The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Art Of Landscape Architecture
It is not claimed that this arrangement of a great park in the heart of Washington City is entirely ideal, but simply that it does recognize and treat with due respect the original plan of L'Enfant, taking in consideration the needs and tastes of the present and future generations. Moreover, it may be said also that the admirable system of tree planting adopted long years ago on the streets of Washington has given the city the appearance of a somewhat formal park, and this feature with the considerable lawns and dooryards of the citizens adorned with grass and shrubs and flowers helps to extend the park idea.
The main and most important principle, therefore, of city planning, to repeat in another form what has been already discussed, is for both architect and landscape architect to remember that, in the case of such work, they are designing for a community of various members having various needs and desires, and that they should always consider well traditions and peculiar inherited conditions. They should not design for individuals, or even groups of individuals, but for the whole community understood in the broadest and best sense of the term.
Choice Trees And Shrubs
ALTHOUGH it may seem to be a truism thereiteration of which is hardly necessary, it is well to keep in mind from the very start in this chapter that the problem of the proper use of plants varies with every spot where work is undertaken, and that the hardiness of trees and shrubs and fertility of soils will always be found relative to varying conditions. Having emphasized these limitations, it has been deemed a good idea to bring together some notes on the peculiarities of certain choice trees and shrubs and flowers and suggestions as to their treatment. In doing this, ideas and facts may be set forth which will be familiar to many and yet it is believed they may possess a decided value for others.
It is important, first of all, to warn lawn planters not to make a museum of their lawns. Many trees and shrubs, and particularly perennials, or wild flowers, are interesting botanically and horticulturally, and yet do not count for much in the landscape picture, and are not specially controlling in the general effect. They, of course, may be used in their proper place duly related to their more important neighbours, but to have too many of them, or to locate them improperly, works often great injury to the picture and mars, in various ways, its harmony. The following remarks, therefore, will bear chiefly on this fitness of a plant for a landscape picture both in appearance and general habit.
