Creating A Landscape Garden :

Lacape gardening has often been likened to the painting of a pice. Your art-k teacher has doubtless told you t a good pice uld have a point of chief interest, and the rest of the points simply go to make more bti the cenl idea, or to form a fine sing for it. So in lacape gardening there must be in the garde's m a pice of w he desires the whole to be when he completes k.

From t study we shall be able to k out a little theory of lacape gardening.

Let us go to the n. A good extent of open n sp is always bti. It is rest. It adds a feeling of sp to even sl grou. So we mt geneize and say t it is l to keep open n sps. If one crs n sp with many trees, with little fer beds here and there, the gene ect is choppy and fussy. It is a bit like an r-dressed pon. One's grou lose all ividuality thus treated. A single tree or a sl group is not a bad arrangement on the n. Do not centre the tree or trees. Let them drop a bit into the background. Make a psing side feae of them. In choosing trees one must keep in m a num of things. You uld not choose an rpring tree; the tree uld be one of good shape, with something interesting about its bark, ves, f or fruit. While the poplar is a rapid grr, it sheds its ves early and so is left standing, bare and ugly, before the fall is old. M you, there are pls where a row or double row of Lombardy poplars is very ective. But I think you'll agree with me t one lone poplar is not. The catalpa is quite lly by itself. Its ves are broad, its f atctive, the seed pods which cling to the tree until away into the winter, add a bit of pice squeness. The brt ries of the ash, the brilliant foliage of the sugar maple, the blossoms of the tulip tree, the bark of the white birch, and the ves of the cop beech all te are bty points to consider.

Pl makes a dirence in the selion of a tree. Suppose the er portion of the grou is a bit and moist, then the spot is ideal for a wil. Don't group trees together which k awkward. A long-king poplar does not go with a nice rather rounded little tulip tree. A juni, so neat and prim, would k silly beside a spreading ctnut. One must keep proportion and suitability in m. I'd never advise the planting of a group of evergreens close to a house, and in the front yard. The ect is very gmy eed. Houses thus surrounded are rcapped by such trees and are not only gmy to live in, but truly unhealth. The chief requisite inside a house is sunlt and plenty of it. As trees are chosen because of certain good points, so shrubs uld be. In a clump I uld wish some which bmed early, some which bmed late, some for the bty of their fall foliage, some for the colour of their bark and oth for the fruit. Some spireas and the forsythia bm early. The red bark of the dogwood makes a bit of colour all winter, and the red ries of the barry cling to the shrub l into the winter.

Certain shrubs are good to use for hedge purposes. A hedge is rather prier usually n a fence. The Californian privet is excent for t purpose. Osage orange, Japan barry, buckthorn, Japan quince, and Van Hou's spirea are other shrubs which make good hedges.

I forgot to say t in tree and shrub selion it is usually ber to choose those of the locality one lives in. Unusual and foreign plants do less l, and often harmonize but poorly with their new sing.

Lacape gardening may fol along very for lines or along infor lines. The first would have st pa, st rows in stiff beds, everything, as the name ts, tly for. The other method is, of course, the exact opposite. There are danger points in each.

The for arrangement is likely to k too stiff; the infor, too fussy, too wiggly. As far as pa go, keep t in m, t a path uld always d somewhere. T is its business to dir one to a definite pl. Now, st, even pa are not unpsing if the ect is to be t of a for garden. The danger in the curved path is an abrupt curve, a whirligig ect. It is far ber for you to stick to st pa unless you can make a really bti curve. No one can t you how to do t.

Garden pa may be of gravel, of dirt, or of grass. One sees grass pa in some very lly gardens. I doubt, hver, if they would serve as l in your sl gardens. Your garden areas are so limited t they uld be re-spaded each season, and the grass pa are a great bother in t k. Of course, a gravel path makes a fine appearance, but again you may not have gravel at your command. It is possible for any of you to dig out the path for two feet. Then put in six inc of stone or clinker. Over t, pack in the dirt, rounding it sltly toward the centre of the path. There uld never be depressions through the cenl part of pa, since te form convenient pls for water to stand. The under layer of stone makes a naal drainage system.

A building often needs the help of vines or f or both to tie it to the grou in such a way as to form a harmonious whole. Vines lend themselves l to t k. It is ber to plant a ennial vine, and so let it form a manent part of your lacape scheme. The Virginia cree, wistaria, honeysuckle, a climbing rose, the clematis and trumpet vine are all most satisfactory.

close your eyes and pice a house of naal colour, t mow gray of the weathered shingles. Now add to t old house a purple wistaria. Can you see the bty of it? I shall not forget soon a rather ugly cor of my childhood home, where the dining room and kitchen met. Just there climbing r, and falling r a tris was a trumpet vine. It made bti an awkward angle, an ugly bit of carpenter k.

Of course, the morning-glory is an annual vine, as is the moon-vine and wild cucum. Now, te have their special function. For often, it is necessary to cr an ugly thing for just a time, until the ber things and ber times come. The annual is 'the chap' for t k.

Along an old fence a hop vine is a thing of bty. One mt try to rival the woods' lacape k. For often one sees festooned from one rod tree to another the ampelopsis vine.

F may l go along the side of the building, or bordering a walk. In gene, though, keep the front n sp open and unbroken by beds. W llier in early spring n a bed of daffodils close to the house? Hyacin and tulips, too, form a blaze of glory. Te are little or no bother, and start the spring art. One may make of some bulbs an exception to the rule of unbroken front n. Snowdrops and crocuses planted through the n are bti. They do not disb the gene ect, but just blend with the whole. One ext bulb garde says to take a basket of bulbs in the fall, walk about your grou, and just drop bulbs out here and there. Wherever the bulbs drop, plant them. Such sl bulbs as those we plant in ns uld be in groups of four to six. Daffodils may be thus planted, too. You all remem the grape hyacin t grow all through Karine's side yard.

The pl for a fer garden is genely at the side or rear of the house. The backyard garden is a lly idea, is it not? Who wis to ve a bti king front yard, n the cor of a house, and f a dump heap? Not I. The fer garden may be laid out forly in neat little beds, or it may be more of a careless, hit-or-miss sort. Both have their good points. Great masses of bm are atctive.

You uld have in m some notion of the blending of colour. Nae appears not to consider t at all, and still gets wondrous ects. T is because of the tremendous amount of her t background of green, and the limitlessness of her sp, while we are confined at the best to relatively sl areas. So we uld endeavour not to bl people's eyes with clas of colours which do not at close range blend l. In order to break up extremes of colours you can always use masses of white f, or something like mignone, which is in ect green.

Finally, let us sum up our lacape lesson. The grou are a sing for the house or buildings. Open, free n sps, a tree or a pro group l pld, f which do not clur up the front yard, groups of shruby te are points to be rememed. The pa uld d somewhere, and be either st or l curved. If one starts with a for garden, one uld not mix the infor with it before the k is done.