LANDSCAPE GARDENING

Scene planting has frequently been compared to the painting of an image. Your work of art instructor has without a doubt let you know that a decent picture ought to have a mark of boss interest, and the other focuses just go to make more lovely the focal thought or to shape a fine setting for it. So in scene cultivating, there should be in the groundskeeper's brain an image of what he wants the entire to be the point at which he finishes 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 center 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 some 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 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, and the seed pods which cling to the tree until away into the winter, add a bit of picturesqueness. 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 are beauty points to consider. 

Choosing Trees Wisely:

The spot has an effect on the choice of a tree. Assume the lower part of the grounds is a piece low and damp, then the spot is great for a willow. Try not to gather trees that looks abnormal. A long-looking poplar doesn't go with a pleasant rather adjusted little tulip tree. A juniper, so flawless and demure, would look senseless close to a spreading chestnut. One should remember extent and appropriateness.

Avoiding Evergreens Close to Houses

I'd never educate the planting concerning a gathering of evergreens near a house and in the front yard. The impact is exceptionally desolate without a doubt. Houses accordingly encompassed are over-covered by such trees and are desolate to reside in, yet entirely genuinely unhealthful. The main imperative inside a house is daylight and a lot of it. 

Strategic Selection of Trees and Shrubs

As trees are picked as a result of specific valid statements, bushes ought to be. In a bunch, I ought to want for some that blossomed early, some that sprouted late, some for the magnificence of their fall foliage, some for the shade of their bark, and others for the natural product. A few spireas and the forsythia sprout early. The red bark of the dogwood makes a touch of variety the entire winter, and the red berries of the barberry grip the bush all the way into the colder time of year.

Effective Use of Shrubs for Hedges

 Certain shrubs are good to use for hedge purposes. A hedge is 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 that make good hedges. 

Considerations in Tree and Shrub Selection

 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. 

Formal vs. Informal Landscape Gardening

Scene cultivating may be tracked with exceptionally formal lines or along casual lines. The first would have straight ways, straight columns in solid beds, everything, as the name tells, completely formal. The other technique is, obviously, the specific inverse. There are risk focuses in each.

Balancing Path Design in Landscaping

The formal arrangement is likely to look too stiff; the informal, too fussy, too wiggly. As far as paths go, keep this in mind, 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. 

Varieties and Maintenance of Garden Paths

Garden paths may be of gravel, dirt, or of grass. One sees grass paths in some very lovely gardens. I doubt, however, if they would serve as well in your small gardens. Your garden areas are so limited that they should be re-spaded each season, and the grass paths are a great bother in this work. 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 inches of stone or clinker. Over this, pack in the dirt, rounding it slightly toward the center of the path. There should never be depressions through the central part of paths, since these form convenient places for water to stand. The underlayer of stone makes a natural drainage system. 

Enhancing Buildings with Vines and Flowers

A building often needs the help of vines or flowers or both to tie it to the grounds in such a way as to form a harmonious whole. Vines lend themselves well to this work. It is better to plant a perennial vine, and so let it form a permanent part of your landscape scheme. The Virginia creeper, wistaria, honeysuckle, climbing rose, clematis and trumpet vine are all most satisfactory. 

Vines: Adding Charm to Building Structures

close your eyes and picture a house of natural color, that mellow gray of the weathered shingles. Now add to this old house a purple wistaria. Can you see the beauty of it? I shall not forget soon a rather ugly corner of my childhood home, where the dining room and kitchen met. Just there climbing over, and falling over a trellis was a trumpet vine. It made beautiful an awkward angle, an ugly bit of carpenter work. 

Using Annual Vines for Temporary Cover

Of course, the morning glory is an annual vine, as is the moon-vine and wild cucumber. Now, these have their special function. For often, it is necessary to cover an ugly thing for just a time, until better things and better times come. The annual is 'the chap' for this work. 

Beauty in Vines Along Fences

Along an old fence, a hop vine is a thing of beauty. One might try to rival the woods' landscape work. For often one sees festooned from one rotted tree to another the ampelopsis vine. 

Strategic Placement of Flowers in Landscaping

Flowers may well go along the side of the building, or bordering a walk. In general, though, keep the front lawn space open and unbroken by beds. What lovelier in early spring than a bed of daffodils close to the house? Hyacinths and tulips, too, form a blaze of glory. These are little or no bother and start the spring right. One may make some bulbs an exception to the rule of the unbroken front lawn. Snowdrops and crocuses planted through the lawn are beautiful. They do not disturb the general effect but just blend with the whole. One expert bulb gardener says to take a basketful of bulbs in the fall, walk about your grounds, and just drop bulbs out here and there. Wherever the bulbs drop, plant them. Such small bulbs as those we plant on lawns should be in groups of four to six. Daffodils may be thus planted, too. You all remember the grape hyacinths that grow all through Katharine's sideyard. 

Choosing Flower Garden Locations

Choosing Flower Garden Locations

You ought to have as a main priority some idea of the mixing of variety. Nature seems not to think about this by any means, yet gets wondrous impacts. This is a result of the enormous measure of her ideal foundation of green, and the boundlessness of her space, while we are restricted at the best to generally little regions. So we ought to try not to daze individuals' eyes with conflicts of varieties that don't at short proximity mix well. To separate limits of varieties you can constantly utilize masses of white blossoms, or something like mignonette, which is active green.

Summarizing Landscape Design Essentials

At last, let us summarize our scene example. The grounds are a setting for the house or structures. Open, free grass spaces, a tree or a legitimate gathering very much positioned, blossoms that don't jumble up the front yard, gatherings of growth these are focused to be recollected. The ways ought to lead some place and be either straight or very much bent. If one beginnings with a conventional nursery, one shouldn't blend the casual with it before the work is finished.