings,
instead of being tall and woodsy, may be small,
low and trim. They become simpler and more

The Front Yard 185

formal, as befits a front yard; for simplicity
and formality also characterize the entrance
hall within the house.

Next there is the walk to be noticed, leading
to the front door. Unless the land requires a
terrace, a retaining-wall or similar unusual
engineering, this front walk ought to be sim-
ple, straight and at right angles to the house
front. Other arrangements are false and
usually look silly, e, g, walks made in the form
of an S with the fatuous intent to have some-
thing natural or graceful.

The present tyrannous vogue of cement
makes many a front walk more harsh than it
need be. Walks of brick or gravel would often
be better. And the writer confesses to a liking
for the old custom of edging these walks with
dwarf box, euonymus, or even with iris, though
of course this sort of thing must be done with
discretion, being sometimes quite inappro-
priate.

Shall there be edging of plants along the
street line next the sidewalk? Common prac-
tice says no, and this point in the great Amer-
ican formula may be allowed to stand. Often
one sees small clumps of barberries, or similar
shrubs planted at either side of the front

i86 The Front Yard

walk where it joins the sidewalk. These
plantings have two purposes : 6rst to prevent
the traffic from cutting the corners and second
an intent to make them ornamental. Their
decorative value may be seriously questioned,
and it is best under most circumstances to omit
such plantings altogether.

The front yard will also be crossed by a serv-
ice walk and perhaps even a service drive,
particularly if there be a garage to be reached.
These two service ways should of course be as
inconspicuous as possible, and as nearly as
possible should occupy the extreme edges of
the yard next to the property lines. It will be
better still if these two service ways can be
combined into one.

Following the popular formula to this point
we have a space of smooth lawn at the front
of the house cut by a straight walk into two
nearly equal parts. The tendency to plant
something in the middle of these two spaces
is, to a certain type of mind, quite irresistible.
My friend, the car conductor, wanted a red
shrub on one side and a yellow one on the
other. Usually the formula calls for a matched
pair ; and as this same type of mind leans heav-
ily toward freaks and curiosities, the choice

Colonial Style, Doorway, Hedged Yard and Brick Walk, Amherst,

Mass.

Fence and Gates, Charleston, S. C.
Front Doorway with Paved Court

The Front Yard 187

often falls on Bunge's catalpa, weeping mul-
berry, blue spruce or other monstrosity. For
they are all bad. If these green panels of lawn
simply must be broken a circular flower bed
on either side is the least objectionable answer;
but it would be much better to leave these cen-
ters open. Decorous plantings at the two
sides, toward the property division lines, may
be all right. These with the foundation plant-
ings against the house and possible edgings
along the front walk, already discussed, ought
to be enough for the front yard. A vine climb-
ing over the small door-porch may be reck-
oned a part of the foundation planting.

The introduction of vases, cast-iron statu-
ary, bird baths or similar features into the
front yard is always in bad taste and fortu-
nately is not popular.

Summarizing our findings we discover the
fact that the American front yard represents
a native cultural formula. This formula has
its good points and its defects, the former
largely preponderating. This front yard is a
logical and proper unit in a larger scheme.
When properly separated from the private
grounds and the service yard it may become
a feature of real artistic value. Its develop-

i88 The Front Yard

ment tends inevitably to proceed upon lines
of formal design. A natural style of landscape
gardening here would be futile and ridiculous.
Formality, dignity, restraint and simplicity are
the qualities most to be sought. If one could
combine with these a certain richness — velvet
lawn, fragrant box, a good walk of brick or
tile, a well-designed and inviting front door —
the result would come as near perfection as
we common people are accustomed to arrive.

