LANDSCAPE GARDENING.

Landscape gardening has often been likened to the painting of a picture.

 Your art-work teacher has doubtless told you that a good picture should

 have a point of chief interest, and the rest of the points simply go to

 make more beautiful the central idea, or to form a fine setting for it. 

So in landscape gardening there must be in the gardener's mind a picture

 of what he desires the whole to be when he completes his work. 

 
From this study we shall be able to work out a little theory of landscape

 gardening. 

 
Let us go to the lawn. A good extent of open lawn space is always beautiful. 

It is restful. It adds a feeling of space to even small grounds. So we might

 generalize and say that it is well to keep open lawn spaces. If one covers 

his lawn space with many trees, with little flower beds here and there, the 

general effect is choppy and fussy. 
It is a bit like an over-dressed person. One's grounds lose all individuality

thus treated. A single tree or a small group is not a bad arrangement on the

lawn. Do not centre the tree or trees. Let them drop a bit into the background. 

Make a pleasing side feature of them. In choosing trees one must keep in mind

a number of things. You should not choose an overpowering tree; the tree should

be one of good shape, with something interesting about its bark, leaves, flowers

 or fruit. 

While the poplar is a rapid grower, it sheds its leaves early and so is left standing, bare and ugly, 

before the fall is old. Mind you, there are places where a row or double row of Lombardy poplars 

is very effective. But I think you'll agree with me that one lone poplar is not. The catalpa is quite 

lovely by itself. Its leaves are broad, its flowers attractive, the seed pods which cling to the tree 

until away into the winter, add a bit of picture squeness. The bright berries of the ash, the brilliant foliage of the sugar maple, the blossoms of the tulip tree, the bark of the white birch, and the leaves of the copper beech all these are beauty points to consider.

Place makes a difference in the selection of a tree. Suppose the lower portion of the 

grounds is a bit low and moist, then the spot is ideal for a willow. Don't group trees

together which look awkward. A long-looking poplar does not go with a nice rather rounded

little tulip tree. A juniper, so neat and prim, would look silly beside a spreading 

chestnut. One must keep proportion and suitability in mind. 

I'd never advise the planting of a group of evergreens close to a house, and in the front

 yard. The effect is very gloomy indeed. Houses thus surrounded are overcapped by such 

trees and are not only gloomy to live in, but truly unhealthful. The chief requisite 

inside a house is sunlight and plenty of it. 

As trees are chosen because of certain good points, so shrubs should be. In a clump I 

should wish some which bloomed early, some which bloomed late, some for the beauty of 

their fall foliage, some for the colour of their bark and others for the fruit. Some 

spireas and the forsythia bloom early. The red bark of the dogwood makes a bit of 

colour all winter, and the red berries of the barberry cling to the shrub well into the

winter. 

 Certain shrubs are good to use for hedge purposes. A hedge is rather prettier usually

 than a fence. The Californian privet is excellent for this purpose. Osage orange, Japan 

barberry, buckthorn, Japan quince, and Van Houtte's spirea are other shrubs which make

 good hedges. 

 I forgot to say that in tree and shrub selection it is usually better to choose those of 

the locality one lives in. Unusual and foreign plants do less well, and often harmonize 

but poorly with their new setting.

Landscape gardening may follow along very formal lines or along informal lines. The first 

would have straight paths, straight rows in stiff beds, everything, as the name tells, 

perfectly formal. The other method is, of course, the exact opposite. There are danger 

points in each. 

The formal arrangement is likely to look too stiff; the informal, too fussy, too wiggly. 

As far as paths go, keep this in mind, that a path should always lead somewhere. That is 

its business to direct one to a definite place. Now, straight, even paths are not 

unpleasing if the effect is to be that of a formal garden. The danger in the curved path 

is an abrupt curve, a whirligig effect. It is far better for you to stick to straight

paths unless you can make a really beautiful curve. No one can tell you how to do this.