ROOT
Landscape Garden Series

SB
472
R85
v.9

LANDSCAPE GARDEN

IX. COUNTRY PLACES

PRESS

D&venport, - —

LIBRARY

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

SANTA BARBARA

PRESENTED BY

Glen G. Mosher

GLEN 6. MOSHER

QOOOOOOO
G © O G> G © ® O

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Fig. 1— An English country place

LANDSCAPE GARDEN SERIES \

COUNTRY ESTATES

BY
RALPH RODNEY ROOT, B. S. A., M. L. A.

THE GARDEN PRESS

DAVENPORT, IOWA

Copyright, iQ2t
BY L. W. RAMSEY

Printed in U. S. A.

CHAPTER I
THE COUNTRY PLACE

THOUGH the country places of America may lack the traditions
of English estates and the grandeur and magic of the Italian
villas, everyone familiar with the open country must admit that
our country homes have a certain charm and individuality that keeps
their memory a pleasant one for the visitor and resident. The student
and lover of the open country, after a visit to country places, feels that
even without centuries of traditions, these places have the fundamental
organization of plan that brings one to the same basis of study as one
arrives at after a study of the Old World gardens. The houses are in
such a relation to the broad sweep of the landscape that it is brought
in and included as a part of the composition. This close relation of the
house to its surrounding landscape and to its real utility is the secret of
the successful English estate or Italian villa.

The basis of a country estate plan as in all design is the "layout"
or structural lines. Perhaps the greatest weakness of country place
planning at the present time is the neglect of proper organization of its
plan and the use of the principles of design or composition in its relation
to natural conditions. The tendency has been to emphasize other features
of the work at the expense of this fundamental one of design. The
most common mistake has been the emphasis of horticultural or natural-
istic side of the work to such an extent that there is often such a poor
organization of the plan that the enjoyment of even the features that
the gardener may have considered the important ones of the estate
have been lost.

Examples of this are where the gardens have been placed so as to
interfere with the best views, and the service so poorly handled, that
it destroys a real enjoyment of the natural scenery. Any attempt to
create natural scenic effects in landscape work has, as we know, cer-
tain limitations, but such an arrangement of a plan as to give emphasis

8 LANDSCAPE GARDEN SERIES

to existing natural conditions, depends for its success on the funda-
mental organization of the plan in the location of the building group
and its orientation 90 as to give the most convenient arrangement for
the entrance, lawn, view, garden and service.

When the general direction lines for the views are established,
and the proper space given to each area or working part, we have the
basis of a working plan or scheme. The style of architecture and
the emphasis of features should then be determined to fit the needs of
the problem. After the buildings have once been built and such con-
struction work as grading, road building and planting, are done, it is
difficult to rearrange them so as to make a satisfactory plan. A road
that may be made to emphasize natural scenery by frequent turns and
detours from a natural line of direct approach may have certain
advantages for a morning walk, but for use as a motor road or entrance
may be inconvenient.

A road that has curves and turns because of grade, topographical
reasons, may be the best solution of the problem, but a deliberate turn-
ing and twisting in order to display features becomes unhandy because
of the loss of its purpose as an entrance drive.

This has brought about the division of the drives into entrance, or
business drives and displays drives, motor or carriage roads and bridle
paths.

In the organization of the plan for a country place, the location
of the house group and its immediate surroundings so as to take
advantage of the best views, is of the first importance to the owner
for the best endowment of the open country and the landscape architect
for the success of the plan. The principal views out have an import-
ant influence on the general location and orientation of the house. The
principal axes are determined by the general view directions. In the
opening or closing of other views and vistas, care must be taken that
too many lines do not carry out so as to produce a confusion of views.
A magnificent view down a river or across a valley, is the principal
picture.

A careful following of the principles of design or composition in
the organization of a country place plan is not something that concerns
itself with problems where the plan itself may make a great decorative

THE COUNTRY PLACE 9

formal plan like Versailles or the Villa d'Este^ but it should be the
basis of the simplest problem that the landscape architect has to deal
with. Suppose you are to work out a plan for a simple farm place,
the same principles apply. There will first be the question of land-
scape emphasis, style of architecture, etc., but before these the question
of the location of the buildings group, its orientation and convenience
of arrangement must be determined. Are the buildings to be built in
one group or as separate units? In many of our country places an
attempt has been made to carry the landscape plan out along natural
lines and this desire on the part of the landscape architect has given
an over-emphasis to the grounds that defy both the architecture and
the open-country view. The result has been to give us a type of
country place entirely out of harmony with its surroundings.

