The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Art Of Landscape Architecture
The illustration showing a boundary fence on the estate of Muskau is intended to explain how the trees and shrubs should be massed along the boundaries.
The fence is made of wood and on that account is not altogether to be commended. Otherwise, the irregularity of the height of the pickets gives it an attractive appearance. Carrying out the same idea, the base, outside of the fence bordering the sidewalk, should be planted with flowers, irises, the larger sedums, saxifrage, anemones, phlox, and goldenrod, with here and there one shrub or three;—groups of shrubs planted in odd numbers always compose better. The sidewalk, in a sense, belongs to the public and therefore it would be unwise to leave shrubs to be injured on the curb line; otherwise the planting of shrub groups among the shade trees that border the road would be desirable, because even here it is well to follow out consistently the typical scheme of planting that pertains to the landscape of the entire place. At least we can go far towards retaining a natural effect by planting trees on the curb at unequal distances—35 feet—40 feet—45 feet and even 50 feet or 60 feet apart. The kinds of shade trees used can also be made to vary the effect, not by changing the species continually, but by planting a dozen or more of one sort together. If the road winds, it is a good idea to plant one kind from one turn to the next as far as the eye can see. The beauty of this system of irregular planting, especially in the case of shrubs and flowers, is that any damage done by the public does not produce such defacing effects as would occur in a symmetrically formed group, or in a hedge.
It is a fact, however, that a carefully worked out group, an evidently foreordained design would be more likely to survive unscathed than carelessly made plantations, the composition of which is characterized, to use a homely phrase, by neither rhyme nor reason. Thoughtless and uninstructed persons are apt to think that whenever they see a plantation along a fence that looks as if it had sprung up there naturally, it must be evident that the arrangement can never have been the result of a carefully studied design.
This concealment of intention is truly what ought to be instinctively practised if the design is good. But in attempting to do such work it should be remembered that every plant counts in the scheme and that not one plant can be safely planted in any haphazard fashion.
