The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Landscape Gardening
Finally it may be observed that in order to realize the fullest pictorial value from a garden lawn it is necessary to limit it to a comparatively small and enclosed space. A lawn which fades away in the horizon lacks intimacy and interest. Also there ought to be some good tiers—not too many—placed where their shudows will fall across the shaven grass. The play of light and shadow is the very life of the lawn picture. The shadows look cool and refreshing; but the sunshine is necessary, too. Moreover the shadows 011 the grass reveal, much more clearly than anything else can, the graceful shapings of the lawn surface.
Water And Its Treatment
The water surfaces of a park need more study and care to make them appear natural in outline than does, the general ground surface of the park. John C. Olmsted,
The landscape possibilities of any place are almost doubled with the introduction of a fair amount of water surface. Water gardening gives room for almost as rich a variety of plants and plant combinations as does the open ground. There are still ponds, broad reaches of river, trickling brooks, playing" fountains, and many other general forms of expression which water may assume; and in each case new opportunities are offered to the plant lover.
The water itself is one of the most effective elements of any picture. A painted landscape is hardly complete without a touch of water somewhere. And a public park would probably be considered seriously deficient without some kind of a lake. The restful and quieting influences of rural scenery are peculiarly enhanced by stretches of still water.
The very best effect is gained when the grounds are so fortunately situated as to give a good view of a long reach of river, or a broad lake, or of the ocean. This consideration is so cogent as to determine the location of a very large proportion of summer residences. They seem to be gregarious along the seaside and on all the lake shores. This effectiveness of water pictures rests upon a primitive human instinct which has been strengthened rather than impaired by the experiences of civilization. For every reason, then, stress must be laid upon the value of such water views. They must be sought, preserved and sympathetically displayed.
When the point of view is at the water's edge the water forms the entire picture,—excepting, of course, the background of trees or mountains which may be beyond it. But when, as usual, the house, or the path, or the drive is some distance from the shore, the treatment of the intervening foreground becomes a delicate and important matter. The gardener who would plant a coleus bed on the sea beach would properly be sent to the insane asylum; but any other gaudy or trivial piece of work put into the foreground would be as inexcusable.