In a country place of the most naturalistic type, the architectural
group should be planned with a very careful study of the views so
as to have them in an axial relation with the house and its setting. If
the axis lines do not carry out into the country view we soon find our
whole scheme lacking in the ideal country atmosphere.

As the emphasis of a country place is the open country view, the
long axis of the house is placed so as to feature this. The entrance
is usually placed opposite this and the gardens and service sides of the
house arranged so as best to fit the natural requirements of the prob-
lem. The proper use of the division lines of the separate areas is the
fundamental basis in the organization of any landscape problem.
Whether the emphasis is to be formal or informal in the general layout
and planting, the same principles apply in the solution of the problem.
The areas about the house must first be adapted to the requirements of
each problem as to size and shape and then to the natural landscape
conditions of the country. One of the faults with many of our
American places is the entrance portion of the residence. While we
may not aim at securing magnificence a casual entrance takes away
the dignity of the house and keeps the visitor from securing a good first
impression of the place.

The country atmosphere is a feature that is apt to be found lack-
ing in what was for a long time considered as the true American
country home. In the gradual development of these places the real

10 LANDSCAPE GARDEN SERIES

The house has been located in the midst of woodland
conditions and the views opened out into the open country.
A well marked line has been made to separate the kept
grounds from the natural woodland but in no case has the
use of this feature been restricted. Pleasure drives and
walks lead from the house-grounds out thru the "natural"
gardens and woodlands to the open country which sur-
rounds the house on every side. The principal view has
been emphasized by the location of the house and its rela-
tion to the living rooms and broad terrace.

THE COUNTRY PLACE

11

Fig. 2

12 LANDSCAPE GARDEN SERIES

achievement that gives them their individuality is their independence of
decorative horticulture.

No line can be drawn between the design and the horticultural
elements of a landscape scheme. The planting must have, as the
basis of its arrangement, good design; and the design must have good
planting, so that in each lies the pattern of good landscape architecture.
The landscape architect must have a working knowledge of the basic
principles of design and an understanding of plant forms. While a
detailed knowledge of horticulture as listed in an encyclopedia is not
necessary, he must understand plant forms and local plant conditions.
Although a good gardener, horticulturist, or nature lover, may under-
stand plants from his own interest as to methods of growing, varieties,
and kinds or natural habits of growth, it is the basic principle of design
that governs their fundamental arrangement as regards the organization
of the plan that is the final test of good landscape design.

While flowers and decorative plant material must always be the
feature of a garden, the garden should never exist for its flowers alone,
but should have, in addition to its horticultural value, a studied color
plan and gracious lines of design and be in harmony with the entire
scheme. The real permanent features that are the basis of a successful
country place plan or composition, are to keep the open country atmos-
phere, to make the plan and house a part of the landscape and then
to combine and blend the two by the use of plant material that will not
become of itself the controlling element of the whole place.

"Creation of landscape" in order to make an excuse for the intro-
duction of exotic and gardenesque plant material was at one time the
fashion in America. The American country home, in which the
"natural" effect was produced by the winding road, mounds, iron
deer and other figures , a weeping mulberry , weeping elms, with
formal beds of cannas and geraniums, or elaborate "carpet beds" of
intricate pattern, was at one time extensively developed in the Eastern
States. The more modern adaptation of the architectural part of the
country place to the natural landscape has given us open country
estates in which the house group, orchard, garden, recreation features,
and the big sweep of open fields and forests, are all fused in one. In
much of this early gardening of America, as regards country places,

THE COUNTRY PLACE 1 3

little attention was paid to the fundamental principles of design in the
organization of the plan so as to bring the surrounding landscape into
the scheme and provide for convenience and pleasure. The real begin-
ning of the movement to the open country began after the profession of
landscape architecture had arrived at a point where the real underlying
principles of design had become the basis in the solution of a landscape
problem.

The owners had brought back with them from abroad an apprecia-
tion for good work, and although the first plans may have shown more
of the nurseryman's art than old-world traditions, the basis of the
plan was such that careful study and reconstruction had brought about
a gradual realization of the model which was the inspiration. A factor
that has had an important bearing on the bringing together of under-
lying principles of arrangement has been the garden clubs, magazines
and books dealing with gardening in its relation to the open country.

Early landscape architecture in America had no distinctive style of
its own, but was based on traditions of the old world. The Colonial
houses, with their well arranged building groups, with door-yard gar-
dens and the house grounds enclosed by a fence, was, for general
arrangement of plan and plant material, almost transplanted from
Europe.

Although the final result may give the effect of natural conditions
or informality, the same principles have been used in its organization
as in the most formal and intricate plan. The problems of design are
essentially the same. Depending upon nature or accident, is not a safe
basis for the important views. The principles of design govern not
only the fundamental organization of each problem in the design of
a country place, they govern also in the study of even the smallest
detail.