Index

Architectural Details 39

Axis of Garden 31

Bedding Plants 173

Bilateral Symmetry 15

Bird Baths 147-160

Bird Houses 152

Body and Spirit 23

Brick Walks 1 14

Canals 159

Center of Interest 60

Chairs 131

Children's Play House 123

Circulation 47-109

Color Effects 40-63

Connection of Parts 85

Court Yard 55

Decoration of Units 47

Decorative Design 68

Development of Axes 33

Domestic Formula 41

Edgings 179

Enclosure 57-89

Enclosures for Rose Gardens 171

Exterior Form 29-57

Flat Land 78

Flower Beds 48-62-169-176

Formal Design 15

Formal Garden Motives 73

Formal Pools 161

Formal "Style" 17

Form of Garden 29

Foundation Plantings 184

Fountains 156

Front Yards 82-181

Furnishings 48-131

Garden Furnishings 131

Garden Houses 123

Garden Knots 178

Garden Tables 136

Garden Walks 189

189

1 90 Index

Gazing Globes 148

Gravel Walks 116

Hedge Plants 99

Hedges 96

History of Landscape Architecture 11

Home Gardens 69

Home Grounds Design 41

Housekeeping 137

Imperialism 69

Interior Spaces 38

Interior Views Z7

Italian Style 17

Major Axis 31

Materials for Walks 1 1 1

Minor Axes 32

Motive 65

Music 19-71

Natural Style 24

Natural versus Formal Style 65

Open Spaces 39

Pattern Bedding 175

Paved Areas 117

Pergolas 47-125

Plants for Water 162

Plastic Figures 141

Poetry and Music 18

Poetry and Nature 70

Pools 153

Porches 1 19-183

Principles of Art 12

Privacy 89

Proportions 3°

Prose and Poetry 18

Radial Design 53

Radial Symmetry 16

Rectangular Garden 27

Retainting Walls 81

Roses and Flower Beds 169

Rose Gardens 169

Rules in Art 27

Running Water 161

Rustic Furniture I35

Scale 40

Index 191

Sculpture 141

Sculpture Design 143

Seats 1 34

Shade Trees 48

Shelter 1 19

Shrubs 48

Size of Areas 55

Size of Gardens 28

Social Display 68

Spaces 149

Spirit and Motive 65

Spiritual Qualities 67

Square Gardens 30

Statuary 141

Stepping Stones 112

Structural Requirements 22

Studio 122

Subdivision According to Use 44

Subdivision of Ground 46

Sundials 60-145

Surface 31

Symmetry 15

Tables and Chairs 131

Tea Houses 122

Termini 35

Terraces 81-83

Topography yj

Treatment of the Land yy

Trellises 94

Tubs for Plants 1 50

Use of Formal Style 24

Use of Ground 44-46

Walks 85-185

Walks and Pavings 109

Walls 83-91

Water 49-153

Windbreaks 127

Books that
will help you

If you want up to date, reliable
information on the best methods of
raising fruits, flowers, vegetables,
poultry, dairying or any other sub-
ject pertaining to the Garden or
Farm, write us; we can help you.

We publish a long list of reference
books which abound in helpful sug-
gestions and money-making ideas.
We will gladly answer all questions
pertaining to books or suggest
courses of reading to anyone inter-
ested. No matter in what branch
of farm or garden work you may
be interested, these books will help
you. They will show you how
to raise bigger and better crops —
better your condition — increase
your efficiency — add toyour income.
Read and make your reading count.

Potalnrv PvAA Send for our new and elab-
V^diaiOg rree o„ieIy illustrated catalog.
136 pages, 5x8 inches, containing detailed descriptions of
upward of 500 practical modem books covering every phasa
ot gardening or farming. This will be mailed on application.

ORANGE JUDD PUBLISHING COMPANY

Founded 1836
15 EAST 26th STREET NEW YORK, N. Y.

■vi'i'\t» ' (*

DUE DATE

SB 472.vy28

3 9358 00151916 1

SB472

W28

Waush, Frank Albert, 1869-1943.

Formal, design in landscape
architecture; a statement of principles
with special reference to their present
use in America, by Frank A» Waueh* New
York, Oranse Judd Publishing Compftny,
inc. ; London, K» Paul, Trench, Trubner
t> Co*, Ltd., 1927*

191 p* ilLus* 24 cm*

151916

1

1 Q Ai A D fiit

CZAi OA A

WPTinKrk

9.7-1 ?:;>94