This close relation of natural open country landscape and archi-
tecture fused into an organic whole brings one to the secret of the
underlying charm of the English estates, the correct basic organization
or plan and the following of the fundamental principles of design in
the working out of these plans.

An English country place in which the open country is made an
important feature, and the organization of the plan becomes in itself a

14 LANDSCAPE GARDEN SERIES

Types of open country views in which the "land-
scape" is spread out like a map. Our interest in this type
of scenery is first of all in the enjoyment of the freedom of
the open country. The view from a country place is of
the greatest importance in its success from a landscape
aspect and determines the layout and organization of the
plan. The size, shape and location of the house and its
architectural treatment of terraces and gardens should be
governed by the size or extent of the view out. A great
deal of study on the ground should be given to the planting
and grouping of trees near the house so as to emphasize
and frame in or continue the open country view.

THE COUNTRY PLACE

15

Fig. 3

16 LANDSCAPE GARDEN SERIES

An arrangement in which the size and location of the
"areas" was determined by natural contour conditions and
views out over the open country.

THE COUNTRY PLACE

17

8«

. : ---

18 LANDSCAPE GARDEN SERIES

pleasing compostion of line, is shown in Fig. 1 . The circulation be-
tween the several divisions has been studied so as to give easy access
from one to the other without interfering with their designed use.
The main entrance is from the bottom of the plan with the service to
the right. The unique garden court of Montacute House is one of
the famous landscape features of England and has been used as an
illustration of "what to do" in many books on Landscape Gardening.
All in all, this is, as a plan, beauty of architecture, and landscape
gardening interest, the best example of a real country place to be
found in England.

While the economic and social conditions of America will always
keep our country places distinctive as a type from those of the old
world, it will not prevent the bringing in of the same principles in
their building that are basic for all good work in landscape architecture
and architecture.

True country atmosphere as a feature is a characteristic that is apt
to be found lacking in what was, for a long time, considered as the
typical American country home.

With the Centennial, at Philadelphia, in 1876, this type of land-
scape architecture Was in its best stage of development. Gardenesque
style of planting became almost the accepted one throughout America
where there was any attempt at a studied arrangement of planting,
walks, drives and garden areas.

The first real departure from this type of landscape gardening
came with the work of Vaux in the use of the open lawn and natural
landscape effects with masses of native shrubs arranged to produce a
naturalistic effect of the whole scheme. Any formal grouping of
plants was now arranged as A garden. It is only within recent years
that plant material has become a part of landscape architecture in the
development of our country places, and not the controlling element-
Even today, the few architects and owners of country places in
America recognize in landscape architecture a field of art that has to
do with the basic principles of arrangement of land for convenience and
beauty with the use of plants as one of the materials of construction
and not the one thing that must be dealt with. The open vistas out

THE COUNTRY PLACE 19

into the open country become not only a part of the landscape plan,
but a part of the architectural group as well.

Architecture that depends upon the masking of trees and shrubs
to produce the desired effect is not the type that becomes an aid to
landscape architecture.

The first real departure from the decorative horticultural style of
planting was based on the theory of the open lawn, which seems to
have originated from a theory in painting, that of an arrangement of
three planes, foreground, middle plane and background, or distance. In
this type the planting interest is developed by the variety of material
used and its arrangement so as to give a variety of sky-line. This type
of plant arrangement has been much used in park planting and in
small home grounds where the landscape is a created one.

From this type of planting we have developed the American park
type and with it the basis of the American park, which is something
that we can well be proud of, as the parks of America are not equaled
in the world. All this has formed the big controlling elements of the
country place development, which is the. preserving of the natural
scenery.

This style of landscape architecture does not differ much from that
of the old world in general arrangement of plant material and the use
of the space. The Colonial house with its dooryard garden, which
was the controlling unit of its group of buildings, was for general
arrangement of plan and plant material almost transplanted from
Europe. The space available was used to the best advantage and
even in the early days was limited. The buildings were grouped for
convenience of use and the settlements made up of these for protection.
The tendency of the "protective" grouping was to produce an "en-
closed" style of planting, that later became alrrost universal as a style
of landscape gardening. Interesting exceptions are found when the
view out was carefully considered in the arrangement, as in Mt. Vernon
and other estates in the South.

The country places of this type along the Hudson and throughout
Eastern States are familiar, with the open lawn or terrace with mounds
and beds of bright flowers, gravel walks winding in and out among
clumps of evergreens and past arbors and summer houses, and such

20 LANDSCAPE GARDEN SERIES

Two types of roadside planting, which, when com-
bined with open country views, made up the real enjoyment
of a drive out into the country. The "planted up" drive is
characteristic of American country plans that in a way
makes them distinctive. The park-like type is the real
landscape plan of our public parks and the idea was taken
from the English country place entrance drive, but was
combined with the open country views in the make-up of
our parks. Park-like, or enclosed landscape, depends for
its interest on the plant material used and its grouping, with
pleasing composition of lines and areas.

THE COUNTRY PLACE

21

Fig. 5

22 LANDSCAPE GARDEN SERIES

other architectural features as rippling fountains and urns and statues
placed against shrubbery and trees for accent. The whole arrange-
ment was such as to set off or display such decorative and unusual
plant material as weeping trees and shrubs, bright foliage, such as
golden syringa, and copper and purple beeches.

A Victorian house with its decorative horticultural style of land-
scape gardening (the enclosed type) left little to the imagination and
when occupied with tracing out the winding paths the visitor's attention
was seldom allowed to wander to open country views. The style be-
came a good fore-runner to the name "Show Place," that was for
many years the achievement that the nurseryman held up to the owners
of country places as the one thing that was desired.

To steep oneself in tradition and then to set to work to invent new
forms which shall be guided by the principles and contain within them-
selves the boundaries of the old, is the right method in designing land-
scapes, and is the only way to design successfully. This makes for a
continuity of tradition and leads one away from a too exclusive study
of nature and an attempt at imitating natural scenery with unsuitable
materials where conditions are not fitting for such imitation.

A certain arrangement of trees and shrubs as arranged by nature
may look well within the midst of natural conditions, but when trans-
ferred to the middle of a city loses its real meaning. Rocks, as
arranged by nature, have a meaning different from a grouping of stones
aided by cement and an unnatural grading of the soil unless the scale
of the problem is such both by size and use as to warrant the particular
scenic effect.

In landscape architecture, as in all other art, there have been periods
when the traditions and great designs of the past have been forgotten
in an attempt to invent a new style. The real reason for this has
been a lack of real understanding of the underlying principles of
design, by the so-called landscape designer, rather than a deliberate
attempt for originality. These several "styles" can be traced directly
to an attempt to emphasize some feature, such as horticultural material,
and the resulting style known as the "decorative" in which we have
an arrangement of plants for themselves alone as in the "clump", "belt"
and "dot" system of planting and the present or "natural" type, in

THE COUNTRY PLACE 23

which an attempt has been made to let "nature" work unmolested. This
style is usually out of scale and not based on axis lines.

A personal preference for informal or natural arrangement over
formal or designed landscape does not enter into the organization of
the problem as to direction of approach. The fundamental organiza-
tion of our problem, then, is what gives to country places arrangement,
order and selection; and makes the whole place a unit rather than hap-
hazard collection of unrelated things or a slice of unassimilated
nature.

From the enclosed, or 1865, type of decorative planting we have
the open center, or open lawn, and boundary planting with the accent
plant brought in a relation to the bays and promontories of the plant-
ing. The over-accentuation of the boundary brought about the use of
more naturalistic plant material, but lacked the basic principle of
design in that the big lawn was made the controlling feature of the
place. Gardens now became very much restricted or abandoned alto-
gether, the service cramped, and in many cases the house located at
a disadvantage for convenience. "Sunken" drives and paths were
utilized so as not to break up the lawn. The principal view from
the house became also the "show" view from the road or entrance
drive. The "natural" or informal type of gardening was used and
the familiar irregular curves that were drawn around the planting lines
were formal in that they were planned.

The "open lawn" type of planting at its worst, with the "founda-
tion" screen about the house, and the irregular curved boundary plant-
ing and garden of bean shaped or informal planted areas was. taken
out into the open country as a means of harmonization of the home
grounds.

The lack of organization of the plan at the start and its failure in
bringing in of the open country was a fault of this type of design. The
aim of the landscape plan was to screen out the house or to break up
its architectural lines. The lack of sympathy between the architecture,
landscape plan, and the open country all combined to produce a coun-
try place that defeated the aim of the owner, while in the immediate
suburbs of a town or in a village this type of landscape did not
appear incongruous, if the organization of the plan was such as to pro-

24 LANDSCAPE GARDEN SERIES

A plan for a country place in which the location of
the buildings has been determined by contour, tree growth,
view out over the open country, and utility. The tree
growth in this case was the real feature of the property,
so that the house location was determined by this and its
orientation by the direction of the view and prevailing breeze
from the southwest. The garage and gardener's lodge are
placed so as to control the entrance to the house and the
farm group. The locations of the farm group and gardens
were determined by the soil conditions, lack of tree growth
and contour. The whole plan has been so related by roads,
views, tree growth and architecture to make a working and
attractive open country place with the natural landscape
kept as a real feature.

THE COUNTRY PLACE

25

26 LANDSCAPE GARDEN SERIES

vide the proper proportion between the several divisions — view, garden,
entrance, and service.

During the early part of the nineteenth century, with the movement
westward, another kind of landscape arrangement and architecture
sprang into use in America. The conditions about the house became
less formal and the arrangement of buildings into a group abandoned.
The buildings were placed in rows along the road or street and a fav-
orable aspect to the sun provided for. When planting was done exotic
or decorative material was used to "dress up" the house lawn and
emphasize that part of the grounds.

While this type of planting was primitive and without tradition, it
became almost an American style with its culmination in 1 840 when
Andrew Jackson Downing became the leader in the profession of
Landscape Architecture in this country.

The son of a nurseryman, he was trained as a boy to carry on the
business that his father worked in, but the nursery business did not
appeal to him in the same way that it had to his father, and he began
the practice of landscape architecture as a profession through the use
of plant material rather than the growing of it as a business. The
work of Downing became a style and he established by his practice
and writings a tradition that has had a marked effect on country place
development in America.

In country planting, where the landscape gardening is home grown,
the sale of native shrubs and trees by the nursery agent is very limited.
The pictures of bright colored flowers, unusual plant forms and peculiar
foliage makes a "better seller" in a catalogue than such material as
may be collected from, the woods and fence row. All of this horti-
cultural material, while valuable as accents in the more cultivated types
of planting, has a tendency to change the open country home into an
enclosed type of landscape where there is a distinct tendency to
"create" a piece of horticultural or gardenesque planting. The result
of this type of landscape design, which began with a few "different" or
exotic plants, soon became a style and produced the "enclosed grounds",
and in which no attention was paid to the open country.

A great factor in bringing about a good feeling and understanding
between city and country has been the development of country places

THE COUNTRY PLACE 27

in America. After! a few years of experience with open country living,
few, if any, country place owners fail to form different ideas of farm
life and its problems. It has, however, long been, the rule that a young
man leaves the farm and goes to the city to work, so that when he is an
old man he will have enough money laid by to go back to the country
to live. The owner of the smallest "War Garden" in 1917-1918
became for the time an agriculturalist and even though the actual
amount of food consumed was small, the sentimental result of the interest
aroused in plant growing and soil cultivation was great. Much of the
lack of sympathy and mutual understanding between the city and
country that existed a few years ago has almost disappeared and' not a
little of this has been through a more intelligent realization of the dif-
ferent problems of town and country having the same principles in their
solution.

The farmer who lives his life in the open country appreciates the
natural scenery more than is generally realized. While he may not
understand the principles of composition and be able to analyze the
open country views that form an important part of his daily life, he
no less appreciates the scenery that is all about him and will point out
the important views that can be seen from various parts of the farm
and describe them in a most vivid way.

The farthest point that can be seen, the most beautiful trees
and the landscape value of each, the ever changing landscape and sky
and their meaning are important factors of the daily life on the farm,
while to the city dweller these changes are catalogued as day and
night — sun and cloud — warm and cold — windy and still, or a geo-
graphical analysis of views and landscapes.

The farmer's knowledge of plants is based on their usefulness and
classed as weeds, crops, hedgegrows, brush, woodlot, timber, May-
flowers or wildflowers. The view of the open country to him has in-
terest as good fields of farm crops free from weeds, clean fence rows,
fruit trees pruned so as to bear good fruit. The middle distance
becomes collected into a certain number of acres of farm land, meadow,
cultivated fields, pastures and woodland and the distant view into his
neighbor's farm or some familiar hill so many miles away. The whole,

28 LANDSCAPE GARDEN SERIES

The open country and farmstead views should be pro-
tected along the public roads. The natural scenery often
provides pleasing compositions that are marred by the fre-
quent introduction of advertising schemes of various types.
Placards nailed to trees not only work harm with their hosts
but mar otherwise beautiful views and quiet country
scenes. A better appreciation of the value of good land-
scape as a part in the making of good roads will do more
to protect our open country "picture galleries" than laws
or propaganda against signboards. A concrete pavement
walled in by advertising resembles too much the city from
which the tired city dweller is supposed to escape by a
trip to the open country.

THE COUNTRY PLACE

29

30 LANDSCAPE GARDEN SERIES

however, has another interest, that of its attractiveness as natural scen-
ery and the open country life that it represents. A certain amount of
landscape value is always placed on every farm by its owner aside
from the value of the land for farming.

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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

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